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L. Papers

THE JOSEF ALBERS FOUNDATION, INC.
808 Birchwood Drive
Orange, Connecticut 06477

Tel (203)795-5525
Fax (203)799-8389

May 17, 1994

Mr. Jack Lenor Larsen
34 East 10th Street
New York, NY 10003

Dear Jack:

The magnificent white orchid--entirely appropriate in its extraordinary nature and elegance--arrived at our house just when everyone was gathered there for lunch following Anni's funeral. It made a very nice addition to the event.

The funeral itself, I feel, was very much to Anni's taste. We were blessed with a wonderfully warm and sunny day, and about 30 of her relatives and friends and associates were gathered at her house before proceeding to the cemetery site that she and Josef picked when they moved to Orange. Anni and I had worked together on the very simple design of the grey granite gravestones a number of years ago, so all of the esthetics were as she had planned. There was no religious aspect, and I conducted a rather informal service. This gave me a chance to reminisce about various aspects of Anni's life--I tried, among other things, to capture some of her extraordinary wit--and then Kelly Feeney, who works here at the Foundation, read a marvelous excerpt from one of the essays in On Designing. This was followed by five different people (among them my two daughters aged 10 and 12) reading from some extraordinary letters that Anni wrote to Josef when he was teaching in Ulm at the end of 1953 and the start of 1954. I think that her own words did much to evoke both her sense of detail and her truly passionate nature. At the end of the last letter, in which Anni urges Josef to have a good rest on the trip home on the boat, we had the casket lowered.

Many thanks for your letter and for the copy of "A Valentine for Anni Albers" as well as for your text on interlacing. I look forward to hearing from you when you have the samples ready for me to see the new carpets.

My best,
Nick

Nicholas Fox Weber
Executive Director

NFW/pf