Gallery representation made a major difference to both of the Alberses—both to their sense of being encouraged in their work, and to their financial well-being. Anni’s first association with a gallery was when she showed her and Alexander Reed’s jewelry—made from bobby pins, sink strainers, paper clips, washers, grommets, and chains they found in stationery and hardware stores—at the eponymous gallery owned by the intrepid Marion Willard on upper Madison Avenue. Almost all her gallerists were female: Virginia Zabriskie in New York and Denise René being the primary ones. When Josef was at Black Mountain, he had, in 1934, a show at the Gallerie de Milione in Milan—organized by Xanti Schawinsky—and then, from time to time, his work was shown at various pioneering New York galleries, among them Buchholz, Nierendorf, and Egan. The Homages were shown in Boston by Pace Gallery and in Paris by Denise René in the same years when Sidney Janis was showing them in New York. Following Josef’s death, the Albers Foundation worked with the Sidney Janis Gallery, the André Emmerich Gallery, Renato Danese, and the Waddington Galleries in London. Following the death of Leslie Waddington in 2015, the Foundation hired the David Zwirner Gallery.
Narratives
