|
|
Josef
Albers/Works and
biography
Variant
"Orange Front”
1948-58 |
Homage to the Square RIII a-1
1970 |
|
|
|
Josef Albers was born March 19, 1888, in Bottrop, Germany.
From 1905 to 1908, he studied to become a teacher in
Büren and then taught in Westphalian primary schools
from 1908 to 1913. After attending the Königliche
Kunstschule in Berlin from 1913 to 1915, he was certified
as an art teacher. Albers studied lithography in Essen
and attended the Academy in Munich before entering the
Bauhaus in Weimar in 1920. There, he initially concentrated
on glass painting and in 1922, as a Bauhausgeselle (journeyman),
he was in charge of the Bauhaus glass workshop. In 1923,
he began to teach the Vorkurs, a basic design course.
When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, he became
Bauhausmeister (professor). In addition to working in
glass and metal, he designed furniture and typography.
After the Bauhaus was forced to close in 1933, Albers
emigrated to the United States. That same year, he became
head of the art department at the Black Mountain College,
near Asheville, North Carolina, where he continued to
teach until 1949. In 1935, he took the first of many
trips to Mexico, and in 1936 was given his first solo
show in New York at J. B. Neumann’s New Art Circle.
He became a United States citizen in 1939. In 1949,
Albers began his first studies, in black and white,
for the famous Homage to the Square series.
He lectured and taught at various colleges and universities
throughout the United States and from 1950 to 1958 served
as head of the design department at Yale University,
New Haven. In addition to painting, printmaking, and
executing murals and architectural commissions, Albers
published poetry, articles, and books on art. Thus,
as a theoretician and teacher, he was an important influence
on generations of young artists. A major Albers exhibition,
organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, traveled
in South America, Mexico, and the United States from
1965 to 1967, and a retrospective of his work was held
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1971.
Albers lived and worked in New Haven, Connecticut, until
his death there on March 25, 1976.
|
|
|
