Josef Albers

Infobox Artist
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name = Josef Albers


imagesize = 250px
caption = "Homage to the Square," 1965
birthname =
birthdate = birth date |1888|3|19
location = Bottrop, Westphalia Germany
deathdate = death date and age |1976|3|25|1888|3|19
deathplace =
nationality = American, german
field = Abstract Painting, Study of Color
training =
movement = Geometric abstraction
works =
patrons =
influenced by =
influenced =
awards =

Josef Albers (March 19 1888 – March 25 1976 [ Citation | title = Josef Albers, Artist and Teacher, Dies | newspaper = New York Times | pages = 33 | date = 26 March 1976 | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00816FD3558167493C4AB1788D85F428785F9 | accessdate = 2008-03-21 ] ) was a German artist, mathematician 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.

Life

Albers was born in Lawrence. He participated in the summer stealing that happened in winslow.

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 Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Ray Johnson and Susan Weil. Weil remarked that as a teacher, Albers was "his own academy" and said that Albers claimed that "when you’re in school, you’re not an artist, you’re a student", though he was very supportive of expressing one's self and his or her own style when one became an artist and began his or her journey. [citation | title= Susan Weil | author=Robert Ayers | publisher=ARTINFO | year=2006 | date= March 29, 2006 | url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/16817/susan-weil/ | accessdate=2008-04-22 ] 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 1962, as a fellow at Yale, he received a grant from the Graham Foundation for an exhibit and lecture on his work. At Yale, Richard Anuszkiewicz and Eva Hesse were notable students. Albers also collaborated with Yale professor and architect King-lui Wu in creating decorative designs for some of Wu's projects. Among these were distinctive geometric fireplaces for the Rouse (1954) and DuPont (1959) houses, the façade of Manuscript Society, one of Yale's secret senior groups (1962), and a design for the Mt. Bethel Baptist Church (1973). 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 in 1976.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 hundreds 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.

In 1971 (nearly five years before his death), Albers founded the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation [ [http://www.albersfoundation.org/Home.php | The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation website] ] , a not-for-profit organization he hoped would further "the revelation and evocation of vision through art." Today, this organization not only serves as the office Estate of both Josef Albers and his wife Anni Albers, but also supports exhibitions and publications focused on Albers works. The official Foundation building is located in Bethany, Connecticut and "includes a central research and archival storage center to accommodate the Foundation's art collections, library and archives, and offices, as well as residence studios for visiting artists." [ [http://www.albersfoundation.org/Foundation.php?inc=Mission |The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation: Mission Statement] The U.S. copyright representative for the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation is the Artists Rights Society [ [http://arsny.com/requested.html | Most frequently requested artists list of the Artists Rights Society] ] .

tyle

Albers' work represents a transition between traditional European art and the new American art.Piper, David. "The Illustrated History of Art", ISBN 0753701790, p469.] His work incorporated European influences from the constructivists and the Bauhaus movement, and its intensity and smallness of scale were typically European. However, his influence fell heavily on American artists of the late 1950s and the 1960s. "Hard-edge" abstract painters drew on his use of patterns and intense colors, [Piper, David. "The Illustrated History of Art", ISBN 0753701790, p470.] while Op artists and conceptual artists further explored his interest in perception.

ee also

* Architype Albers (typeface based on Albers 1927–1931 experimentation with geometrically constructed stencil type)
* Bauhaus
* Richard Anuszkiewicz (American painter of the Op-Art movement, noted student of Albers)
* Norman Carlberg (sculptor, noted student of Albers)
* Erwin Hauer (sculptor, noted student of Albers)
* Harry Seidler (architect, noted student of Albers)
* Eva Hesse (sculptor, noted student of Albers)
* Julian Stanczak (painter, noted student of Albers)

References

Further reading

*cite book
last = Albers
first = Josef
title = Interaction of Color
publisher = Yale University Press
location = New Haven
date = 1975
doi =
isbn = 9780300115956

*cite book
last = Bucher
first = François
title = Josef Albers: Despite Straight Lines: An Analysis of His Graphic Constructions
publisher = MIT Press
location = Cambridge, MA
date = 1977
doi =
isbn =

*cite book
last = Danilowitz | first = Brenda
coauthors = Fred Horowitz
title = Josef Albers: to Open Eyes : The Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and Yale
publisher = Phaidon Press
date = 2006
doi =
isbn = 9780714845999

*cite book
last = Weber | first = Nicholas Fox
coauthors = Fred Licht
title = Josef Albers: A Retrospective (exh. cat.).
publisher = Guggenheim Museum Publications
location = New York
date = 1988
doi =
isbn = 9780810918764

*cite book
last = Weber | first = Nicholas Fox
coauthors = Fred Licht, Brenda Danilowitz
title = Josef Albers: Glass, Color, and Light (exh. cat., Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice)
publisher = Guggenheim Museum Publications
location = New York
date = 1994
doi =
isbn = 9780810968646

*cite book
last = Wurmfeld | first = Sanford
coauthors = Neil K. Rector, Floyd Ratliff
title = Color Function Painting: The Art of Josef Albers, Julian Stanczak and Richard Anuszkiewicz
publisher = Contemporary Collections
location =
date = August 1, 1996
doi =
isbn = 9780972095600

External links

* [http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_1_0.html Josef Albers] Guggenheim Museum
* [http://www.albersfoundation.org The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation]
* [http://tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/albersmoholy Tate Modern Exhibition, London 2006]
* [http://www.cooperhewitt.org/exhibitions/albers/index.asp Cooper Hewitt Museum Exhibition, 2004]
* [http://www.arsny.com Artists Rights Society, Albers's U.S. Copyright Representatives]

Persondata
NAME=Albers, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Albers, Joseph
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Bauhaus artist and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH=March 19, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH=Bottrop, Westphalia, Germany
DATE OF DEATH=March 26, 1976
PLACE OF DEATH=New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America