Anni Albers

In her book On Weaving, Anni Albers writes about the “event of a thread”. This event must have fascinated her deeply, for she devoted around forty years of her life to weaving. Weaving is defined by the interplay of warp and weft threads, which together form a strictly geometric, rectangular grid – the structural foundation of every woven piece. In her weavings, Albers masterfully manages to break through or even dissolve this rigid framework with additional threads. It is all the more remarkable, then, that in as early as the 1940s she begins exploring curved lines, knots and tangles in her drawings – and later in her prints.

This gouache from 1947 bears the simple title Knot. Three lines of different colours – or are they threads? – seem to wander into the picture field from the sides, weave themselves into an impenetrable knot at the centre, and finally emerge on the other side, once again in order. Anni Albers often recalls Paul Klee’s saying about “taking a line for a walk”. Klee is a master of the line, which in his work moves freely through pictorial space in many forms and techniques. Albers appears to take inspiration from this. By knotting the three lines together, she creates an impression of three-dimensionality and depth.

Like Klee, Albers hides a carefully composed structure beneath an appearance of spontaneous execution.