Josef Albers

Josef Albers (1888 - 1976), was a German artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century.

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Born in Bottrop, Westphalia, on March 19, 1888, Albers studied art in Berlin, Essen, and Munich before enrolling as a student at the prestigious Weimar Bauhaus in 1920. He began teaching in the preliminary course of the Department of Design in 1922, and was promoted to Professor in 1925, the year the Bauhaus moved to Dessau.

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With the closure of the Bauhaus under Nazi pressure in 1933, Albers emigrated to the United States and joined the faculty of Black Mountain College, North Carolina, where he ran the painting program until 1949. At Black Mountain his students included Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Motherwell. In 1950 Albers left Black Mountain to head the Department of Design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut until he retired from teaching in 1958. In 1963 he published "Interaction of Color" which presented his theory that colors were governed by an internal and deceptive logic. Also during this time, he created the abstract album covers of band leader Enoch Light's Command LP records. Albers continued to paint and write, staying in New Haven with his wife, textile artist Anni Albers, until his death on March 26, 1976.

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Accomplished as a designer, photographer, typographer, printmaker and poet, Albers is best remembered for his work as an abstract painter and theorist. He favored a very disciplined approach to composition. Most famous of all are the dozens of paintings and prints that make up the series "Homage to the Square." In this rigorous series, begun in 1949, Albers explored chromatic interactions with flat colored squares arranged concentrically on the canvas.

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Albers' theories on art and education were formative for the next generation of artists. His own paintings form the foundation of both hard-edge abstraction and Op art.

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1888: 1888 is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). In Germany, 1888 is known as the 1888 Year of Three Emperors....

1976: 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar)....

20th century: The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar. Common usage sometimes regards it as lasting from 1900 to 1999, but this is often considered incorrect due to the nonexistence of a "Year Zero" before AD 1. The 20th century is also sometimes known as the nineteen hundreds (1900s)...

Josef Albers related Images and Photos (experimental)

Beach - Josef Sohn	Albers a Belgian Actor in the Role of Hamlet	The San Josef off the Southwest Coast	Felix Josef Mottl Austrian Composer and Conductor
Emperor Josef II Holy Roman Emperor King of Germany Son of Maria Theresia	Josef Von Fraunhofer Demonstrates His Spectrometer at Munchen 1814	Felix Josef Mottl Austrian Composer and Conductor with Colleagues Richter and Levi	Horatio Nelson Boarding the San Josef 1797 Engraved: John Crew After Original: Greenwich Hospital
Budapest String Quartet with Josef Roismann Edgar Ortenberg Mischa Schneider and Borist Kroyt