Josef Albers

Michael Beggs

Josef Albers (1888-1976) was both a pioneer of abstract art and an enormously influential teacher and theorist of art pedagogy. In the work he made at the Bauhaus and--following his emigration from Germany to the U.S.--at Black Mountain College and Yale University, Albers strived for economy of line and clarity of articulation, and he developed his pedagogy along similarly rigorous lines. At Black Mountain College, Albers encountered the educational theories of the great American philosopher John Dewey, who emphasized the importance of context and experience in education, and whose famous statement on aesthetics, "Art as Experience," was published the year after Albers arrived in the U.S. In 1963, Albers published the profoundly influential book "Interaction of Color." Subsequently translated into 12 languages, it continues to be used in classrooms and studios worldwide. "Josef Albers: Art as Experience" looks at the relationship between Albers' pragmatic (and Pragmatist) teaching and his art, presenting previously unseen works by Albers' students from the Bauhaus and elsewhere, along with little-known studies and other art by Albers himself, and reveals the vibrancy and extraordinary impact of Josef Albers' groundbreaking pedagogical methods.

the teaching methods of a Bauhaus master

Art as experience

Donald Judd

Brenda Danilowitz

Jeannette Redensek

Anni Albers

Heinz Liesbrock

Ulrike Growe

"Only appearances are not deceiving."--Josef Albers Josef Albers (1888-1976) was one of the leading pioneers of 20th-century modernism: he was an extraordinary teacher, writer, painter, and color theorist, who is best known for the Homages to the Square (painted 1950-76) and The Interaction of Color, published by Yale University Press in 1963. This generously illustrated overview of Albers's work, accompanying the first major exhibition on the artist in more than thirty years, features all aspects of his long, creative career. Beginning with Albers's time at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, the publication follows the artist to America and describes major themes of his work there as well as the importance of his frequent travels to Mexico. Paintings, prints, furniture, household objects, works in glass, photographs, and pre-Columbian sculptures are beautifully reproduced and discussed by a team of experts. The juxtaposition of Renaissance sculptures and icons with paintings by Albers underlines the intellectual and spiritual dimensions of his art, and Albers's influence on 1960s Minimalist art is also explored. Including a comprehensive biography, the book convincingly demonstrates how this great artist transformed modern design by using line, color, surface, and space to challenge the perception of the viewer.

Interaction

Michael Beggs

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