Po II 1973

Anni Albers made this print, Po II, at some point, using printmaking techniques. What grabs me is the way she’s playing with pattern here. You can see the texture on the surface of the print. The gray background almost feels like it’s been brushed on, kind of layered, giving depth to the whole thing. Look at how each block is made up of these little lines. It’s not just flat color. It’s got this gritty, almost woven feeling. It's got texture and that's what’s great. It makes me think of the prints of someone like Dürer, with all those tiny lines creating value, but Albers is doing something different here. She's taking that idea of the handmade mark and putting it into this very structured, geometric pattern. It's like she is saying that even in something that looks so ordered, there's still room for the personal, the imperfect, the human. And that's what makes it so interesting to look at.