Anni Albers, one of the most well-known fiber artists of the 20th century, was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1899. Born Annelise Fleischmann, she was trained at the Bauhaus in Weimer and Dessau with the intention of becoming a painter. While studying at the Bauhaus, she met the painter Josef Albers, whom she married in 1924. Required to take a craft course, Albers found herself a “reluctant weaver” in a textile class. Skeptical of trading her brushes and palette for thread and a loom, she was ultimately won over by weaving and stayed at the Bauhaus as a weaving instructor after her graduation in 1930. Upon the close of the Bauhaus in 1933, Josef and Anni moved to the United States to take positions at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where they remained for 15 years. In 1949, they moved to New York. Soon after, Josef Albers accepted a position at Yale University, and the couple made their final move to New Haven, Connecticut. Anni Albers, known primarily for her abstract textile designs, was the first fiber artist to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Albers is still a great influence today, primarily due to her writings; her books On Design (1959) and On Weaving (1965) are considered “must reads” by students of design. Albers received the American Craft Council’s Gold Medal in 1981. She died in 1994.