Franziska Mayer

Franziska Mayer taught weaving at Black Mountain College from the summer of 1946 through the summer of 1947 when Anni Albers was on sabbatical. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Mayer was the niece of Max Wilhelm Dehn, who taught mathematics at the college.

In 1934, after the rise of Fascism in Germany, she fled to Stockholm where she studied weaving at Johanna Brunson’s Weaving School and received her teacher’s diploma.

In 1938, she became weaving instructor and designer for the Industrial Department of the International Grenfell Association in Labrador. She was an occupational therapist during the war and assistant director for the Grenfell Orphanage.

In 1945 she arrived in the United States and worked in workshops in New York. After she left Black Mountain, she visited Peru with a Martha Hult (Leiken), a former Black Mountain student.

From 1954 through 1978, she ran a gallery and gift shop in Huancayo, Peru, which employed local weavers who made utilitarian objects and wall hangings incorporating traditional Peruvian motifs.

In 1978, the workshop was taken over by a development market which continued to run it as a cooperative marketing organization

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Relationships

Uncle: Fellow BMC faculty, Max Dehn