Josef AlbersBlue Reminding1966
1966
About the Item
- Creator:Josef Albers (1888 - 1976, American, German)
- Creation Year:1966
- Dimensions:Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)Width: 17 in (43.18 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2922804033
Josef Albers
The German-born American painter, writer, and educator Josef Albers was a pioneer of 20th century modernism, and an innovative practitioner of color theory. With his wife, the textile artist and printmaker Anni Albers (1899–1994), he shaped the development of a generation of American artists and designers through his teaching at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and later at Yale University School of Art, where he was the chairman of the department of design from 1950–1958. Albers is widely known for his series of prints and paintings "Homages to the Square," which he created between 1950 and 1975. His influential volume on color theory The Interaction of Color was published in 1963.
Albers was born in Bottrop, Germany, and as a young man he studied art education, earning certification from the Königliche Kunstschule in Berlin in 1915. He entered the legendary Bauhaus school in Weimar in 1920. The Bauhaus had been established by Walter Gropius in 1919, in the immediate aftermath of World War I, with the hope that its innovative curriculum would foster connections between architecture, art, and traditional crafts. In 1923 Albers began teaching the Vorkurs, the introductory class in which new students learned to work with each of the key artists’ materials, along with color theory, composition, construction and design.
Albers was a polymath, and the multidisciplinary environment of the Bauhaus was fertile ground for his artistic ambitions. When the school moved from Weimar to Dessau in 1925, he became a full professor, and in addition to glass and metal, he designed typefaces and furniture. While at the Bauhaus, Albers drew inspiration from the work of his colleagues, the color theorist Johannes Itten, and the painter, photographer, and designer László Moholy-Nagy, with whom he co-taught the Vorkurs.
In 1933, the Bauhaus was shut down due to pressure from the Nazi Party, which perceived the school as being sympathetic to communist intellectuals. As Albers’ wife Anni was Jewish, the couple resolved to leave Germany, and settled in rural North Carolina. The architect Philip Johnson helped make arrangements for Albers to join the faculty of Black Mountain College as the head of the painting program, where he remained until 1949. While at Black Mountain, both Josef and Anni Albers became influential mentors to American artists including Ruth Asawa, Cy Twombly, and Robert Rauschenberg, while working alongside fellow professors Buckminster Fuller, John Cage, Merce Cunningham and William de Kooning.
In 1950, Albers joined the faculty of the Yale University School of Art where he would head the newly established Department of Design until his retirement in 1958. In the 1950s, the Alberses began taking trips to Mexico, where the colors and forms of the local art and architecture inspired both artists.
In 1971, Albers became the first living artist whose work was the subject of a solo retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Though they worked in different mediums, Josef and Anni Albers’ work shares a fascination with color and geometry. Josef Albers’ compositions from the "Homages to the Square" series, such as Formulation: Articulation Portfolio II Folder 28 (B), from 1972, give deceptively simple shapes a novel vibrance as colors play off of one another. The hues in Articulation Portfolio II Folder 28 (B) work in concert to give the flat surface the distinct appearance of a tunnel or other three-dimensional space; while the form on the left appears to move towards the viewer, the form on the right seems to lead directly into the canvas. Similarly, Anni Albers’ designs for textiles use graphic design to lend a sense of dynamism to flat works. Her Study for Unexecuted Wall Hanging (Bauhaus), from 1984 is a Mondrian-like pattern for a weaving in which different colors alternately recede and advance into the foreground, giving the image a sense of complexity and uncanny depth.
Josef Albers also created works of public art, including a delicate, geometric gold leaf mural called Two Structural Constellations for the lobby of the Corning Glass building in New York City in 1959. He designed a work called Two Portals for the lobby of the Time & Life Building in 1961, in which which and brown bands move towards two square panels made of bronze. Walter Gropius invited Albers to create a piece for the Pan Am Building, which he was designing with the architectural firm of Emery Roth & Sons. Albers reworked an existing glass piece from his Bauhaus days called City, and, fittingly, renamed it Manhattan.
Find a collection of authentic Josef Albers art on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: New York, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Exhibion Poster Galerie Beyeler, Basel 2/84-4/84By Robert RauschenbergLocated in New York, NYRauschenberg, Robert. Poster Galerie Beyeler, Basel 2/84-4/84 screenprint in colors, 1984, on wove paper, from an unknown edition size, published by ...Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Um 1930 in ZurichBy Max BillLocated in New York, NYBill, Max. Um 1930 in Zurich, 1977 Offset, 50 1/4 x 35 1/4". Max Bill was an important Swiss artist, designer and architect whose work drew inspiration from Bauhaus, De Stijl, an...Category
1970s Post-Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Exposition Swatch , La Collection Blum 1994By Niklaus TroxlerLocated in New York, NYExposition Swatch , La Collection Blum 1994 Troxker's posters are represented in the most renowned design collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City...Category
1990s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Book/objectBy Lucas SamarasLocated in New York, NYSAMARAS, Lucas. Book, New York: Pace Editions, 1968. Unusual book/object of 11 color silkscreens with offset, embossing, thermography, die-cut and collage mounted on masonite. Each page measuring 10 x 10 3/16" Copy 46 of a total edition of 100. Numbered and initialled by the artist on the cover. Interesting comment on the traditional book. Samaras plays on the most sculptural books of all - chilren's pop-up books...Category
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- TimeBy John Crash MatosLocated in New York, NYSigned J. Crash Matos, numbered in pencil 38/100 . Serigraph on paper CRASH (American, b.1961) John Matos is a Graffiti artist best known for his three-dimensional representation of lettering. Born John Matos in the Bronx, NY, he began spray painting on subway trains in his early teens, working alongside other pioneering American Graffiti artists, such as Dondi White...Category
1990s Pop Art Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Exhibition Poster for Metaphysique de vide - Michel WaldbergBy Sam FrancisLocated in New York, NYFrancis, Sam. Exhibition Poster for Metaphysique de vide- Michael Waldberg Ca 1980. Serigraph, Painter and printmaker who was prominent among the group of painters known as the ...Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Minneapolis Stay Up (Blue)By Shepard FaireyLocated in Toronto, CAThis stunning piece features everything Shepard Fairy is known for with hidden elements of his "Obey" band and the infamous "Andrea the Giant" image this piece is a great starter pie...Category
Early 2000s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- "Sacrifice Economy" Silkscreen 39" x 27.5" inch by Patricio GonzalezBy Patricio GonzalezLocated in Culver City, CA"Sacrifice Economy" Silkscreen 39" x 27.5" inch by Patricio Gonzalez Silkscreen Not framed From "Looking for Happiness" series LOOKING FOR HAPPI...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Anthony Velonis, Exhibit, Small SculptureBy Anthony VelonisLocated in New York, NYAnthony Velonis (1911-1997) was an extremely innovative artist. He learned the technique of screen printing, also known as silkscreen, (for which he also coined the term serigraphy) while working with a wall paper manufacturer. Unusual for fine prints, the image is made by the artist in the same direction as it will print, as the colored inks are forced through fabric (silk) directly onto a paper surface. (He also invented a machine that could print onto column-shaped items such as cocktail glasses or make-up bottles and a rack system for drying sheets of paper with wet ink in which the sheets are just inches apart.) The technique allows extreme versatility on the part of the artist and the ink tends to sit on top of the paper rather than soak into the fibers. In 1934 Velonis used this new technique on Mayor LaGuardia's NYC Poster...Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen
- Mother and ChildBy Romare BeardenLocated in New York, NYA very good impression of this color screenprint. Signed and numbered 200/15 in pencil by Bearden. Catalogue reference: Gelburd/Rosenberg GG#59Category
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsColor, Screen
- "Indianapolis Museum of Art Inaugural Exhibitions", Color Silkscreen, SignedBy Robert IndianaLocated in Detroit, MI"Indianapolis Museum of Art Inaugural Exhibitions", 25 October 1970, is an eye popping large bold colorful geometric abstract silk screen. It is signed on the lower right. Robert Indiana, one of the preeminent figures in American art since the 1960s, played a central role in the development of assemblage art, hard-edge painting, Pop art, Neo-Dada, American Modernism and Modern Art. A self-proclaimed “American painter of signs,” Indiana created a highly original body of work that explores American identity, personal history, and the power of abstraction and language, establishing an important legacy that resonates in the work of many contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Roy Lectenstein, David Hockney, Romero Britto, Richard Hamilton and Robert Rauschenberg who make the written word a central element of their oeuvre. Robert Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana on September 13, 1928. Adopted as an infant, he spent his childhood moving frequently throughout his namesake state. At 14 he moved to Indianapolis in order to attend Arsenal Technical High School, known for its strong arts curriculum. After graduating he spent three years in the U.S. Air Force and then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine, and the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. In 1956, two years after moving to New York, Indiana met Ellsworth Kelly, and upon his recommendation took up residence in Coenties Slip, where a community of artists that would come to include Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, and Jack Youngerman had studios. Indiana, like some of his fellow artists, scavenged the area’s abandoned warehouses for materials, creating sculptural assemblages from old wooden beams, rusted metal wheels, and other remnants of the shipping trade that had thrived in Coenties Slip. The discovery of 19th century brass stencils led to the incorporation of brightly colored numbers and short emotionally charged words onto these sculptures as well as canvases, and became the basis of his new painterly vocabulary. Although acknowledged as a leader of Pop, Indiana distinguished himself from his Pop peers by addressing important social and political issues and incorporating profound historical and literary references into his works. In 1964 Indiana accepted Philip Johnson’s invitation to design a new work for the New York State Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, creating a 20-foot EAT sign...Category
1970s American Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Ink, Screen
- Composition avec formes jaune et rouge (Composition with yellow and red shapes)By Fernand LégerLocated in Palo Alto, CAUtilizing a bold color palette of red, black, yellow, and blue-grey, Leger creates an abstract work in which shapes and forms appear to drift in space. The large, red central image h...Category
1950s Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsScreen