Embossed Linear Constructions (ELC)
View Similar Items
Josef AlbersEmbossed Linear Constructions (ELC)1969
1969
About the Item
- Creator:Josef Albers (1888 - 1976, American, German)
- Creation Year:1969
- Dimensions:Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 26 in (66.04 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:Framed in plexiglass box Very good condition. Minor wear to plexiglass. Stamped with the Gemini G.E.L. blindstamps and inkstamp Signed, dated, and numbered by the artist.
- Gallery Location:Toronto, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 8-211stDibs: LU21528642002
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.
- Larry Zox "Teal Top" Drawing, 1966By Larry ZoxLocated in Toronto, OntarioLarry Zox (1937-2006) was a central figure in the evolution of 20th century abstraction in America. Raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Zox studied at the University of Oklahoma and went on to work under the tutelage of modernist Georg Grosz at the Des Moines Art Centre. Zox moved to New York City and established his reputation by the mid 1960's. His studio was located on 20th Street and he was surrounded and inspired by a melting pot of jazz artists, bikers, and boxers. Zox was one of the most successful practitioners of hard-edge or geometric abstraction and not surprisingly was championed by Frank Stella, amongst others. By the mid 1960's, Zox arrived at his most recognized style, utilizing hard-edge shapes in bold colors to create geometric patterns, which were often realized on raw canvas. Zox's hard-edge geometric creations from the late 1960's and early 1970's are arguably the most recognizable works from his oeuvre. Fittingly he had a retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1973, that focused on such work. Today, numerous museums including the Whitney, the MoMA, the Tate and the Metropolitan all have examples of his work from this era in their permanent collections. While Zox is not directly associated with the Op Art movement, many of his works by nature of their patterns and colors create visual illusions in dimensionality. In "Mosaic" the kelly green band that intersect the composition helps give the overall work an appearance of a slanted stair. Frequently the artist seems to be inviting the viewer to find pattern within the work. In "Mosaic" we have both areas of synergy and dissonance. Can you find them? Questions about this piece? Contact us! Teal Top...Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsMixed Media, Paper
- Larry Zox "Black Push" Drawing, 1965By Larry ZoxLocated in Toronto, OntarioLarry Zox (1937-2006) was a central figure in the evolution of 20th century abstraction in America. Raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Zox studied at the University of Oklahoma and went o...Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Mixed Media
$2,625 Sale Price25% Off - Larry Zox "Untitled (Push)" DrawingBy Larry ZoxLocated in Toronto, OntarioLarry Zox (1937-2006) was a central figure in the evolution of abstraction in American art of the 20th century. Raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Zox studied at the University of Okla...Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Color Pencil
- Larry Zox "Diamond Drill Series" DrawingBy Larry ZoxLocated in Toronto, OntarioLarry Zox (1937-2006) was a central figure in the evolution of abstraction in American art of the 20th century. Raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Zox studied at the University of Oklaho...Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Color Pencil
- Larry Zox "Minus" DrawingBy Larry ZoxLocated in Toronto, OntarioLarry Zox (1937-2006) was a central figure in the evolution of 20th century abstraction in America. Raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Zox studied at the University of Oklahoma and went o...Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Mixed Media
- Larry Zox "Mosaic" Drawing, 1966By Larry ZoxLocated in Toronto, OntarioLarry Zox (1937-2006) was a central figure in the evolution of 20th century abstraction in America. Raised in Des Moines, Iowa, Zox studied at the University of Oklahoma and went o...Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Mixed Media
- "Legato 2" - Chartreuse Abstract Geometric Screen PrintBy Michael HaleLocated in Soquel, CA"Legato 2", a geometric abstract screen print with chartreuse color field by Michael Hale (British, b. 1934). Presented in a black wooden framed. Signed "Hale" lower right. Titled "Legato 2" lower left. Image size, 26"H x 20"W. Mike Hale could perhaps be considered something of a 'lost' figure within this movement. He was, a pioneering screen-printer and worked as a master printing technician at Kelpra Studios for a time, before going on to teach at the Leicester Collete of Art where his meticulous approach influenced a new generation of artists working in the medium which, by the 60s had exploded in popularity. "Kelpra Studios: In 1957, commercial screen printer Chris Prater and his wife Rose set up their own business in a tiny space in Kentish Town: Kelpra Studios. Within the period of a decade they had introduced a mind-boggling array of Britain’s greatest artists to the medium of screen-printing. Like the Wizard of Oz orchestrating proceedings from behind his curtain, Prater collaborated with them all to the highest degree, succeeding - virtually single handedly as it is now recognized - in elevating the medium to an accepted art form within the eyes of even our most traditional institutions. Early converts...Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsInk, Paper
$1,000 Sale Price20% Off - "Tarantella" - Geometric Abstract Screen Print with Peach, Red, and BlackBy Michael HaleLocated in Soquel, CAA minimal geometric abstract screen print in peach, red and black by Michael Hale (British, b. 1934). Presented in a black wooden frame. Titled "Tarantella" and numbered "16/50" lowe...Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Ink, Screen
$1,000 Sale Price20% Off - In Between the shadowsLocated in London, GBIn Between the Shadows 3 Giclee Print on Hahnemuhle Pearl Fine Art Paper Print Size: 37x 30cm , Framed: 44 x 37 cm Edition of 7 + 2 AP, Currently available of the edition: 5-7 The series ‘In Between the Shadows’ consists of structural and geometric photographs that take their inspiration from the cubist movement. The works aim to challenge the conventional perception of depth within the medium of photography by showing different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space. The chiaroscuro lighting embraces shadows and light as juxta- positional tools to deconstruct familiar objects and transform them into surreal compositions. Sander Vos...Category
2010s Abstract Geometric Still-life Photography
MaterialsBlack and White, Photographic Paper, Color, Archival Pigment
- Abstract Geometric Screen Print -- "Construction Over Yellow Sky"By Margo HoffLocated in Soquel, CAWonderful geometric abstract screen print abstract in black, blue and yellow by Margo Hoff (American, 1912-2008), circa 1980. Titled "Construction Over Yellow Sky" lower left and signed lower right. Unframed. Presented on mat. Image size: 22"H x 30"W. Margo Hoff was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1912—the second oldest of eight children. Stricken with typhoid fever in 1923, she was bedridden for a summer and amused herself by drawing and making paper cutouts. Her formal studies began in high school and continued during two years at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa. In 1933 she moved to Chicago where she took classes at Hull House, the National Academy of Art and, later, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She remained in Chicago until 1960 and the city’s vibrant mid-century art scene profoundly shaped the first half of her artistic career. Hoff’s Chicago paintings were almost entirely figurative and evidence a classic mid-century modern urbanism informed by Matisse, the Mexican muralists, and other artists of the local milieu. Hoff traveled extensively throughout her life, in the United States, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. When asked about the influences on her work Hoff stated “Almost anything except the work of other artists.” She cited the sources of her inspiration in “rocks, weeds, views from airplanes, rivers, subways, forests, machines, kinds of lights, red...Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsInk, Laid Paper
$3,000 Sale Price20% Off - Teal and Purple Abstract Geometric Multi-Layer ScreenprintLocated in Soquel, CABold geometric screen print with purple and teal composition by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). Texture has been added with impressions in the upper right corner. Present...Category
Late 20th Century Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsPaper, Ink, Screen
$540 Sale Price20% Off - Jesús Rafael Soto ( 1923 – 2005 ) – Composition – hand-signed serigraphy – 1970By Jesús Rafael SotoLocated in Varese, ITcolor serigraphy on paper, edited in 1970 limited edition signed in pencil by artist and numbered as: 154/190 in lower right paper size: 60 x 60 cm very good conditions, with strong ...Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper, Screen