Triangulated Intaglios II, from the series "Triangulated Intaglios"

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Artist/Maker Anni Albers (American, born Germany, 1899 - 1994)

Date1976

MediumEtching and aquatint

DimensionsPlate: 12 15/16 × 11 7/8 in. (32.9 × 30.2 cm) Sheet: 24 1/16 × 20 1/8 in. (61.1 × 51.1 cm)

Credit LinePurchase

Object number1992.29

Not on view

DescriptionAnni Albers studied, and subsequently taught, at the world-renowned Bauhaus school founded in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. The school was avant-garde in its utopian endeavor to unify all the arts, in its melding of art and design, and in its celebration of technology and machine production. Albers began her Bauhaus career in textiles, designing numerous wall hangings and fabric patterns that were put into commercial production. Only late in life, in the early 1960s, did the artist begin creating prints; the “Triangulated Intaglios” series was her first venture into intaglio printmaking, in which ink is transferred to paper from depressions etched or engraved into a matrix, most frequently a copper plate. From the late 1960s onward, as Albers explored printmaking more deeply, she had become interested in diagonals, which are difficult to produce on a loom; in all six prints of “Triangulated Intaglios,” she used triangles as the basis of geometric exploration. Albers’s shift away from textiles was, in part, a reaction to the lack of respect they garnered in the field: she once remarked, “I find that when the work is made with threads, it’s considered a craft; when it’s on paper, it’s considered art.” Nonetheless, this print speaks to Albers’s interest in abstraction, repetition, and patterning—aspects that likely both drew her to and developed from weaving and textile work. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017) Black and white geometric design.

Collections

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 103, illus.);

2012-13
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Affinity Atlas," October 6, 2012 - April 7, 2013 (brochure);

1992
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Hightlights from the Hamilton College Collection," June 5 - September 6, 1992 (cat. no 160).

Provenance 1992: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by purchase from Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.

Markings Watermark: "ARCHES / FRANCE" at lower right [sideways].

Blind stamp: [Tyler Graphics logo] at lower right.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 228;

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE HAMILTON COLLEGE COLLECTION (exh. cat., Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, June 5- September 6, 1992, cat. no.160).

Signature Signed and dated "Anni Albers 1976" at lower right in pencil.

Inscribed "AP 9/9 - II" at lower left in pencil; "AAL - 48" on verso at lower right in pencil; "AA76 - 216" on verso at lower left in pencil.