Textile art represents one of the privileged fields of decorative expression. From ancient times and in the most diverse civilizations, through weaving and printing techniques, fabrics have been one of the most significant means in conveying the language of decoration, exporting generating principles and motifs in the so-called major arts and architecture. The geometries of regular repeating in the printed decorations that characterize the surfaces and the alternation of the weft and the warp can express, in fact, aesthetic and constructive values in which the analogies with the architectural vestments go beyond the purely ornamental aspects, arriving at share an authentic formal lexicon with these elements. It is not surprising that the same word ‘parament’ defines, on the one hand, the vestments and, on the other, a hanging or ornament of a room as the visible parts of wall structures. This is a profound semantic link between the two arts but above all between the structural warp, present both in the architectural construction than in the textile weaving, and decoration. In the Nineteenth Century it was Gottfried Semper, in his writing The Four Elements of Architecture, who considered the formal language of architecture as a direct derivation from that of weaving. Precisely the German architect and theorist considers the interlacing as the original principle of the wall which becomes an element of visible spatial delimitation and which reveals in itself the structural character of the ornament, whose expressive symbolism often becomes connatural with the tectonic framework. It is precisely on the Semperian interpretation that the work of the artist Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann (1899- 1994) –better known as Anni Albers– seems totake shape. She finds the crucial element of her modernist expressiveness in the logic of the weave and in the constructive grid of the textile surface. Although weaving had over the centuries covered every type of figuration and ornamentation, at the Bauhaus –where Anni Albers studied– weavers deliberately abandon figurative representation, focusing their attention on the weft, the structure of the yarn and the polychromy, while also considering the characteristics of the new materials. Studying the weaving of the past, from the pre-Columbian Andean one to the ancient Egyptian linens, to the vernacular and peasant expressions of the most remote regions of Europe, Albers defines new ways of thinking about textile decoration. She does not stop only to design the motifs that characterize the surface but she learns and teaches to think structurally. Through the work of Anni Albers, this article intends to rekindle interest in the decorative value of the textile warp. In the wonderful weaves, sometimes made with regular repetitions others with more conspicuous but no less rational tangles and knots, it is possible to consider ‘the thread’ as a bearer of meaning. Albers’ awareness of the strong semantic function of the warp accompanies us to the graphic reading of abstractions that are the trait d’union between the artistic theories of the time: a language made up of geometric and modular shapes organized through the laws of rotation, multiplication, division and based on the permutation of colors according to the principles of Klee’s theoretical lessons. The decoration and structure of a surface, the textile one, which Albers herself called The pliable plane or the folding plane, again recalling those links between textiles and architecture traced by Semper’s critical interpretation.
L’arte tessile rappresenta uno dei territori privilegiati dell’espressione decorativa. Dai tempi più remoti e nelle più diverse civiltà, attraverso le tecniche di intreccio e di stampa, i tessuti hanno costituito uno dei mezzi maggiormente significativi nel veicolare il linguaggio della decorazione, esportando principi generatori e motivi nelle arti cosiddette maggiori e nell’architettura. Le geometrie della ripetizione nei decori a stampa che caratterizzano le superfici e l’alternanza della trama e dell’ordito sono in grado di esprimere, infatti, valori estetici e costruttivi in cui le analogie con i paramenti architettonici superano gli aspetti puramente ornamentali, arrivando a condividere con tali elementi un vero e p roprio lessico formale. Non stupisce che la stessa parola ‘paramento’ definisca, da un lato, le vesti e, dall’altro, le parti visibili di strutture murarie, tracciando un profondo legame semantico tra le due arti ma soprattutto tra ordito strutturale, presente sia nella costruzione architettonica, che nell’intreccio tessile, e decorazione. Nel XIX secolo fu Gottfried Semper, nel suo scritto I quattro elementi dell’Architettura, a considerare il linguaggio formale dell’architettura quale derivazione diretta proprio da quello della tessitura. Ed è l’intreccio a essere letto, dall’architetto e teorico tedesco, quale principio originario, primordio della parete che si fa elemento di delimitazione spaziale visibile e che rivela in sé stessa il carattere strutturale dell’ornamento, il cui simbolismo espressivo è spesso connaturato con l’ossatura tettonica. Proprio sull’interpretazione semperiana sembra prendere corpo l’opera dell’artista Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann (1899-1994) – più nota come Anni Albers – che trova nella logica dell’intreccio e nella griglia costruttiva della superficie tessile l’elemento cruciale della sua espressività modernista. Sebbene la tessitura avesse nei secoli coperto ogni tipo di figurazione e ornamentazione, al Bauhaus – dove Anni Albers si forma – i tessitori abbandonano deliberatamente la rappresentazione figurativa, ponendo la loro attenzione sulla trama, sulla struttura del filato e sulla policromia, considerando al contempo anche le caratteristiche dei nuovi materiali. Studiando la tessitura del passato, da quella andina precolombiana, agli antichi lini egiziani, fino alle espressioni vernacolari e contadine delle regioni più remote dell’Europa, Albers definisce modalità inedite di pensare alla decorazione tessile. Non si sofferma infatti soltanto a progettare i motivi che caratterizzano la superficie ma impara e insegna a pensare strutturalmente. Attraverso l’opera di Anni Albers, il presente articolo intende riaccendere l’interesse sul valore decorativo dell’ordito tessile. Nei meravigliosi intrecci, a volte realizzati con ripetizioni regolari altre con grovigli e nodi più appariscenti ma non meno razionali, è possibile considerare ‘il filo’ come portatore di significato. La consapevolezza da parte di Albers della forte funzione semantica dell’ordito ci accompagna alla lettura grafica di astrazioni che sono il trait d’union tra le teorie artistiche dell’epoca: un linguaggio fatto di forme geometriche e modulari organizzate attraverso le leggi della rotazione, della moltiplicazione, della divisione e fondate sulla permutazione di colori secondo i principi delle lezioni teoriche di Klee. Decorazione e struttura quindi di una superfice, quella tessile, che Albers stessa chiamò The pliable plane ovvero il piano pieghevole, richiamando ancora quei legami tra tessile e architettura tracciati dall’interpretazione critica di Semper.
Linguaggio grafico e struttura decorativa nella produzione tessile modernista di Anni Albers
Stefano Chiarenza
2022-01-01
Abstract
Textile art represents one of the privileged fields of decorative expression. From ancient times and in the most diverse civilizations, through weaving and printing techniques, fabrics have been one of the most significant means in conveying the language of decoration, exporting generating principles and motifs in the so-called major arts and architecture. The geometries of regular repeating in the printed decorations that characterize the surfaces and the alternation of the weft and the warp can express, in fact, aesthetic and constructive values in which the analogies with the architectural vestments go beyond the purely ornamental aspects, arriving at share an authentic formal lexicon with these elements. It is not surprising that the same word ‘parament’ defines, on the one hand, the vestments and, on the other, a hanging or ornament of a room as the visible parts of wall structures. This is a profound semantic link between the two arts but above all between the structural warp, present both in the architectural construction than in the textile weaving, and decoration. In the Nineteenth Century it was Gottfried Semper, in his writing The Four Elements of Architecture, who considered the formal language of architecture as a direct derivation from that of weaving. Precisely the German architect and theorist considers the interlacing as the original principle of the wall which becomes an element of visible spatial delimitation and which reveals in itself the structural character of the ornament, whose expressive symbolism often becomes connatural with the tectonic framework. It is precisely on the Semperian interpretation that the work of the artist Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann (1899- 1994) –better known as Anni Albers– seems totake shape. She finds the crucial element of her modernist expressiveness in the logic of the weave and in the constructive grid of the textile surface. Although weaving had over the centuries covered every type of figuration and ornamentation, at the Bauhaus –where Anni Albers studied– weavers deliberately abandon figurative representation, focusing their attention on the weft, the structure of the yarn and the polychromy, while also considering the characteristics of the new materials. Studying the weaving of the past, from the pre-Columbian Andean one to the ancient Egyptian linens, to the vernacular and peasant expressions of the most remote regions of Europe, Albers defines new ways of thinking about textile decoration. She does not stop only to design the motifs that characterize the surface but she learns and teaches to think structurally. Through the work of Anni Albers, this article intends to rekindle interest in the decorative value of the textile warp. In the wonderful weaves, sometimes made with regular repetitions others with more conspicuous but no less rational tangles and knots, it is possible to consider ‘the thread’ as a bearer of meaning. Albers’ awareness of the strong semantic function of the warp accompanies us to the graphic reading of abstractions that are the trait d’union between the artistic theories of the time: a language made up of geometric and modular shapes organized through the laws of rotation, multiplication, division and based on the permutation of colors according to the principles of Klee’s theoretical lessons. The decoration and structure of a surface, the textile one, which Albers herself called The pliable plane or the folding plane, again recalling those links between textiles and architecture traced by Semper’s critical interpretation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.