Anti-Japanese prejudice survived the war, and prevented Asawa from securing the work experience she needed to complete a degree in teaching. Both mixed design, geometry and art in their teaching, and both became Asawa’s lifelong friends. Exhorting his students to explore ordinary materials such as paper, wire and string, Albers paired an aesthetic inclination with habits of thrift already deeply instilled in Asawa. Formal economy and practical frugality, shared hallmarks of many Depression-era Modernists, are also standard practice in vernacular craft traditions around the world. Asawa, shaped by both, made her second trip to Mexico during a summer break from Black Mountain, learning to weave wire baskets from local artisans.

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Persons: Josef Albers —, Buckminster Fuller, “, ”, Albers Organizations: Black Mountain College Locations: Mexico