Anni Albers and Ancient American Textiles by Virginia Gardner Troy

". . . a thorough but complex book about textiles as an art form and Anni Albers, a renowned master weaver."

". . . children?s art considered a link to ?primitive? and ?modern? art are intriguing . . ."

Troy spends much of her efforts relaying the history of textiles as studied in the Bauhaus in post-World War I Germany as well as numerous theories on “primitive” art taught there. For novices, it is interesting to learn that Berlin once housed one of the largest textile museum and weaving school in the world. Some of the theories that touch upon the concepts that ancient advanced cultures, such as Peru, used textiles as means of communication and that children’s art were considered a link to “primitive” and “modern” art are intriguing even to a lay person.

Although Troy shows us the art theories, training and weaving techniques that A. Albers used in her work, we learn little about the person herself. The closest the reader comes to knowing this master weaver and teacher is when Troy quotes from a 1924 article that Albers wrote, “Economy of living must first be economy of labor . . . The traditional style of living is an exhausted machine which enslaves the woman to the house . . . ”. This is the Anni Albers we would have liked to meet.

Reviewer: E. M. Kurecka