Josef and Anni Albers . Art and Life

Josef and Anni Albers . Art and Life
IVAM Institut Valencia D’art Modern in Valencia, Spain from 24 February  till 19 June 2022

This exhibition shows that the textile art of Anni Albers is gaining more and more prestige, because both in France, where this exhibition was first shown, as also in Spain, it is the first time that both artists are shown together as equal artists.
In Germany, a direct comparison of the works of both artists was possible in 2018, when the works of Anni were shown in the large Anni Albers Retrospective at the Kunstsammlung K18 in Düsseldorf, while Josef Albers´ “Interaction” was on view at the same time in the Villa Hügel in Essen. “It was probably the first time that something like a balance emerged between the work of the artist, who until a few years ago was primarily seen as a weaver, and the oeuvre of her husband, who, as an influential master at the Bauhaus, enforced modernism and later after emigration, as a painter and teacher, shaped an entire generation of American art… It certainly has something to do with the belated canonization of female artists that the work of Anni Albers was finally discussed worldwide and reassessed from an art historical perspective.” so Catrin Lorch in her book review “Josef & Anni Albers” by Nicholas Fox Weber (Phaidon Press, 2020)
Unfortunately, having missed the exhibition in Paris, I now want to visit the one in Valencia, as far as the pandemic allows. Here is a press report from Valencia, where the exhibition is shown as part of the “World Design Capital Valencia 2022” :

” This exhibition, that was first shown in Paris ( “Anni et Josef Albers L’art et la vie” from 10 September 21 to 9 January 22), is dedicated to the work of Anni and Josef Albers, exploring the various lines of artistic production of these two towering artists and pioneers of twentieth-century modernism. While they developed their respective work independently, the intimate, empathetic bond between them underpinned a lifetime of mutual support and encouragement and an ongoing dialogue founded on shared respect.
Anni and Josef Albers met in 1922 at the Bauhaus and married three years later. Throughout their lives and artistic practices, they shared the conviction that art could profoundly transform our world and should be at the very heart of human existence.
In addition to its comprehensive presentation of their respective oeuvres, this is the first exhibition in Spain dedicated to the two artists as a couple throughout the different phases of their creative production. The exhibition follows a chronological order and comprises around 350 works—paintings, photographs, designs and textiles, films, documentary material, as well as a selection of furniture from their time at Bauhaus—that mark some of the many highlights in the career of the couple of artists.”

A catalog was published by Paris Musées in 2021 (272 pages, French language, 45 €).

I am very grateful to be allowed to use the photos my friend Jan ter Heide ( a.o.blogger and photographer from Amsterdam) took at the Paris exhibition .