Josef Albers

(1888 - 1976)

Albers wide-ranging work encompassed industrial and graphic design, furniture, typography, photography, printmaking, and poetry. His most significant achievements, however, were in abstract painting and theory.

Albers began serious experiment in the arts in 1920 as a student at the Bauhaus, where in 1925 he was the first student to be asked to join the faculty as a "Master." When the Bauhaus closed in under Nazi pressure in November 1933, Albers emigrated to the United States and developed the visual arts curriculum at the newly established Black Mountain College He continued to work in North Carolina, and eventually was granted US citizenship in 1939. In 1949 he left Black Mountain College to join the Yale University School of Art faculty as chairman of the Department of Design.

In 1963 Albers published his seminal work "Interaction of Color," which is still today a cornerstone text of color theory. During this same period he created the abstract album covers of band leader Enoch Light's Command LP records. He was the first living artist ever to be granted a solo retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1971. Albers died in 1976, as he continued his work on his other major contribution to the world of art and design, "Homages to the Square."

Learn More At ...

• Artcyclopedia: Josef Albers
• Guggenheim Museum: Josef Albers
• The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation
• Wikipedia: Josef Albers