Weaving Abstraction | In Ancient and Modern Art
By Iria Candela and Johanne Pillsbury. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Fall 2023
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Fall 2023
Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art Iria Candela and Joanne Pillsbury The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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Director’s Note One of the pleasures and privileges of a visit to The Met Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, Connecticut; is the ability to experience over ten thousand years of art Kathleen Nugent Mangan, Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, from around the world. Often we tend to focus in depth New York; and Jack Soultanian; as well as private collec - on a speci昀椀c region and time period in our permanent tors who wish to remain anonymous. galleries, exhibitions, and publications. But more and The exhibition was organized by Iria Candela, more it is important, relevant, and revelatory for us at The Estrellita B. Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art in Met to draw together works from different eras and cul- the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, and tures to illuminate their correspondences, communalities, Joanne Pillsbury, Andrall E. Pearson Curator of the Arts of and creative processes in new ways. Weaving Abstraction the Ancient Americas in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. is such an example: two weaving traditions—one ancient, I also want to acknowledge and thank David Breslin, one modern—are brought together to allow us to consider Leonard A. Lauder Curator in Charge, Department of materials and meanings. Textiles from the Andean region Modern and Contemporary Art, and Alisa LaGamma, Ceil of South America, some over two thousand years old, and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge, The Michael C. are explored in parallel with 昀椀ber works created by four Rockefeller Wing. The exhibition is generously supported modern international artists to reveal the complex inter- by The Modern Circle. The quarterly Bulletin program is play between the fundamental grid structure of weaving made possible, in part, by the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund and formal expression. At its heart, Weaving Abstraction for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, established by the is about the aesthetic and cultural choices artists make, cofounder of Reader’s Digest. and how the technologies of 昀椀ber arts themselves can give rise to striking, inventive compositions. This Bulletin was prepared in conjunction with the exhibition Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art, on view in The Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Gallery in The Met’s Lila Acheson Wallace Wing from March 4 through June 16, 2024. We are grateful to the generous lenders to the exhibition: Marisa Wigglesworth, Kathryn H. Leacock, and Kacey Page, Buffalo Museum of Science; Glenn D. Lowry, Paola Antonelli, and Paul Galloway, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Maria Nicanor and Susan Brown, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York; Timothy R. Rodgers and Elissa Max Hollein Auther, Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Nicholas Marina Kellen French Director and CEO Fox Weber, Brenda Danilowitz, and Karis Medina, The The Metropolitan Museum of Art 3
Embracing the Grid Iria Candela and Joanne Pillsbury Weaving Abstraction brings together two extraordinary of thread—that became the structural matrix not only of bodies of work separated in time by at least 昀椀ve hundred the geometric designs but of the predominant orthogonal 1 years: the weavings of ancient Andean artists whose iconography of Andean arts.” names are unknown to us and the 昀椀ber works of four Textiles were also fundamental to the exchange of infor- modern artists, Anni Albers, Sheila Hicks, Lenore Tawney, mation in the pre-Hispanic period in the Andes, as recent and Olga de Amaral. This juxtaposition offers valuable research on systems of communication in the region insights into the emergence of abstract imagery via, it has underscored. The absence of writing in the ancient would seem, a shared awareness of the integral connec- Andes has limited speci昀椀c interpretations of the imagery tion between structure and design in the textile medium. on works made hundreds and thousands of years before The constructive nature of textiles, arising from the grid the Spanish colonialist venture in 1532. Yet the absence of formed by crossing the warp and the weft, the vertical and what we consider an essential form of communication— horizontal elements of the loom, is a springboard for the writing—points to the outsized role that textiles played in formal investigation of geometric designs. While Albers, conveying ideas and information. Never passive, merely Hicks, Tawney, and De Amaral were profoundly in昀氀uenced decorative elements, textiles were used to swiftly transmit by, and deeply invested in, studying the Andean legacy, it social and political messages in a manner that overcame is not our intention to dissect how these modern artists linguistic and geographic barriers. appropriated this tradition. Rather, we want to examine Large-scale archaeological excavations on the coast how artists from such distant societies mined the rich vein of Peru in the early twentieth century led to an increased of textile structures to produce works of art of exceptional awareness in Europe and the United States of the techni- technical and formal re昀椀nement. cal sophistication and dazzling compositions of ancient Weaving is one of the oldest and most complex art Andean textiles. The expanding public collections of forms from the Andes, extending thousands of years these works, and the publications related to them, in turn, before the rise of the Inca Empire (1470–1532) and boast- attracted the interest of Expressionist and Bauhaus artists ing one of the most diverse approaches to textile con- alike, including a young Anni Albers. In these artworks, struction known globally. Drawing on a wide repertoire European and American artists saw a model, a new way of geometric and 昀椀gurative designs, weavers developed of thinking that connected with their efforts to develop a strikingly bold iconographies and powerful abstract com- language for modern art. positions for textiles intended, among other things, for use Modern practitioners starting with Albers and including as everyday objects, royal gifts, and wrappings for sacred 昀椀ber artists of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Hicks, Tawney, offerings. The importance of these designs is further evi - and De Amaral, recognized an alternative path to abstrac- dent in their reproduction in other media. As contemporary tion within the modernist quest for a universal language and artist César Paternosto explained in his 1996 book The made it their aim to situate textiles at the core of the mod- Stone and the Thread, “it was weaving—the manipulation ern project, regaining a central space for them in society. 4
Chuquibamba/Inca artist, detail of tunic, 1460–1540 (昀椀g. 22) In particular, Albers envisioned her textile constructions In her 1965 book On Weaving, Albers declared that as models for the utopian potential of art to penetrate all “along with cave paintings, threads were among the earliest aspects of everyday life. Albers approached textiles with a transmitters of meaning.”2 Yet in the history of art, textiles functionalist aim, and Andean weavings taught her useful have often been relegated to the world of ornament. They techniques that she translated into prototypes for indus - have been characterized as lightweight, both physically trial production. Hicks, Tawney, and De Amaral repurposed and conceptually, and, not incidentally, as women’s work—a Albers’s artistic theories to further explore the structural less important medium, stepsister to painting, sculpture, possibilities of weaving, experimenting with grid-based and architecture. The works in this Bulletin challenge these constructions, sculptural and spatial dimensions, notions of misconceptions and encourage us to reconsider the place transparency, and tactile qualities. Together these women of textiles in the history of world art. challenged the long-standing and often gendered divide between art and craft. 5
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In昀椀nite Pattern: Weaving in the Ancient Andes Joanne Pillsbury In 1572, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, a Spanish colo- which in turn can have their own subsidiary cords (昀椀g. 1). nial administrator in Peru, completed his of昀椀cial history The position, type, and color of each knot in these cords of the Inca Empire, which had been defeated some forty encodes information readable by a khipukamayuq, or years earlier by Spanish forces. The largest pre-Hispanic khipu specialist (昀椀g. 2). empire known in the Americas, the Inca themselves had Khipus were part of an exceptional 昀椀ber arts tradition conquered much of western South America by the early that evolved over millennia in the ancient Andes. Fiber- sixteenth century. In his text, Sarmiento remarked upon a based technology was foundational to administration device composed of multiple colored, twisted, and knotted (as seen with khipus), transportation (as seen with rope cords known as a khipu, which the Inca used to convey bridges), and warfare (as seen with slingshots). Moreover, information such as accounts and even narratives across textiles had symbolic importance and were unparalleled as time and space: “It is remarkable to see the details that a medium for the expression of identity, value, and belief. In they preserve in these cordlets, for which there are mas- the Inca period (1470–1532), they were deployed as diplo- 1 2 ters as there are for writing among us.” Khipus include a matic gifts and formed part of nearly every sacri昀椀ce. Cloth primary cord from which are suspended pendant cords, was also closely associated with social identity, be it age, gender, or regional origin. The Inca royal crown itself was 3 a red wool fringe. Highly valued in the pre-Hispanic past, ancient Peruvian textiles also later served as a creative springboard for artists in the twentieth century. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Inca artist. Khipu. Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, or Chile, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (Andean, ca. 1535–after 1615). Storehouses 15th–16th century. Cotton, 30 × 30 in. (76.2 × 76.2 cm). of the Inca, from El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, ca. 1615. Pen and ink. Buffalo Museum of Science Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen (Gl. kgl. S. 2232, 4º; fol. 169v) 7
Fig. 3. Chavín artist. Textile fragment. Ica Valley region, Peru, 4th–3rd century bce. Cotton, re昀椀ned iron earth pigments, 5 ⼀最 × 12 ⼀攀 in. (14.6 × 31.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Jane Costello Goldberg, from the Collection of Arnold I. Goldberg, 1986 (1987.394.704) Andean 昀椀ber arts are notable for their exceptional Likely woven on backstrap looms, early cotton plain range, from basic weaving structures to inventive tech- weaves were sometimes embellished with painted imag- nologies unique to the region, including discontinuous ery. One example from the fourth or third century bce has warp and weft weaving. The great majority of textiles that a fanged, supernatural 昀椀gure with raptor claws encircled have survived to the present day are garments or other by octagons painted with a red iron pigment (昀椀g. 3). These elements of attire such as headcloths. Despite our pro- serpentine forms terminate in pro昀椀le heads, one upside pensity to display these objects on a wall as if they were down in a mirror image, that together form a new head paintings, they must also be considered in light of their with a fanged mouth. The composition would have been original function as dress worn on the body and animated repeated across the textile in an in昀椀nity pattern—that is, a through movement. theoretically boundless continuation of imagery. This prac- Arguably the oldest art forms in the Andes, cloth and tice of creating a pattern from a reversed and repeated cordage predate ceramics by at least a millennium. The motif endured for another thousand years. Easy to trans- earliest evidence for textiles dates back some 12,000 port, textiles were an ideal medium for the exchange of years to the Guitarrero Cave, located in the Callejón de Huaylas in the highlands of Peru.4 Unsurprisingly, the tex- tile record is more abundant on Peru’s desert coast, as dry conditions enable the preservation of natural 昀椀bers. This record has allowed scholars to study the evolution of textile technologies and design. Such techniques as looping, netting, twining, and plain weave likely emerged from 昀椀ber technologies developed to create 昀椀shing nets, bags, and other functional items needed to exploit the rich marine resources of the Humboldt Current. Highly portable backstrap looms, where the tension of the warps (the vertical threads) is controlled by the weaver leaning backward or forward, were in use by at least 1500 bce. 8
ideas across the mountainous Andean region. This frag- ment, for example, bears imagery that closely resembles relief carvings at Chavín de Huántar, an important religious center in the northern highlands, yet it was found on the South Coast, hundreds of miles from that ritual center, and was created in the twilight of Chavín de Huántar’s power, around 300 bce. In the centuries following the decline of Chavín de Huántar, related textile traditions 昀氀ourished on the South Coast. Indeed, large-scale rectangular mantles (some nine feet long) made in this region during the last century or two bce and the 昀椀rst few centuries of the Common Era are among the most spectacular textiles known from the ancient Andes. In 1925, Peruvian archaeologist Julio C. Tello and colleagues excavated over four hundred funer- ary bundles at Cerro Colorado, on the Paracas Peninsula. Here, individuals had been interred wrapped in multiple layers of 昀椀ne- and plain-cloth mantles and other garments. Weavers from the Paracas culture (800–100 bce) employed camelid wool imported from the highlands (llamas and alpacas do not thrive on the coast). Notably, this material could be dyed into vibrant colors, and Paracas artists embroidered polychrome animals, plants, and supernatural 昀椀gures using stem stitch, often on cotton plain cloth (昀椀g. 4). Occasionally, they also embroidered the background, as seen on a border fragment featuring a being with large eyes, carrying a staff (昀椀g. 5). Here, fol- lowing a convention established centuries earlier, a single 昀椀gural motif is reversed and repeated, with inventive color alternations of deep blue, red, and yellow. Weavers from the succeeding Nasca culture (100– 700 ce), also on the South Coast, drew on this icono- Fig. 5. graphic tradition of 昀椀gural compositions, but over time Paracas artist. Border fragment with 昀椀gures carrying staves. Cerro Colorado, Peru, 4th–3rd century bce. Camelid 昀椀ber, 19 × 4 in. (48.3 × 10.2 cm). The Metropolitan they interpreted subjects in new ways that celebrate the Museum of Art, New York, Gift of George D. Pratt, 1933 (33.149.43) Fig. 4. Paracas artist. Border fragment with 昀椀gures. Paracas Peninsula, Peru, 5th–2nd century bce. Cotton, camelid 昀椀ber, 6 ⼀最 × 41 ⼀欀 in. (17.1 × 105.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Arthur M. Bullowa, 1993 (1994.35.120) 9
Fig. 6. Nasca artist. Headband. Río Grande de Nasca, Peru, 6th–7th century. Camelid 昀椀ber, 3 × 56 in. (7.6 × 142.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.746) complex geometries fostered by the grid of the loom itself, including on headbands and turbans (昀椀gs. 6, 7). Nasca artists continued to create cotton plain weaves that they then painted or embellished with colorful embroidery, often incorporating imported camelid 昀椀ber. For example, on three exquisite chuspas, fringed bags designed to hold coca leaves, single geometric motifs are repeated with variations in color (昀椀gs. 8–10). Chewing coca leaves with moist lime powder (calcium hydroxide), created from burned seashells, produces a mild stimulating effect, and the practice was and is of profound social and ritual 5 importance in the Andes. The compositions of some of the earliest Andean tex- tiles are rectilinear with simple geometric patterning, but others boast curvilinear, 昀椀gural imagery. Contrary to argu- ments put forward by early twentieth-century theorists, such as Aloïs Riegl and Wilhelm Worringer, abstraction in the Andes was not a 昀椀rst step toward naturalism and 昀椀guration. Worringer in his seminal 1908 book Abstraction and Empathy argued that there is an initial human artis- tic inclination toward abstraction, a response to intense anxiety in certain times and places before the early mod- 6 ern period. In the ancient Andes, however, 昀椀gural and geometric imagery coexisted; if anything, abstraction Fig. 7. Nasca artist. Headband with ornamental tassels. Río Grande de Nasca, Peru, 6th–8th century. Camelid 昀椀ber, 8 ⼀攀 × 12 in. (21 × 30.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Jane Costello Goldberg, from the Collection of Arnold I. Goldberg, 1986 (1987.394.692) 10
increased over time: there was an evolution toward an Composed of two pieces of cloth sewn together at the exquisite re昀椀nement of geometric patterning that reached top and along the sides with openings left for the neck its apogee in the workshops of later imperial powers, the and arms, Wari tunics were worn by men over a loincloth Wari and the Inca. and served as one of the primary markers of identity. By the middle of the 昀椀rst millennium ce, Andean weav- Notably, they were depicted with care in other media, ers had begun to experiment with new compositions, in such as on ceramic vessels in the shape of dignitaries which recognizable form was sublimated to the impera- and on small wood 昀椀gures with shell-and-stone mosaic tives of pattern. Figures, if present at all, were reduced to inlays. The cloth for these tunics was tapestry woven, fundamental shapes enveloped in bold, rectilinear compo- involving a labor-intensive process in which the length- sitions. Indeed, the prominence of the 昀椀gure as a subject of wise warp yarns—the stationary elements of a loom—were the composition was subverted. A tendency toward a dis- concealed by the transversal weft yarns that were drawn solution and recombination of a 昀椀gure’s component parts over and under the warps. Some six to nine miles of thread 7 increased with the rise of the Wari Empire (600–1000). were used for a single 昀椀ne Wari tunic. From its capital in Ayacucho in the central Peruvian high- Wari tunics display considerable standardization in size, lands, the Wari Empire developed a wide-ranging trade format, color, and design, suggesting they were produced 8 network, and its in昀氀uence was felt as far a昀椀eld as the North in state-sponsored workshops. Yet despite this level of Coast of Peru. Wari artists excelled in the 昀椀ber arts, creating state control over production, Wari weavers developed woven garments of rich, saturated colors. The chromatic seemingly endless, dazzlingly complex variations on stan- intensity made possible by dyed camelid 昀椀bers, along with dardized designs. These compositions are often enlivened masterful compositions of interlocking forms, make Wari with frequent mirroring and inversions of repeated motifs, tunics among the most striking textiles known from the as seen in the bold design of one Wari tunic, which is built ancient Andes. around a single wave-like motif known as a stepped fret, Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Nasca artist. Embroidered bag with fringe. Río Grande de Nasca, Nasca artist. Embroidered bag with fringe. Río Grande de Nasca, Nasca artist. Embroidered bag with fringe. Río Grande de Nasca, Peru, 7th century. Camelid 昀椀ber, 14 ⼀攀 × 6 in. (36.2 × 15.2 cm). Peru, 7th century. Camelid 昀椀ber, 16 ⼀挀 × 8 ⼀欀 in. (41.9 × 21.3 cm). Peru, 7th century. Camelid 昀椀ber, 12 ⼀挀 × 7 ⼀攀 in. (31.8 × 18.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Jane Costello Goldberg, from the Collection of Gift of George D. Pratt, 1932 (32.32.11) Gift of George D. Pratt, 1932 (32.32.9) Arnold I. Goldberg, 1986 (1987.394.652) 11
arranged in registers in vertical bands (昀椀g. 11). Yale University expanded or contracted within the same composition to playful effect, while anthropomorphic and zoomor art historian George Kubler, whose work was in昀氀uential to - artists such as Anni Albers and Sheila Hicks in the twentieth phic forms—including staff-bearing 昀椀gures, pumas, and century, likened such variations on a theme to the multiple, condors—could be deconstructed into nearly unidenti- 9 independent lines of melody in polyphonic music. 昀椀able shapes. One particularly 昀椀ne tunic bears a winged Organized into a grid pattern—surely an echo of the feline motif repeated sixteen times, with eight versions orthogonal structure of textiles themselves—motifs on the front and eight on the back (昀椀g. 12). The being is were arranged by weavers in imaginative ways through depicted in pro昀椀le, with head facing upward, staff in hand, mirroring, reversals, and inversions repeated with often and a patterned textile on its back. The most recognizable unexpected color alterations in the tapestry-woven cloth part of the 昀椀gure, the head, has a circular magenta nose, of the Wari. In addition, a single motif or design could be black-and-white teeth, and a circular “split” eye—half white Fig. 11. Wari artist. Tunic. Peru, 7th–9th century. Camelid 昀椀ber, 42 11/16 × 42 15/16 in. (108.5 × 109 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Claudia Quentin, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2020 (2020.79) 12
Fig. 12. Wari artist. Tunic. Peru, 7th–11th century. Cotton, camelid 昀椀ber, 39 ⼀欀 × 39 ⼀欀 in. (100 × 100 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Claudia Quentin, 2021 (2021.146) 13
Fig. 13. Wari artist. Feathered panel. Churunga Valley, Peru, 600–900. Feathers, cotton, camelid 昀椀ber, 27 × 83 ⼀攀 in. (68.6 × 211.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.904) and half black or magenta. Toward the center of the gar- slopes of the Andean mountains, were carefully knotted ment, the motif is wider, but as it approaches the sides, it is on cotton strings that were layered to create plush sur- compressed beyond recognition as the 昀椀gurative imagery faces on garments and wall hangings that may have once graced the interior of a very grand building.10 dissolves into geometric abstraction. Most of the The Wari’s imperial reach extended not only to the extant panels are divided into quadrants, two blue and coast but also eastward, where such precious goods as two yellow, arranged in a checkerboard fashion, but a few tropical bird feathers could be obtained. Feathers from were constructed using only yellow or, in rare cases, red the blue-and-yellow macaw, a bird native to the eastern feathers (昀椀g. 13). Some ninety-six of these large feather Fig. 14a–c. Ica artists. Miniature dresses. Ica Valley, Peru, 12th–13th century. Cotton, feathers. 1979.206.628: 8 ⼀欀 × 8 ⼀攀 in. (21.3 × 21 cm); 1979.206.639: 8 ⼀最 × 8 ⼀洀 in. (22.2 × 21.9 cm); 1979.206.626: 9 ⼀挀 × 8 ⼀漀 in. (24.1 × 22.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 14
Fig. 15. Central Coast artist. Tunic. Central Coast, Peru, 1000–1476. Cotton, camelid 昀椀bers, 33 × 36 in. (83.8 × 91.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Anonymous Gifts, 2015 (2015.291) panels have survived, and their remarkable uniformity The structural diversity of ancient Andean textiles is reinforces the idea that standardized production comes remarkable, ranging from painted plain weave to such with the rise of empire. complex constructions as slit tapestry, in which open slits At the other end of the spectrum, feathers adorn min- are left between adjacent areas of color (昀椀g. 15), and double iature garments that once formed part of votive offerings. cloth, a reversible fabric 昀椀nished on both sides. Inventive Three feathered dresses, made several centuries after the weavers sometimes even employed multiple techniques to fall of the Wari Empire, were among over a hundred minia- compose a single piece of cloth. Chancay weavers (1000– ture garments reportedly found in a cache in the lower Ica 1470) in particular experimented with open weaves, such Valley (昀椀g. 14). These works were created using the same as gauzes. Openwork headcloths, likely made for women technologies as full-size garments for women; however, by women, usually had a rectangular grid upon which 昀椀g- the openings for the arms and head were sewn closed. ures were embroidered with thicker cotton yarns (昀椀g. 16). These small alterations suggest that the dresses were In keeping with formal patterns established thousands of offerings in themselves rather than garments for 昀椀gural years earlier, a single motif—often a feline or serpent head sculptures. The fronts of the dresses feature checkerboard with large eyes and a mouth—was repeated and reversed designs, while the backs have horizontal bands or solid in regular intervals within zigzag bands in in昀椀nity patterns. colors. Notably, the feathers were carefully clipped to Openwork was also incorporated into textiles in which maintain the crisp regularity of the lines in the patterns. various weaving techniques were combined to create 15
Fig. 16. Chancay artist. Headcloth. Chancay Valley, Peru, 12th–15th century. Cotton, 24 ⼀最 × 23 ⼀挀 in. (62.9 × 59.7 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Arthur M. Bullowa, 1973 (1978.412.254) 16
Fig. 17. Chimú artist. Loincloth. North Coast, Peru, 12th–15th century. Cotton, camelid 昀椀ber, 146 ⼀椀 × 44 ⼀最 in. (370.8 × 113.7 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.597) compositions with dynamic three-dimensional elements. hues, the ensemble would have made a striking impression For example, an overscale man’s loincloth, perhaps never against the muted colors of the desert coast. intended to be worn in life, features a front panel woven from Textiles made solely of cotton tend to have a paler cotton and camelid 昀椀bers (昀椀g. 17). Likely made between the color palette, as seen in a wall hanging with a stylized twelfth and 昀椀fteenth centuries in a workshop of the Chimú monkey motif and a zigzag organized into alternating kingdom (ca. 1000–ca. 1470), the panel (now missing its tie horizontal bands. In this design, the tail of each monkey band) has three rows of six squares, each composed of a fuses with the body of the next one in a pattern of in昀椀nite yellow fringe surrounding a large red tassel, in an openwork repetition (昀椀g. 18). This type of pattern is echoed on the grid pattern embellished with smaller red tassels. The loin- wall reliefs on buildings at Chan Chan, a massive adobe cloth was part of a garment set that included a matching city and the capital of the Chimú kingdom, situated on the shirt and headdress. With its impressive scale and vibrant coast near the modern city of Trujillo in the Moche Valley. 17
Fig. 18. Chimú artist. Hanging. North Coast, Peru, 12th–15th century. Cotton, 61 × 79 ⼀椀 in. (155 × 201 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Jacob and Bronka Weintraub, 1983 (1983.491.1) For example, one burial platform in a palace features a composition with a pelican, doubled and repeated upside down and above, joining the right-side-up form at the tail (昀椀g. 19). A creature with a head and two appendages is found in its belly. This composite image is linked with others by a vertical band. The completed form is repeated but reversed, thus knitting together the imagery, creat- ing an overall pattern of bifold rotational symmetry. This pattern extends from the 昀氀oor level to the upper border, where a zoomorphic form with a crescent headdress is repeated across the entire expanse of the walls of the entryway. Many of Chan Chan’s reliefs in other parts of Fig. 19. the city follow this structure of in昀椀nity patterns within View of Palace Wall, Chan Chan, Peru, 1893. Photo by Charles Lummis borders; that is, the motifs are repeated over and over in 18
an expanse halted only by the decorative bands along the not appear for the 昀椀rst time at Chan Chan, but it is seen sides, top, and/or bottom of the walls. The parallel with there at unprecedented levels. textile design is unmistakable. In his 1851 study on the origins of architecture, German The importance of textiles in the Andes is underscored architect Gottfried Semper argued that most decorative by the repetition of their designs in other media. A gold elements used in architecture were derived from the crown, for example, likely made just prior to the rise of the textile arts—that all geometric ornamental patterns were Chimú state, emulates the patterning of woven cloth, even prompted by the fundamental structures of the warp 11 down to the manner in which the two ends of the metal crossing the weft. Semper also saw the textile “dressing” sheet were joined, lashed together with thin gold “threads” of the architecture—the practice of covering structural (昀椀g. 20). Similarly, as noted above, architectural ornament elements with ornament—as “masking” the reality of the construction material. Moreover, he posited that the ear often borrowed from woven patterns. Chan Chan’s adobe - reliefs were made from a malleable earthen plaster, yet liest architectural forms were textile based (for example, their forms are planar and angular, echoing the linear tents), and over time evolved into structures made from rigidity of woven textiles. Moreover, the architectural reliefs more durable materials, such as stone, albeit with textile and textiles share similar iconography and compositions, patterning playing a residual symbolic role. This does not with an emphasis on in昀椀nity patterns and borders. This seem to be the case in Peru, however, where there is no correspondence between textiles and architecture does evidence for such an evolutionary process in architecture. Fig. 20. Lambayeque artist. Crown. North Coast, Peru, 900–1100. Gold, diam. 7 ⼀攀 in. (18.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift and Bequest of Alice K. Bache, 1966, 1977 (66.196.13) 19
Rather, the emulation of textile patterning in adobe reliefs feature large 昀椀elds of one or two colors, minimally inter- is explicit and intentional, and likely related both to the tra- rupted by a band or bands of geometric ornamentation. dition of hanging elaborate textiles in architectural interiors This is not to say that these compositions are devoid of and to the inherent value and function of textiles in Andean an iconographic referent—some Inca designs bear names 12 cultures. Indeed, by evoking textiles, these adobe reliefs that tie them to certain concepts—rather, that larger ideas may have been making connections to deeper beliefs about power are surely conveyed by the forms alone. The about the sanctity or preciousness of the textile medium. meanings of the designs are poorly understood today, but Since the pre-Hispanic period in the Andes, sacri昀椀ces and their formal strength, if not their speci昀椀c ideas, is readily precious things have been wrapped in 昀椀nely woven tex- comprehensible and certainly would have been so in the 13 past, including by populations newly under Inca control. tiles. This emphasis on textile imagery may have served a votive or even a protective purpose, conveying certain The Inca called their realm “the land of the four quar - properties to the architecture. In this light, the walls of the ters,” and they maintained a complex administrative and palaces at Chan Chan are metaphorically tightly wrapped ritual system from their highland capital, Cusco. The empire in a precious and sacred material. encompassed remarkably diverse terrain, including the The Chimú kingdom grew wealthy in part through western portions of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and expanding trade networks but also through its workshops, Argentina, from the dry coastal desert to the high Andean where, in addition to textiles, ornaments and vessels of peaks and lush intermontane valleys. Uni昀椀ed by a road silver and gold were created. Prosperous Chan Chan system operating from Quito in Ecuador to Santiago in became a target for the rapidly growing Inca Empire, and Chile, the state attempted to enforce, with varying degrees the Chimú kingdom was defeated by the Inca around 1470. of success, a rigid organization of its territories and com- Following the Inca practice of dismantling conquered pol- munities, including a program of forced population reset- ities, members of the Chimú population were dispersed tlements and strict labor taxes. The Inca state’s extreme and forcibly resettled in other parts of the Inca Empire. control is also visible in its textile production. Inca tunics, Communities of Chimú weavers were relocated to Peru’s for example, display remarkably little variation in size, sug- South Coast, among other destinations, where they were 16 gesting tight management of manufacturing. On the con- 14 pressed into service for their new lords. sumption side, these luxurious textiles were restricted by Traces of Chimú weaving practices are discernible in sumptuary laws to the emperor, members of the nobility, parts of the Inca Empire, but technically—and to a certain and revered non-elites who received them as royal gifts. degree formally—Inca weavers drew more heavily from We know considerably more about the Inca than we highland traditions, particularly Wari tunics. Inca weavers do about their predecessors, as textual accounts by the took the style of abstraction present in Wari textiles one 昀椀rst Spanish conquistadors, administrators, priests, and step further, however, creating striking compositions. missionaries, as well as later accounts by both Spaniards The visual power of these garments was not lost on the and Andeans, add to the archaeological record to form Spanish. Francisco de Jerez, secretary to the conquistador a more complete picture of the empire. These sources Francisco Pizarro, described the fateful meeting between underscore the importance of 昀椀ber arts in Inca culture: no Atahualpa, the Inca emperor, and Pizarro’s contingent in political, military, social, or religious event was complete Cajamarca, Peru, in 1532, noting that the 昀椀rst regiment of without textiles being exchanged or gifted, burned or sac- the Inca army wore checkerboard livery, visible from a ri昀椀ced. Textiles adorned rock outcroppings at sacred sites great distance. These garments are most surely the 昀椀ne, and served as votive offerings in themselves. Precious tapestry-woven black-and-white checkerboard tunics tapestry-woven tunics were bestowed on warriors who with a deep red V-shaped yoke, some two dozen of which distinguished themselves on the battlefield and were 15 are now in museum collections internationally (昀椀g. 21). given as diplomatic gifts by Inca rulers in their campaigns Wildly successful in their imperial ambitions, the Inca to expand their vast empire. managed to conquer much of western South America, The 昀椀nest cloth, or cumbi, was produced by both men from what is now the southwestern border of Colombia and women in the Inca Empire. Cumbi could have as many to Santiago, Chile (some 2,600 miles), in roughly a cen - as three hundred wefts per inch, and garments made tury. The compositions of their tapestry-woven tunics often of it were created by either acllas, the “chosen women” of 20
Fig. 21. Inca artist. Tunic. Argentina, Peru, or Bolivia, 16th century. Camelid 昀椀ber, 34 ⼀攀 × 30 ⼀椀 in. (87 × 76.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Fletcher Fund, Claudia Quentin Gift, and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 2017 (2017.674) 21
Fig. 22. Chuquibamba/Inca artist. Tunic. South Coast, Peru, 1460–1540. Cotton, camelid 昀椀ber, 37 × 29 ⼀最 in. (94 × 75.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of George D. Pratt, 1933 (33.149.100) 22
Fig. 23. Central Coast artist. Shirt. Peru, 1460–1540. Cotton, camelid 昀椀ber, 19 × 47 in. (48.3 × 119.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Arthur M. Bullowa, 1983 (1983.497.1) the Inca emperor in Cusco, or cumbi camayos, men who 17 worked in the service of the Inca or other important lords. Inca tapestry tunics were woven as a single panel with single-interlocking joins, with the neck slit held closed by a temporary weft yarn that was removed after the weaving was complete. After the tunic was cut from the loom, all seams and selvage edges were completely covered with double-faced embroidery that formed a series of multi- colored bands of different widths. A zigzag line of yellow and other colored threads was added to the bottom of the garment. Notwithstanding the great control the Inca state exerted over textile production, local weaving traditions still 昀氀our- ished. An elegant shirt with alternating vertical bands of a solid dark color and a geometric wave pattern, 昀椀nished on the lower edge and cuffs with a dark stepped-fret motif on cream, is similar in composition to a highland style, but it was tapestry woven with cotton warps, and the garment has sleeves: these two aspects are more consistent with coastal techniques and fashion (昀椀g. 23). Distinctive styles can also be identi昀椀ed in the region of Chuquibamba, near Arequipa in southern Peru. Tunics from this area have the same proportions as those of the standard imperial style, yet the designs are speci昀椀cally local, with small- scale motifs, such as eight-point stars and stylized 昀椀sh, repeated in a grid pattern (昀椀g. 22).18 As with earlier North Coast textiles, they were sometimes embellished, as seen in a Chuquibamba-style bag (昀椀g. 24). Here, against a woven Fig. 24. Chuquibamba artist. Bag with fringe. South Coast, Peru, 12th–16th century. Camelid 昀椀ber, 27 ⼀攀 × 9 ⼀攀 in. (69.2 × 23.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 2001 (2001.489) 23
Fig. 25. Unidenti昀椀ed artist. Tunic. Arica(?), Chile, 15th–early 16th century(?). Camelid 昀椀ber, feathers, 35 ⼀攀 × 54 ⼀挀 in. (89.5 × 138.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of John B. Elliott through the Mercer Trust, 2000 (2000.160.25) grid pattern, small fringes fall from four folded tabs on workshops, such as the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales the front, while an impressive longer fringe dramatically del Cusco, founded by Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez in 1996, completes the lower edge. On a garment from the south- preserve, revive, and extend regional weaving practices. ernmost reaches of the empire, on the coast of what is Ancient Andean weaving also had an indelible impact now Chile, the familiar checkerboard pattern is expressed far beyond Peru and Bolivia as examples were collected, in vibrant hues of deep red and purple (昀椀g. 25). Enlivened studied, and published in Europe, becoming a springboard by a band of small stepped frets in white and yellow below for inspiration for modern artists. The beginnings of sci- the uppermost row of squares and by woven multiband enti昀椀c archaeology in the mid-nineteenth century spurred borders at the sides, the tunic was 昀椀nished with four small a boom in collecting and the development of national bundles of feathers near the neck. museums, the scale of which is staggering by today’s Despite the disruption and devastation of incursion standards. For example, Berlin’s Königliches Museum für and colonization by Spain in the sixteenth century, weaving Völkerkunde (today’s Ethnologisches Museum) acquired traditions continued following the fall of the Inca Empire multiple private collections in the decades around the turn and into the modern period and present day. While certain of the twentieth century, including one from Hannover types of garments, such as the black-and-white checker- textile merchant Christian Theodor Wilhelm Gretzer com- board tunics, stopped being produced, others evolved prising some 33,000 ancient American objects, many of 20 according to changing tastes and needs. Indeed, many them textiles. weaving traditions have remained strong, particularly in Information about ancient Andean textiles also 19 circulated through illustrated publications. Notably, the southern highlands of Peru and Bolivia. Today vibrant 24
Fig. 26. “Sumptuous garment of a mummy,” from Wilhelm Reiss and Alphons Stübel, The Necropolis of Ancon in Peru, vol. 2, 1880–87. Chromolithograph. The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2992-584; pl. 49) vulcanologists turned archaeologists Wilhelm Reiss and (The Art of Old Peru, 1924) and Max Schmidt’s Kunst und Alphons Stübel gave a large collection to the Königliches Kultur von Peru (Art and Culture of Peru, 1929), which was Museum für Völkerkunde in exchange for the production part of a series published by Anni Albers’s family. of a luxurious archaeological atlas. Published between The Andean textiles on view in galleries and tex- 1880 and 1887, the three volumes of The Necropolis of tile study rooms in Berlin and elsewhere internationally, Ancon in Peru illustrate the results of their excavations at including at The Met, along with the related publications, 21 the seaside resort of Ancón, near Lima. The most dramatic captured the imagination of several artists in the twentieth 昀椀nds were elaborate mummy bundles, individuals carefully century, including Albers. She remarked with admiration wrapped in textiles, including very 昀椀nely woven Wari tunics. that they represented “a standard of achievement that is 23 To capture all the vibrancy of the textiles’ colors, Reiss and unsurpassed” for design and production. The lines of Stübel opted for chromolithography over photography for descent, of in昀氀uence, inspiration, and aspiration, were the plates (昀椀g. 26). Stübel wrote of the astonishing quality direct and acknowledged. The enduring textile traditions of the Ancón textiles, comparing them to tapestries from of the Andes did not dissipate like the smoke from once the famed Gobelins Manufactory in Paris and marveling great 昀椀res—they were the kindling for the ambitious exper- at the excellent preservation of the color and the complex iments of modern textile artists. 22 patterning. More volumes on ancient Andean art were published in the 昀椀rst decades of the twentieth century, including books that enjoyed greater circulation, such as Walter Lehmann’s Kunstgeschichte des Alten Peru 25
26
Abstraction and Andean Textiles, from Anni Albers to the Fiber Arts Movement Iria Candela In August 1953, while visiting Peru for the 昀椀rst time, Anni In 1965, Albers dedicated her compendium of criti- and Josef Albers went to what is now the Museo Nacional cal writing On Weaving to “the weavers of ancient Peru,” de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú in the whom she referred to as “my great teachers.”4 Both On country’s capital. One may only speculate about how Anni Weaving and On Designing, Albers’s earlier volume of Albers felt while walking through the museum, viewing essays, describe her theoretical approach to the medium exquisite examples of ancient Andean textiles and con- by crediting the signi昀椀cance of the Peruvian legacy. “Of templating the endless array of design patterns and in昀椀nite phantasy within the world of threads,” she wrote, weaving techniques that had fueled her imagination for “conveying strength or playfulness, mystery or the reality 1 years. These galleries probably brought Albers back to her of their surroundings, endlessly varied in presentation and teenage years in Berlin, where the Königliches Museum construction, even though bound to a code of basic con- für Völkerkunde’s extensive collection of Peruvian tex- cepts, these textiles set a standard of achievement that is 5 tiles provided her 昀椀rst encounter with this material that unsurpassed.” While the in昀氀uence of Andean techniques she immediately loved. The architect Alfredo Linder, who on her weavings has been studied relatively recently by 6 guided the Alberses on that visit, recalls hearing them say Virginia Gardner Troy, the degree to which these played 2 to each other: “See, we are not alone after all.” a crucial role in her artistic philosophy remains to be fully That spontaneous, rather existential comment at the comprehended. Albers’s essays not only offer clues to her museum in Lima may be read as a statement of af昀椀rma- practice, but also outline her vision for the medium and its tion that speaks to Anni Albers’s position as an outcast future, forming a textile manifesto of sorts. Her meticulous in twentieth-century art history—a position that de昀椀ned written analyses of interlocking grid constructions, many her pioneering contribution to modern art. Her productive of them Peruvian, alongside her insightful ideas on topics decades of learning, teaching, collecting, and practicing such as structural transparency and the tactile sensibil - the art of threads must have all converged in that moment ity of 昀椀bers, came to provide a theoretical framework for of reassurance. Driven to work with textiles because, a new generation of practitioners that emerged during although egalitarian in its inception, the Bauhaus ended the 昀椀ber arts movement. Artists like Sheila Hicks, Lenore 3 Tawney, and Olga de Amaral would, like Albers, 昀椀nd res up directing all female students to the weaving workshop, - Albers went on to successfully situate textile technology onance in the transformational lessons of the weavers of at the core of the modernist project. Fibers allowed her ancient Peru. to master an abstract constructive method that aligned But let’s go back to the beginning—before On Weaving with some of the avant-garde aspirations of her contem- and On Designing were published, before the long-awaited poraries from De Stijl, Constructivism, and the Bauhaus: trip to Lima in 1953—to Anni Albers’s upbringing amid that is, to achieve a unity of the arts through the universal the artistic debates held in Europe in the early decades vocabulary of abstraction and to commit to a utilitarian of the twentieth century. Within the artistic community, drive amid an increasingly industrial society. there was a shared concern that the 昀椀gurative tradition 27
was becoming sterile due to the strict academicism that dominated art schools. Moreover, critiques of the acceler- ated industrialization and decadence of modern Western society brought back Arcadian visions of a premodern utopia. The sense that art’s spirituality had been lost acti- vated a search within the material culture of civilizations outside of Europe; art historian Wilhelm Worringer and artist Vasily Kandinsky led the movement to identify such alternative sources of inspiration, resulting in a turn to examples of so-called “primitive” art. Needless to say, the primitivist discourse of early modernist circles that considered non-Western art uncultured was suffused by racism. One outcome, however, of this shift of attention was an increased appreciation for the ability that the art of other cultures had to represent the human connection to Fig. 27. Members of the Bauhaus weaving workshop, ca. 1928. Top row, left to right: nature and to channel the universal meanings and values Lisbeth Oestreicher, Gertrud Preiswerk, Léna Bergner, Grete Reichardt. Bottom row, left to right: Lotte Beese, Anni Albers, Ljuba Monastirsky, Rosa Berger, so vehemently sought by the European modernists. Albers Gunta Stölzl, Otti Berger, Kurt Wanke. Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin belonged to a generation eager to 昀椀nd a new vocabulary for their modern society; this aspiration was central to the from 1924 (昀椀g. 28), exempli昀椀es this “quintessence of weav- 9 founding of the experimental art school of the Bauhaus ing” with its simple, single-weave structure. Firm, even, in 1919. and uniform, its warp and weft appear in equal measure By the time Albers enrolled in the Bauhaus in April and repeat the same effect on the front and back of the 7 1922, she already possessed an advanced knowledge of fabric. With this precept—weaving’s reticular interlacing ancient weavings and was probably pleased to 昀椀nd like- and all its creative potential—the artist found her own path- minded people among her teachers and fellow students way to abstraction and was able to convert the medium in Weimar. Peruvian textiles had been used as pedagog- into a successful model for the modern geometric style ical materials since the school’s inception and not only that came to de昀椀ne the interwar period. in the weaving workshop. Instructors Johannes Itten and Indeed, the principle of interlocking lines, alongside Paul Klee included them in their lessons on the principles the rich possibilities textiles offered for the design of linear of abstraction that were part of the preliminary course. and geometric patterns, reassured Albers in her artistic Klee’s exercises in color interaction, composing a picture endeavor, hand weaving. Paradoxically, ancient Andean with layers or bands of color like in a woven textile, taught textiles became her sources for a modern approach to the students the interwoven dynamics of the grid as the her work, helping her reconcile the modernist drive of the basis of a pictorial surface. In a parallel vein, the Bauhaus Bauhaus with the Arcadian impulses of her generation. weavers acknowledged the grid as the de昀椀ning structural The principles of the applied arts reform led by William matrix of the loom fabric (昀椀g. 27). Morris in the nineteenth-century Arts and Crafts move - “One of the most ancient crafts,” Albers wrote later in ment continued to prevail in Germany when the Bauhaus life, “hand weaving is a method of forming a pliable plane opened, and textile designers still used preliminary drafts 8 of threads by interlacing them rectangularly.” With this (known as cartoons) to design their patterns. Albers, on sentence, she aligns the weaving technique with the grid, the contrary, advocated for structure to inform design and the modernist trope par excellence, and simultaneously turned away from practices that did not draw from “the 10 recognizes its ancient lineage within the textile medium. inherent over-and-under structural process of weaving.” A weaving, in its essence, is de昀椀ned by the intersection of The geometric patterns of Andean textiles re昀氀ected the one system of threads—the warp—with another—the weft— essential structure of weaving, key to their “directness of communication,”11 at right angles, so every weaving construction is a reticular and therefore resonated with her own search for a modern approach to the medium. “The fas network based on a grid structure. One of the 昀椀rst pieces - that Albers made while at the Bauhaus, a “Wallhanging” cination that the pre-conquest materials has for us today 28
Fig. 28. Anni Albers (American, born Germany, 1899–1994). Wallhanging, 1924. Cotton, silk, 66 ⼀攀 × 39 ⼀挀 in. (168.3 × 100.3 cm). The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, Conn. (1994.12.1) 29
Fig. 29. Anni Albers. Black-White-Yellow, 1926 (lost); rewoven by Gunta Stölzl (German, 1897–1983), 1965. Mercerized cotton, silk, 80 ⼀攀 × 47 ⼀欀 in. (203.8 × 120.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Everfast Fabrics Inc. and Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1969 (69.134) 30
lies, to my mind,” she explained, “in the fact that their con- corresponding constructive processes, such as double 17 cern was the interplay of structural and formal concepts. . . . and triple weaves.” Fascinated by the structural meth- one senses the daring and discipline that conceived and ods and techniques of interlocking threads that Andean planned them.”12 Albers not only appropriated formal civilizations had achieved, she particularly admired their motifs and designs such as checkerboards, diamonds, mastery of multi-ply structures such as double, triple, qua- and meanders from the ancient sources—thus satisfying druple, and tubular weaves.18 Double weaves are fabrics the Bauhaus interest in universal primary symbols—but, that present two separate layers, which can be locked at more importantly, she also assimilated the constructive both sides, at one side, or within the fabric, wherever the methods of repetition, mirroring, and modular variations design asks for an exchange of top and bottom layers found in the individually patterned rectangles of tocapu (usually of different colors). Such cloths have been found tunics, the 昀椀nest garments worn by the Incas, for example, in textiles of the Paracas and in the Nasca traditions of the or the positive and negative shapes of Tiwanaku cloths. In late 昀椀rst millennium bce and 昀椀rst centuries ce, respectively. her practice, she put the textile technology at the service Albers once explained that “the purpose of these ancient of the formal program. double- and multi-ply weaves was in most instances an Further, Albers considered weaving a high art, just as aesthetic one, that is, they were to make possible designs pre-Hispanic Peruvian societies had. Her output came to of solid colored areas within other contrasting solid col- challenge the traditional arts-and-crafts divide responsi 19 - ored areas.” This type of compositional pattern can also ble for the marginalization of textiles in the modern era, be appreciated in Paul Klee’s grid-based paintings from and to claim a central space for their artistic and cul- his Bauhaus years, based on contrasts of color and grada- tural signi昀椀cance. From the apparent collision between tion of tonalities that dynamize the picture plane. craft and industry, she envisioned textiles as a solution While training in the textile workshop, Albers conceived that could fully engage the modernist project. With the the double weave Black-White-Yellow (1926, rewoven 1965; growing demands of industry, and the premonition that 昀椀g. 29). Her design for Black-White-Yellow (1926; 昀椀g. 30), a machines would end up substituting handwork and craft, gouache and pencil on paper, sets up the pattern of the Albers promoted hand weaving for the design of textile weaving, which superimposes layers to create a dynamic models suited for mass production. The Bauhaus provided concatenation of color sequences. This drawing also a platform for this realization; re昀氀ecting later on the most salient “learning outcomes” of her years there, she high- lighted not only having acquired an “unprejudiced attitude” to materials but also having shifted from free play with forms toward more systematic training in the construction of weaving structures that could be used as prototypes for 13 industrial production. The alliance of design and industry was re昀氀ected in the new motto of the Bauhaus in 1923: “Art 14 and technology: a new unity.” Its director Walter Gropius endorsed the concept of “model work” to such a degree that making prototypes became an important source of 15 income for the otherwise 昀椀nancially strained school. Albers reiterated this mission over a decade later, while on the faculty at Black Mountain College, stating that “teaching 16 has to lead toward planning for industrial repetition.” With a functionalist drive, Albers systematized the design and production of complex and quality weavings that satis昀椀ed modern technology as much as her aesthetic commitment to abstraction. Among Albers’s contributions to the Bauhaus was her ability, as Gardner Troy puts it, “to unite a geometrically abstract visual vocabulary with Fig 30. Anni Albers. Design for Black-White-Yellow, 1926. Gouache and pencil on paper, 13 ⼀最 × 9 ⼀欀 in. (34. 9 × 23.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York (399.1951) 31
Fig. 31. Fig. 32. Chimú artist. Sampler. Peru, 1100–1300. Cotton, wool, 17 × 10 in. (42.2 × 22.9 cm). Anni Albers. Detail of textile sample. Linen, 24 ⼀攀 × 15 ⼀挀 in. (61.6 × 39.4 cm). The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, Conn. (1994.16.3) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Anni Albers, 1970 (1970.75.22) anticipates Albers’s use of draft notation, a standard system of its rectangular thread-interlacing will be better than one 22 for drafting weaves implemented by the industry of mech- which conceals its structure.” Albers was aware of the 20 anized looms. Notably, draft notation served her in the openwork tradition in the Andes and may have studied the study—and teaching—of the samples of ancient weavings descriptions and technical analyses of the various types of that she started to collect later in her life, coinciding with openwork, including gauze, provided by Raoul d’Harcourt her trips to Latin America with Josef.21 Andean fragments in his 1934 book on the Textiles of Ancient Peru and Their 23 were among the pieces she added to the Harriet Engelhardt Techniques, whose French 昀椀rst edition she owned. Memorial Collection of Textiles at Black Mountain College, Following the abrupt closure of the Bauhaus instigated which she also used to teach structural and formal prob - by the Nazis in 1933, Anni and Josef Albers relocated to lems; she would cut—sometimes even unravel—a piece of the United States. Between 1936 and 1946, they taught tapestry to observe the thread’s intersections from above at Black Mountain College and traveled often in Latin and trace the course of each thread (昀椀g. 31). America. During this time, Anni made three major wall With her keen interest in the structural aspects of hangings—Ancient Writing, Monte Alban, and With weaving, Albers demonstrated an alliance with some of Verticals—in response to the landscape and architecture the artistic postulates of Constructivism, a movement that of Mexico, a country where only a very few fragments of heavily in昀氀uenced the Bauhaus, notably with her “unpreju- ancient textiles survived. These new, cryptic geometric diced” attention to materials and her aim for transparency designs paved the way for her “pictorial weavings,” which in the constructed works. Made years after she left the she started to make in 1947. Unlike her industrial designs, Bauhaus, one of her textile samples concretizes her vision which she continued to pursue, the pictorial weavings for the modern work through its use of an open weave were formal exercises with discontinuous weaving pat- (昀椀g. 32). As she saw it, the more transparent a weaving’s terns aimed at experimenting with threads as a pure artistic structure and the more clearly that structure is expressed expression. Pasture (1958; 昀椀g. 33) presents a supplemen- in its design, the better: “[A] weaving that exhibits the origin tary weft joined to a double-cloth support, embodying a 32
technique that creates in昀椀nite possibilities for what can in codi昀椀ed colors to symbolize numbers and other values be described as textile calligraphy, a kind of writing with that helped pre-Hispanic societies collect data and keep threads the artist sought to explore. records for calendar, tax, or census purposes (see 昀椀g. 1). As art historian Maria Müller-Schareck points out, the Khipus, along with the vast geometrized iconography of word “text” is derived from the Latin word textus, or “woven.” Andean textiles, acted often as substitutes for writing, with their portability making them accessible and easy to dis Both texts and fabrics, then, connect patterns of thought - 24 into a material with a speci昀椀c rhythm. Albers was inter- seminate. In Red Meander (1954; 昀椀g. 34), Albers uses broad, ested in the transmission of information and knowledge mazelike lines to suggest an encrypted pattern. The motif of through encrypted scripts of threaded patterns, 昀椀nding the meander recurs in her work in inventive ways. parallels in the visual coding developed in the Andes to Anni and Josef’s expression of kinship in 1953—we are overcome the lack of a written language. The khipu, for not alone after all—coincided in time with the training of a younger generation of artists and designers who simi example, was a mnemonic device consisting of a series of - cotton or wool cords knotted at regular intervals and dyed larly found connection and inspiration in ancient Andean Fig. 33. Anni Albers. Pasture, 1958. Mercerized cotton, 14 × 15 ⼀挀 in. (35.6 × 39.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1969 (69.135) 33
Fig. 34. Anni Albers. Red Meander, 1954. Cotton, 20 ⼀挀 × 14 ⼀最 in. (52 × 37.5 cm). Private collection 34
textiles. During the 1950s and 1960s, hand weaving was without the constraints of the loom. In a way, they put into included in the curriculum of many art schools and uni- practice many of Albers’s visionary ideas for the medium. 25 versities across the Americas. Scholar and curator Elissa It was serendipitous, then, that Josef Albers was teach- Auther has argued that, while Albers was in昀氀uential to the ing at Yale University when Sheila Hicks enrolled there to development of U.S.–based artists working in 昀椀ber a gen- study painting in 1954. She was 昀椀rst introduced to Andean eration or two after her, the role ancient and indigenous textiles in an undergraduate course with Professor George textile cultures, including the Andean, played in their work Kubler, a leading scholar of ancient art of the Americas. cannot be credited only to Albers and the Bauhaus leg- Fascinated by them, she started to learn to weave and acy. “When Albers resettled in the United States,” Auther went on to write her undergraduate thesis on this subject explains, “she encountered a country already caught up in under the advisement of Junius Bird, an archaeologist and a revival of interest in the ancient art of the Americas fos- curator at the American Museum of Natural History and an 28 tered by a range of federal, cultural and corporate programs expert on Peruvian textiles (昀椀g. 35). In 1954 Josef intro- 26 and initiatives undertaken between the U.S. and Mexico.” duced Hicks to Anni so they could discuss their shared Among these initiatives were the American Museum of interests. As Hicks recalls, Anni advised her to keep her Natural History’s design reform program, initiated in 1915, weavings reticular as she started her own journey into the 29 which made the museum’s textile collections available to world of interwoven threads. It was Josef who encour- designers with the aim of deriving a national style from aged her to travel to Chile to replace him on a teaching indigenous designs of the Americas, and the 1933 Museum invitation, and with the support of a Fulbright grant, Hicks 30 of Modern Art exhibition American Sources of Modern Art embarked on a two-year trip to South America in 1957. (Aztec, Mayan, Incan), which paired modern and ancient She began her series of small weavings called 27 objects. The 昀椀ber arts movement exploded in the 1960s, Minimes, such as Rallo (1957; 昀椀g. 36), during this trip. These with textile artists experimenting with structures, uncon - exercises—modest in scale but rich in compositional ventional materials, and the language of weaving with and variation—feature the weaving skills Hicks developed Fig. 36. Fig. 35. Sheila Hicks (American, b. 1934). Rallo, 1957. Wool, 9 ⼀挀 × 5 ⼀椀 in. (24 × 13 cm). Sheets from “Andean Textile Art,” Yale University undergraduate thesis Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, Museum purchase from by Sheila Hicks, ca. 1957. Private collection General Acquisitions Endowment Fund (2006-13-2) 35
Fig. 37. Sheila Hicks. Willow, 1960. Cotton, wool, 11 ⼀洀 × 15 15/16 in. (29.5 × 40.5 cm). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, Gift of Anonymous Donor (2006-14-5) thanks to her early studies of Andean techniques. Willow (1960; 昀椀g. 37), for example, is woven with all selvages 昀椀n - ished, like many Peruvian textiles. Eventually, the Minimes became her modus operandi to respond to and register a broad range of personal experiences, research, and travel that continues to date. “I found my voice and my footing in my small work,” she declared.31 Upon her return from South America, Hicks presented her thesis project for a Master of Fine Arts degree at Yale, an exhibit titled Andean Textile Art. It included Inca Chinchero (1959), a small weaving with a checkerboard pattern inspired by a plain weave reproduced in Raoul d’Harcourt’s seminal study of 32 Peruvian textile techniques. Years later, Inca Chinchero became the prototype for a textile pattern manufactured by Knoll Associates. Like Albers, Hicks was inspired by the sophisticated structures of Andean textiles, as well as by their unique path to systematize abstract designs. Further, she contin- ued the modernist alliance with industry through numerous collaborations and commissions over the years. Her signa- ture style is found, however, in the innovative ways she subverted the orthogonal rigor of weaving, expanding to the more unruly and expressionistic territories of abstrac - tion. Untitled (1986; 昀椀g. 38) presents warp threads not 昀椀lled with weft, hanging vertically to create slits that allow light to 昀椀lter through. Hicks 昀椀rst used this technique, which echoes the Moche culture’s use of the negative spaces of slits to codify a linguistic system of signs, in 1961. Fig. 38. Sheila Hicks. Untitled, 1986. Two-ply linen, 89 × 16 in. (226.1 × 40.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Sheila Hicks, 1987 (1987.368) 36
As art historian Carolina Arévalo argues, some of Jeroglí昀椀co, Grand Hieroglyph, Carta blanca, Blue Letter, and Hicks’s works from the early 1960s appear to propose Quipu. Hicks, like Albers, explored the calligraphic quality of notation systems to convey messages, with uniform weaves threads, but Hicks’s work “deconstructs the grid to create her 33 interrupted by slits or variations of relief, density, and scale, text.” Her distinct approach to the constructive methods as exempli昀椀ed by Wall Hanging (1961; 昀椀g. 39). Many of these of Andean textiles was ultimately expressed in her “open works received 昀椀tting titles, in English or Spanish, such as compositions.” These did not employ weaving techniques Fig. 39. Sheila Hicks. Wall Hanging, 1961. Wool, 27 ⼀挀 × 27 in. (69.8 × 68.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York (348.1961) 37
Fig. 40. Sheila Hicks. The Principal Wife, ca. 1965. Silk, linen, wool, synthetic 昀椀bers, 96 × 86 × 8 in. (243.8 × 218.4 × 20.3 cm). Museum of Arts and Design, New York, gift of Dreyfus Corporation, through the American Craft Council, 1989 (1989.1.8a–g) per se but, rather, referred to the thread-dyeing process—in the weaver Marli Ehrman. It was not until the mid-1950s, particular the pre-Hispanic tie- or resist-dyeing technique however, that she speci昀椀cally trained in weaving, start- known as ikat, still employed across Latin America. In The ing with a six-week course taught by the Finnish weaver Principal Wife (ca. 1965; 昀椀g. 40), she displays warp threads Martta Taipale at the Penland School of Craft in North 34 still wrapped in certain sections to prevent them from Carolina. Tawney’s artistic philosophy was shaped by absorbing dye. various in昀氀uences, including Taoism, and she often trav- Lenore Tawney did not have contact with Anni Albers eled in South America, collecting ancient samples and as Hicks did, but she did study with two Bauhaus émigrés small fragments for study. She appreciated the primary at the Institute of Design in Chicago during the mid-1940s: structures of Andean weaving and decided to stay with the painter and photographer László Moholy-Nagy and this tradition, especially when her work became fully 38
35 abstract around 1959. Peruvian (1962; 昀椀g. 41), an appro- priation of the checkerboard pattern characteristic of Andean textiles that 昀椀nds its 昀椀nest example in Inca tunics (see 昀椀g. 21), was a declaration of intentions. Constructed as a tubular weave, it shares the same structural principle as the double weave. Two layers of cloth are woven sepa- rately, though in one weaving operation—in tubular weaves there is no exchange of the two layers. A continuous weft thread alternatively weaves both layers in a spiral move - ment, closing both selvages and thus forming a tube in a method also practiced in ancient Peru. But it was Tawney’s signature “woven forms,” installation- like hangings that could be very narrow and as high as four meters long, that consecrated her jump from more classical forms of tapestry to radical innovations with the grid-based principles of weaving. Initiated in 1959, these pieces offered her a way to recontextualize the Peruvian traditions. The Bride (1962; 昀椀g. 42) combines multiple weaving structures in one piece, and the width variation provides the work with an unconventional shape, which she called “woven form.” In昀氀uenced by Peruvian woven caps with human or camelid hair braids, Tawney began to explore the addition of knots and fringes in this period. Experimenting with beginnings and endings was a char - acteristic feature of the 昀椀ber arts movement.36 Despite these off-loom methods, Tawney never gave up the loom, especially as she studied the effects of transparency in a gridded structure. According to Florica Zaharia, Conservator Emerita of textiles at The Met, “like Hicks, [Tawney] also wanted to break rules within the 37 discipline.” The hanging Morning Dove (1962; 昀椀g. 44) presents another idiosyncratic technique of the ancient 38 tradition: featherwork. Tawney had also been using the Peruvian openwork technique of gauze since 1955, emu- lating the 昀椀nest standards of lace making of coastal Peru in intricate, delicate works such as Untitled (1961; 昀椀g. 45). In Shrouded River (1966; 昀椀g. 43), the artist utilizes open- warp or vertical openings of slit tapestry. As historical photographs of her studio capture, she enjoyed placing such works away from the wall to allow light and air to come through. Transparency was one of Anni Albers’s key aspirations for the medium, and her book On Weaving includes an illustration of Tawney’s Dark River (1962), a 39 woven form with slits. Another participant in the 昀椀ber arts movement, Olga de Amaral applied to the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloom昀椀eld Hills, Michigan, while studying architectural Fig. 41. Lenore Tawney (American, 1907–2007). Peruvian, 1962. Linen, 86 × 18 in. (218.4 × 45.7 cm). Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York (1962.08) 39
Fig. 42. Fig. 43. Lenore Tawney. The Bride, 1962. Linen, feathers, 11 ft. 6 in. × 13 in. (350.5 × 33 cm). Lenore Tawney. Shrouded River, 1966. Linen, wood, 12 ft. 10 in. × 22 in. (391.2 × 55 cm). Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York (1962.11) Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York (1966.11) 40
Fig. 44. Fig. 45. Lenore Tawney. Morning Dove, 1962. Linen, feathers, 53 15/16 × 16 9/16 in. Lenore Tawney. Untitled, 1961. Rayon, wool, 63 × 22 ⼀洀 in. (137 × 42 cm). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, (160 × 56.8 cm). Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, New York (1961.04) Gift of Lenore Tawney (1964-66-3) drafting in Bogotá. She enrolled in September 1954 for a As Telas Amaral expanded in the early 1960s, De one-year fabric design and weaving program. Because she Amaral began to produce individual tapestries that earned was studying under textile designer Marianne Strengell, her a prominent place within the 昀椀ber arts movement.41 her introduction to the loom was conditioned by a cur- She started with knotting to the warp, creating pictorial riculum heavily oriented toward industry and upholstery, tapestries she called mechudos, and replicating ancient drapery, and rug design. At Cranbrook, De Amaral was techniques such as slits, wrapped warp, and interlacing more interested in experimenting freely with 昀椀ber, but in pieces with contrasting color combinations reminiscent 42 upon returning to Bogotá she established the workshop of Klee’s Bauhaus teachings. With a geometric compo- Telas Amaral for the production of functional weavings. sition of vibrant colors, Geometric Play of Colors (Juego Begun in 1956 as a one-loom operation, the workshop geométrico de colores, 1962; 昀椀g. 46) acknowledges the within a decade had expanded to a twelve-loom opera- grid as the essential principle of weaving, and its expres- tion that employed local artisans and provided services sive alternation of 昀椀gures inside rectangles suggests the 40 to architects, interior designers, and the fashion industry. modular units found in Wari and Inca tunics (see 昀椀gs. 11, 12). 41
Fig. 46 Olga de Amaral (Colombian, b. 1932). Geometric Play of Colors (Juego geométrico de colores), 1962. Wool, 35 ⼀欀 × 17 ⼀最 in. (90 × 45 cm). Private collection Referencing a checkerboard pattern, the vibrant turquoise demonstrated in Woven Gridded Wall #66 (Muro tejido grids in Interlaced in White and Turquoise (Entrelazado cuadriculado #66, 1970; fig. 49). In this massive, volumi- en blanco y turquesa, 1965; 昀椀g. 47) even tend a bridge to nous work made with heavy fibers such as coarse wool optical (Op) art. and horsehair, the interlaced elements use frame braid - 44 De Amaral expanded her practice with off-loom ing on a large scale. constructions. Her first trenzado (braiding), based on In 1972, De Amaral devised her signature tile tapestries. the crisscrossing of vertical plain-weave bands, dates De昀椀ned by the artist as her “words,” the tiles are rectangu- to 1966. This technique gives the impression that it was lar woven units of linen and cotton sewed to an underlying 45 made with multiple bands woven independently, yet they strip. Alchemy 13 (Alquimia 13, 1984; 昀椀g. 50) shows the are in fact woven to a split warp, as in Wall Hanging 1 modular rigor of this technique, which recalls tile roofs or (Muro tejido 1, ca. 1969; fig. 48), a work whose intricate complex layered systems like a bird’s plumage. Its surface structure accentuates the sculptural interplay of depth shines with the iridescent effects of gold leaf, a material and shadow. Prefabricating some elements allowed her the artist started to use in 1973 with the purpose of turning 43 46 to enter a dialogue with the architectural space, as textiles into “golden surfaces of light.” Indeed, De Amaral Fig. 47. Olga de Amaral. Interlaced in White and Turquoise (Entrelazado en blanco y turquesa), 1965. Wool, 51 × 19 ⼀挀 in. (130 × 50 cm). Private collection 42
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Fig. 48. Fig. 49. Olga de Amaral. Wall Hanging 1 (Muro tejido 1), ca. 1969. Olga de Amaral. Woven Gridded Wall #66 (Muro tejido cuadriculado #66), Wool, 87 × 43 in. (221 × 109.2 cm). Museum of Arts and Design, 1970. Wool, horsehair, 119 × 70 × 20 in. (302.3 × 177.8 × 50.8 cm). Museum of New York, gift of the Dreyfus Foundation, through the American Arts and Design, New York, gift of the Dreyfus Foundation, through the Craft Council, 1989 (1989.1.2) American Craft Council, 1989 (1989.1.3) made her Alchemies (Alquimias) series “in homage to a Andean techniques and theorizing on the unparalleled pre-Columbian gold mantle I had the fortune of seeing potential of textiles to contribute to the modernization in Peru’s Gold Museum.” The artist visited Peru in 1969 of society, both by embracing industry and by providing and was overwhelmed by “the ancestral intelligence—the its antidote through the enhancement of textiles’ tac- unconscious high mathematics—present in everything tile qualities.50 Albers’s practice, teaching, and writings textile in ancient Andean culture. It was an awareness that acted together as a textile manifesto, catapulting her 47 seemed almost genetic,” she said. radical vision to the 昀椀ber artists of the 1960s and 1970s. “Going back to beginnings,” Anni Albers wrote in On Learning from her emphasis on the structural aspects Weaving, “is seeing ourselves mirrored in others’ work, not of weaving as well as from its materiality, Sheila Hicks, in the result but in the process.” This, to her, was learning: Lenore Tawney, and Olga de Amaral started their careers 48 “looking forward from a point way back in time.” The with works that expanded the language of abstraction beginning, for this group of groundbreaking weavers and through the experimentation with the grid, transparency, 昀椀ber artists of the mid-twentieth century, involved tak- multiple structures, and three-dimensional and modular ing “a long glance backward” to the ancient tradition of work in their weavings. Their innovations set the stage for the textile medium.49 the ubiquity of the art of threads today and will continue Albers acted as a historical bridge between the past and the present, studying ancient to inspire artists of the future. Fig. 50. Olga de Amaral. Alchemy 13 (Alquimia 13), 1984. Linen, rice paper, gesso, indigo red and gold leaf, 72 × 62 in. (182.9 × 157.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Olga and Jim de Amaral, 1987 (1987.387) 44
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Notes Embracing the Grid 13. Catherine J. Allen, The Hold Life Has: Coca and Abstraction and Andean Textiles, from Anni Albers Iria Candela and Joanne Pillsbury Cultural Identity in an Andean Community, 2nd ed. to the Fiber Arts Movement 1. César Paternosto, The Stone and the Thread: Andean (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002). Iria Candela Roots of Abstract Art, trans. Esther Allen (Austin: 14. Ann P. Rowe, Costumes and Featherwork of the Lords I thank the following people for sharing their knowledge University of Texas Press, 1996), p. 12. See also César of Chimor: Textiles from Peru’s North Coast, exh. cat. during the research for this essay: Diego Amaral, Elissa Paternosto, Abstraction: The Amerindian Paradigm, exh. (Washington, D.C.: Textile Museum, 1984), pp. 185–86. Auther, Emilia Cortés, Brenda Danilowitz, Christine cat. (Brussels: Société des Expositions du Palais des 15. Ann P. Rowe, “Technical Features of Inca Tapestry Giuntini, Sheila Hicks, Kristine Kamiya, Elena Kanagy-Loux, Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, 2001), esp. pp. 24, 52, 59, 111. Tunics,” Textile Museum Journal 17 (1978), pp. 5–28, Eva Labson, Kathleen Mangan, Karis Medina, César 2. Anni Albers, On Weaving (Middletown, Conn.: and “Provincial Inca Tunics of the South Coast of Peru,” Paternosto, Joanne Pillsbury, Amy Jean Porter, Abraham Wesleyan University Press, 1965), p. 68. Textile Museum Journal 31 (1992), pp. 5–52. Thomas, Cecilia de Torres, Cecilia Vicuña, Nicholas Fox 16. John H. Rowe, “Standardization in Inca Tapestry Weber, and Florica Zaharia. I remain thankful to Cecilia In昀椀nite Pattern: Weaving in the Ancient Andes Tunics,” in The Junius B. Bird Pre-Columbian Textile Weddell for her insightful editorial revisions to this essay. Joanne Pillsbury Conference, May 19th and 20th, 1973, eds. Ann P. Rowe, 1. Though Anni Albers wrote to René d’Harnoncourt, I thank Christine Giuntini for her insights on Andean Elizabeth P. Benson, and Anne-Louise Schaffer director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1945 weaving and helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this (Washington, D.C.: Textile Museum, 1979), pp. 239–64. asking him for funds to support “plans my husband and essay, and Anne Blood Mann for her elegant revisions. 17. Cobo, Inca Religion, pp. 239–40. I have had for years—that of going to Peru for several Additional thanks are owed to Edward S. Harwood, months of study,” the pair did not visit Peru until 1953, Natalia Majluf, Jeffrey Splitstoser, and Daniel Rifkin, and, 18. Mary Frame, “Chuquibamba: A Highland Textile Style,” when Josef was invited to teach at the Escuela Nacional most especially Iria Candela, for the stimulating conver- Textile Museum Journal 36–37 (1997–98), pp. 2–47, and de Ingenieros. I thank Paul Galloway for sharing Albers’s sations over the years about weaving and abstraction in Textiles Chuquibamba: 1000–1475 d.C. (Lima: Museo letter with me. Anni Albers, manuscript letter (1945), Anni ancient and modern times. de Arte de Lima, 1999), pp. 21–22. Albers correspondence 昀椀le, Architecture and Design 19. Laurie Adelson and Arthur Tracht, Aymara Weavings: Study Center, Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1. Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, The History of the Ceremonial Textiles of Colonial and 19th Century Bolivia 2. Brenda Danilowitz, “‘We are not alone’: Anni and Josef Incas, trans. and ed. Brian S. Bauer and Vania Smith (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Albers in Latin America,” in Anni and Josef Albers: Latin (manuscript, 1572; trans., Austin: University of Texas Press, Exhibition Service, 1983). Note that ethnographic textiles, American Journeys, eds. Brenda Danilowitz and Heinz 2007), p. 57. Khipu means “knot” in Quechua, the modern which fall beyond the scope of this essay, were not Liesbrock, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro descendant of the language of the Inca. For more on a major collecting area in many art museums until the de Arte Reina Sofía; Ost昀椀ldern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2007), khipus, see Written in Knots: Undeciphered Accounts 1970s, when, in the wake of artists such as Barnett p. 17, n. 1. of Andean Life, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Newman, the minimalist aesthetic of the cloths were Oaks Museum, 2019). reevaluated. Natalia Majluf, message to the author, 2022. 3. “The Pottery Workshop, however, was less than keen 2. Bernabe Cobo, Inca Religion and Customs, trans. to accept female students. . . . By 1922 the Bookbinding and ed. Roland Hamilton (manuscript, 1653; trans., 20. Beatrix Hoffman, “Wilhelm Gretzer and His Collection Workshop had been dissolved. This left only the Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), p. 117. of Peruvian Antiquities in the Ethnological Museum Weaving Workshop open to women.” Sigrid Wortmann in Berlin,” in PreColumbian Textiles in the Ethnological Weltge, Women’s Work: Textile Art from the Bauhaus 3. John V. Murra, “Cloth and Its Functions in the Museum in Berlin, eds. Lena Bjerregaard and Torben (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1993), p. 42. Inca State,” American Anthropologist 64, no. 4 Huss (Lincoln, Nebr.: Zea Books, an imprint of University 4. Anni Albers, On Weaving (Middletown, Conn.: (August 1962), p. 719. of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, 2017), pp. 9–14. Wesleyan University Press, 1965), p. 5. 4. Edward A. Jolie, Thomas F. Lynch, Phil R. Geib, 21. Wilhelm Reiss and Alphons Stübel, The Necropolis 5. Albers, On Weaving, p. 69. “Among high achievements and James M. Adovasio, “Cordage, Textiles, and the of Ancon in Peru: A Contribution to Our Knowledge of the in hand weaving, Coptic as well as early Peruvian weav- Late Pleistocene Peopling of the Andes,” Current Culture and Industries of the Empire of the Incas, trans. ing must be recognized, the latter surpassing perhaps Anthropology 52, no. 2 (April 2011), pp. 285–96. Augustus Henry Keane, 3 vols. (Berlin: A. Asher and Co.; in inventiveness of weave structure, formal treatment, 5. Nicola Sharratt, Carrying Coca: 1500 Years of Andean New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co., 1880–87). and use of color, other great textile periods.” Albers, On Chuspas (New York: Bard Graduate Center, 2014), 22. Alphons Stübel, letter (February 26, 1875), cited in Weaving, p. 21. pp. 13, 43. Uwe Carlson, “Reiss y Stübel en Ancón,” in El inicio 6. Virginia Gardner Troy, Anni Albers and Ancient 6. Wilhelm Worringer, Abstraction and Empathy: A de la arqueología cientí昀椀ca en el Perú: Reiss y Stübel American Textiles: From Bauhaus to Black Mountain Contribution to the Psychology of Style, trans. Michael en Ancón: Exposición de litogra昀椀as de 1875 publicadas (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2002). Bullock (Munich: R. Piper and Co., 1908; trans., London: en “The Necropolis of Ancon in Peru,” exh. cat. (Lima: 7. Between 1916 and 1919, Albers studied in Berlin with the Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953). Museo de Arte, 2000), p. 9. impressionist painter Martin Brandenburg; subsequently 7. Rebecca Stone, Art of the Andes: From Chavín to Inca, 23. Anni Albers, On Weaving (Middletown, Conn.: she attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg and 3rd ed. (London: Thames and Hudson, 2012), p. 155. Wesleyan University Press, 1965), p. 69. See also Virginia studied weaving for two months. “Chronology,” Josef and 8. Susan E. Bergh, “Tapestry-woven Tunics,” in Wari: Lords Gardner Troy, Anni Albers and Ancient American Anni Albers Foundation, accessed September 6, 2023, of the Ancient Andes, exh. cat. (Cleveland: Cleveland Textiles: From Bauhaus to Black Mountain (Burlington, https://www.albersfoundation.org/alberses/chronology. Museum of Art; New York: Thames and Hudson, 2012), Vt.: Ashgate, 2002). On textile study rooms, see Amelia 8. Albers, On Weaving, p. 19. pp. 158–91. Peck and Freyda Spira, “Art for All,” in Making the Met, 1870–2020, eds. Andrea Bayer with Laura D. Corey 9. Albers, On Weaving, p. 39. In her personal records, 9. George Kubler, The Art and Architecture of Ancient (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2020), Albers referred to some of her works with the term America: The Mexican, Maya, and Andean Peoples, pp. 50–69. Although The Met’s commitment to the “Wallhanging,” as Karis Medina, Associate Curator at 3rd ed. (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), pp. 429–30. collection of ancient American art waxed and waned the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, con昀椀rmed in 10. Heidi King, Peruvian Featherworks: Art of the over the course of its 154-year history, ancient Andean an email to the author, July 7, 2023. Precolumbian Era (New York: The Metropolitan Museum textiles were collected more or less continuously, even 10. Gardner Troy, Ancient American Textiles, p. 9. On the of Art, 2012), pp. 28–30. when Precolumbian works in other media were sent German manifestation of Morris’s applied arts reform, 11. Gottfried Semper, The Four Elements of Architecture across Central Park to the American Museum of Natural see pp. 6–9. and Other Writings, trans. Harry F. Mallgrave and History. See Joanne Pillsbury, “Aztecs in the Empire City: 11. Albers, On Weaving, p. 68. “[R]egardless of scale, Wolfgang Herrmann (Braunschweig: Vieweg Verlag, 1851; ‘The People without History’ in The Met,” Metropolitan small fragment or wall-size piece, a fabric can be great trans., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). Museum Journal 56 (2021), pp. 12–31. art if it retains directness of communication in its speci昀椀c 12. See, for example, an anonymous account written medium. This directness of communication presupposes about 1593–97, “Relación de las costumbres antiguas the closest interaction of medium and design.” de los naturales del Pirú,” in Crónicas peruanas de interés indígena, ed. Francisco Esteve Barba (Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1968), pp. 158–89. 46
12. Anni Albers, “A Structural Process in Weaving” (1952), 24. Maria Müller-Schareck, “The Language of Threads,” 40. See Nell Znamierowski, “Olga Amaral,” Craft Horizons in On Designing (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University in Anni Albers, p. 137. 27, no. 3 (May/June 1967), p. 29. Press, 1961), pp. 76–77. 25. See Paulina Brugnoli and Soledad Hoces de la 41. Anna Walker points to De Amaral’s participation in the 13. Anni Albers, “Weaving at the Bauhaus” (1939), in On Guardia, “Anni Albers and Her Great Teachers, the prestigious 1967 Lausanne International Tapestry Biennial Designing, pp. 38–39. Originally written in 1939, this essay Andean Weavers,” in Anni and Josef Albers: Latin to show her position as a leading representative of Latin was 昀椀rst published in Bauhaus 1919–1928, eds. Herbert American Journeys, p. 61. The authors, members of the America within the international 昀椀ber arts movement. Bayer, Walter Gropius, and Ise Gropius (New York: 昀椀rst generation of university-trained designers in Chile, Anna Walker, “Square Words and Gold Landscapes: Museum of Modern Art, 1948) and later revised for explain how their schooling was heavily in昀氀uenced by Building a Life in Textiles,” in Olga de Amaral: To Weave a inclusion in On Designing. the Bauhaus and its principles, as present in the course Rock, exh. cat. (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts; Stuttgart: 14. Leah Dickerman, “Bauhaus Fundaments,” in Bauhaus syllabi at the Design School at the Ponti昀椀cia Universidad Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2020), pp. 18–19. 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity, eds. Barry Bergdoll Católica de Chile during the 1950s and 1960s. In this 42. Galaor Carbonell, Olga de Amaral: Desarrollo del and Leah Dickerman, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of way, Latin America readopted its own concepts: the lenguaje (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 1979), Modern Art, 2009), p. 19. rich ancient Andean textile legacy in昀氀uenced early pp. 48–56. It is striking that Carbonell makes no reference 15. See Magdalena Droste, “The Bauhaus Workshops,” twentieth-century German artists, whose work traveled to the Andean textile tradition in his analysis of these in Anni Albers, eds. Ann Coxon, Briony Fer, and Maria to America, south and north, and returned the Andean colorful geometric pieces, and instead classi昀椀es them Müller-Schareck, exh. cat (London: Tate Publishing, 2018), legacy to its home continent. as not particularly innovative, mere copies of painting. pp. 53–54. 26. Elissa Auther, “Andean Weaving and the Appropriation 43. In these pieces, pre-woven bands or straps become 16. Albers, “Work with Material” (1937), in On Designing, of the Ancient Past in Modern Fiber Art,” bauhaus the threads of the warp, and the weft no longer comes p. 52. imaginista, no. 2 Learning From (June 8, 2018). I thank into use—or does only at select places—so the tapestry Elissa Auther for sharing a longer draft of this paper is constructed through braiding with occasional weaving. 17. Gardner Troy, Ancient American Textiles, p. 41. with me. With this process, De Amaral could renounce the vertical 18. Albers, “A Structural Process,” p. 68. Admiring 27. These exhibitions coincided with the early years of shape and predetermined size of the loom. the structural methods deployed by ancient Andean The Met’s own Textile Study Room, founded in 1910. See 44. In Muro tejido cuadriculado, loops encircle parallel textiles, Albers noted: “To name only some of the Amelia Peck and Freyda Spira, “Art for All,” in Making the rods at each end, and woven strips are worked in a weaving constructions, aside from single element Met, 1870–2020, eds. Andrea Bayer and Laura D. Corey, mirror-image progression of braiding, 昀椀nishing in a center techniques like knotting, looping, netting, and additive exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, line. The piece was included in De Amaral’s important techniques like embroidery and brocading: they knew 2020), pp. 55–56. 1970–71 solo show, Woven Walls, held at the Museum plain weave, rib weave, basket weave, and some other 28. Anni Albers, too, had taken a class in pre-Hispanic of Contemporary Crafts in New York. plain weave variations uniquely their own; there were art with George Kubler, in 1952; her research paper for twills, though only rarely encountered; they had warp 45. “Words” that she uses to create “landscapes of as well as weft brocades, damasks, crepes, and gauze the course, which also led her to engage Junius Bird surfaces, textures, emotions, memories, meanings, weaves of a fantastic variety judged by present day for advisement, proposed an analysis of the enigmatic and connections.” Olga de Amaral, The House of standards. They had tapestry techniques with more wide fabrics of the Early Nasca period and was later My Imagination: Lecture by Olga de Amaral at The modes of interlocking threads of adjacent form areas published as “A Structural Process in Weaving.” See Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 24, 2003 (Bogotá: and delineating these areas than found in any other Albers, “A Structural Process,” pp. 65–78. Zona Ltda., 2003), p. 7; ebook available at Olga de Amaral, culture, and, signi昀椀cantly, they had double, triple, 29. Sheila Hicks, in conversation with the author, https://www.olgadeamaral.art/publication quadruple, and tubular weaves.” July 2022. /2003-met-house-of-my-imagination/. 19. Albers, “A Structural Process,” pp. 69–70. And she 30. Hicks traveled from Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego, 46. De Amaral, The House, p. 7. continues: “In the usual process of weaving, mixtures of visiting Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico. 47. De Amaral, The House, p. 9. colors occur wherever warp and weft of different color She also passed through Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. 48. Albers, On Weaving, p. 52. cross each other. In multi-ply weaves, however, each Carolina Arévalo, “Essential Writing: Sheila Hicks and layer of cloth is woven with its own color, even when Pre-Hispanic Art,” in Sheila Hicks: Free Threads: Textile 49. Albers, On Weaving, p. 58. sections of different layers are interchanged. In a double and Its Pre-Hispanic Roots, 1954–2017, exh. cat. (Puebla: 50. See Albers’s revelatory essay “Tactile Sensibility,” in weave, for instance, a light colored top layer may have Museo Amparo, 2018), p. 106. On Weaving, pp. 62–65, in which she states that modern a dark 昀椀gure inserted in it by borrowing warp and weft 31. Cited in Nina Stritzler-Levine, introduction, in Sheila society has grown increasingly insensitive to tactility. threads from a dark colored second layer.” Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor, ed. Nina Stritzler-Levine 20. It represents the number of times the basic unit of (New York: Bard Graduate Center, 2006), p. 17. construction must be repeated to complete the structure 32. D’Harcourt, Textiles of Ancient Peru, p. 187, plate 1B. of the weave, allowing for the scheme of the design to Hicks likely consulted the French 昀椀rst edition. be replicated. 33. Arévalo, “Essential Writing,” p. 120. 21. Albers formed two major collections: The Harriet 34. Mona Schieren, “‘Every Moment Is a Moment of Engelhardt Memorial Collection of Textiles for Black Learning.’—Lenore Tawney. New Bauhaus and Amerindian Mountain College (created between 1947 and 1950) and Impulses,” bauhaus imaginista, no. 2 Learning From a personal collection she and Josef amassed of textiles, (November 14, 2018). objects, and miniature sculptures. Many of the textiles 35. For an account of Lenore Tawney’s diverse in昀氀uences, she collected would appear reproduced or cited in On see Schieren, “‘Every Moment.’” Weaving. Following the 1957 closure of Black Mountain College, the Engelhardt Collection was purchased by the 36. Auther, “Andean Weaving.” Yale University Art Gallery. See Jennifer Reynolds-Kaye, 37. Florica Zaharia, in conversation with the author, May 5, “Anni Albers as Collector,” in Anni Albers, p. 107. 2022. I thank Florica—who keeps Tawney’s loom!—for 22. Albers, On Weaving, p. 39. sharing her knowledge of Tawney’s life and work. 23. Raoul d’Harcourt, Textiles of Ancient Peru and 38. Tawney’s integration of beads and natural materials Their Techniques, eds. Grace G. Denny and Carolyn M. into her weaving allowed her to annex Andean weaving Osborne, trans. Sadie Brown (Seattle: University of and Native American aesthetics in her own work, linking Washington Press, 1962), originally published as Les it cross-culturally and trans-historically with indigenous textiles anciens du Pérou et leurs techniques (Paris: textile traditions. Auther, “Andean Weaving.” Editions d’art et d’histoire, 1934); Gardner Troy, Ancient 39. Albers, On Weaving, p. 190, plate 107. American Textiles, p. 169, n. 37. 47
Acknowledgments Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art endeavors to respect - Mark Polizzotti, Publisher and Editor in Chief copyright in a manner consistent with its nonpro昀椀t Many individuals assisted us with the study and presen tation of these remarkable, fragile textiles. For the ancient Peter Antony, Associate Publisher for Production educational mission. If you believe any material has works, we bene昀椀ted greatly from the expertise of Christine Michael Sittenfeld, Associate Publisher for Editorial been included in this publication improperly, please Giuntini, Conservator in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, contact the Publications and Editorial Department. and her colleague, Lauren Posada, Assistant Conservator. Editor of the Bulletin: Anne Blood Mann For the modern works, we are indebted to Kristine Kamiya, Manuscript edited by Anne Blood Mann and All rights reserved. No part of this publication may Conservator, Department of Textile Conservation, and our Cecilia Weddell be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any colleagues in the Antonio Ratti Textile Center: Eva Labson, Production by Christopher Zichello means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, General Manager and Head; Elena Kanagy-Loux, former Designed by Logan Myers, McCall Associates recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, Collection Specialist; and Eva Holiday DeAngelis-Glasser, Bibliographic editing by Alicia Badea without permission in writing from the publishers. Associate Administrator. Image acquisitions and permissions by Jenn Sherman In the Department of Modern and Contemporary Typeset in Basel Grotesk, Macan, and Macan Stencil The Metropolitan Museum of Art Art, we thank Catherine Burns, Collections Manager; Separations by Professional Graphics, Inc., 1000 Fifth Avenue Cynthia Iavarone, Senior Collections Manager; Alejandro Rockford, Illinois New York, New York 10028 Leal-Pulido, Collections Management Associate; and Katy Printed and bound by GHP Media, Inc., metmuseum.org Uravitch, Senior Manager, Administration, Operations, and West Haven, Connecticut Collection Management. In The Michael C. Rockefeller Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Wing, we are grateful to Arianna Martínez, former Lifchez/ Publication title: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin Stronach Curatorial Intern; Damien Marzocchi, Senior Publication number: 885-660 Departmental Technician; Matthew Noiseux, Senior Date of 昀椀ling: September 5, 2023 Administrator; David Rhoads, Senior Collections Manager; Issue frequency: Quarterly and Jackie Zanca, former Collections Specialist. Additional Front cover: Anni Albers, detail of Pasture, 1958 (昀椀g. 33). Number of issues published annually: Four thanks are owed to associate conservators Dawn Kriss Inside front cover: Inca artist, detail of tunic, 16th century Annual subscription price: $30.00, or free to and Teresa Jiménez Millas, along with Chelsea Garunay, (昀椀g. 21). Page 2: Olga de Amaral, detail of Alchemy 13 Museum Members Design Manager, Exhibition Design; Joachim Hackl, (Alquimia 13), 1984 (昀椀g. 50). Page 6: Chimú artist, detail of Complete mailing address of known of昀椀ce of publication: Exhibition Designer; Aislinn Hyde, Associate Registrar; hanging, 12th–15th century (昀椀g. 18). Page 26: Lenore Tawney, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028-0198 and Aileen Marcantonio, Exhibitions Project Manager. detail of Untitled, 1961 (昀椀g. 45). Inside back cover: Sheila Complete mailing address of headquarters or general A talented team produced this Bulletin: senior photo- Hicks, detail of Linen Lean-To, designed 1967–68, executed business of昀椀ce of publisher: 1000 Fifth Avenue, graphers Hyla Skopitz and Peter Zeray; Alicia Badea, 1985. Linen, 59 ⼀椀 × 82 ⼀最 × 6 in. (150.2 × 210.2 × 15.2 cm). New York, N.Y. 10028-0198 Bibliographer; Jenn Sherman, Image Acquisitions The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Full names and addresses of publisher, editor, and Specialist; Cecilia Weddell, Associate Editor; and Anonymous Gift, 1986 (1986.7). Back cover: Chimú artist, managing editor: Christopher Zichello, Senior Production Manager. Logan detail of loincloth, 12th–15th century (昀椀g. 17). Publisher: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Myers at McCall Associates designed this issue. We have Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028-0198 Editor: Anne Blood been fortunate to work with Anne Blood Mann, Senior Photographs of works in The Met collection are by Mann, Publications and Editorial Department, The Editor, to whom we express our enduring gratitude. Peter Zeray, Imaging Department, The Metropolitan Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Finally, our appreciation goes to The Modern Circle for Museum of Art, unless otherwise noted. Additional New York, N.Y. 10028-0198 photography credits: supporting this exhibition. The Met’s quarterly Bulletin © The Josef and Anni Albers Managing Editor: None program is made possible, in part, by the Lila Acheson Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Owner: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Wallace Fund for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023. Image: Albers Foundation/Art Resource, NY. Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028-0198 Known bondholders, established by the cofounder of Reader’s Digest. Photo by Tim Nighswander / Imaging4Art: 昀椀gs. 28, 31, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or 34; © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists holding one percent or more of the total amount of Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2023 © 2023 Artists bonds, mortgages, or other securities: None Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Tax status: The purpose, function, and nonpro昀椀t status This publication is issued in conjunction with the exhibi - Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Hyla of this organization and the exempt status for federal tion Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art, on Skopitz: 昀椀g. 29; © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation income tax purposes has not changed during the view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2023. Image preceding 12 months. March 4 through June 16, 2024. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Teri Aderman: 昀椀gs. 30, 35; © The Josef and Anni Albers Average no. copies each issue during preceding The exhibition is made possible by The Modern Circle. Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 12 months (Oct. 2022–Sept. 2023) / No. copies of single 2023. 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