JOSEF ALBERS

Early Years

Josef Albers was born in March 1888 in Bottrop in the Ruhr Valley, Germany. His father was a general contractor, and trained his son in carpentry, plumbing, house-painting and other skills. Albers became a teacher, before specialising in art education (as a teacher, he was exempt from fighting in the First World War). With the support of the local teaching system, he enrolled at the Weimar Bauhaus in 1920 on the assumption that he would return to Bottrop after a year. However, he became fascinated by making assemblages from old bottles (for example, 1921’s Gitterbild) and didn’t want to go home. Besides, in 1922, Annelise Fleischmann arrived at the Bauhaus. The school’s masters admired Albers’ work and he became a professor in 1925—the same year he married Anni. The couple taught at the Bauhaus when it moved to Dessau and then to Berlin in 1932. In 1933 the faculty voted to close the school rather than comply with the Third Reich. The American architect Philip Johnson helped the couple move to the USA in 1933—Albers got a job at Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

Josef Albers: Artworks

Solid colours, abstracted forms and the juxtaposition of shades and tones characterised Josef Albers’ paintings. His geometric forms and exploration of colour conveyed seasons, emotions, times and seasons, while the shapes themselves appeared to jump out of the picture plane, or recede into it.

• Josef and Anni Albers visited Mexico and other Latin American countries several times between 1935 and the late 1960s. Each time they visited, Josef took black-and-white photographs of monuments and archaeological sites. He created photocollages from these images by arranging prints and postcards in a grid formation—one example is Monte Albán (1956).
• Albers began his Homage to the Square series in 1949—he eventually made thousands of the oil paintings, each one an exercise in the optical and psychological consequences of the interrelationship of colour.
• Published in 1972, Formulation: Articulation is a two-part portfolio containing 127 screenprints, divided into folders. Albers spent two years collating and making the work, which brings together the concepts he explored during his career.

Josef Albers: Select Public Commissions

• Two Structural Constellations, Corning Glass Building, New York City (1959)
• Two Portals, Time and Life Building, New York City (1961)
• Manhattan, Pan Am Building, New York City (1963) (removed around 2000, replicated and reinstalled 2019—the building is now the MetLife)
• Loggia Wall (1965) and Growth (1967), Rochester Institute of Technology
• Gemini, Grand Avenue National Bank, Kansas City (1972)
• Wrestling, Mutual Life Centre, Sydney (1976)

Josef Albers: Select Posthumous Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Josef Albers: Meditations, Villa Panza, Varese (2026)
• Josef Albers: Duets, David Zwirner, Paris (2026)
• Anni and Josef Albers, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2024)
• Josef Albers: Pedagogical Experiments, Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, Sakura (2023)
• Josef Albers: Colours in Play, Galerie Ludorff, Dusseldörf (2022)
• Anni and Josef Albers: Art and Life, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2021) (and touring)
• Josef Albers: Interaction of Colour, Kontemporary 1, Seoul (2019)
• Josef Albers: Grey Steps, Grey Scales, Grey Ladders, David Zwirner, New York City (2016)
• Josef Albers: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Galerie Berinson, Berlin (2012)
• Josef Albers: Colour Genius, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota (2008) (and touring)
• Josef Albers: Pinturas 1957–1969, Galería Elvira González, Madrid (2004)
• Josef Albers in Black and White, Boston University Art Gallery (2000)
• Josef Albers: Homage to the Square, Galerie Denise René, Paris (1997)
• Josef Albers, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre, London (1994) (and touring)
• Josef Albers: Works on Paper, Art Services International, Alexandria (1991) (and touring)
• The Photographs of Josef Albers: A Selection from the Collection of the Josef Albers Foundation, American Federation of Arts, New York City (1987) (and touring)
• Josef Albers: Homage to the Square. Works from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Galerie Esperanza, Montreal (1985)
• Josef Albers: Graphics and Paintings, Goethe House, New York City (1983)
• Josef Albers Showcase Exhibition, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield (1979)

Select Group Exhibitions

• Set in Stone, David Zwirner, New York City (2026)
• I Am a Citizen of the World, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Centre (2021)
• From the Collection: 1960–1969, MoMA, New York City (2016)
• Proof: The Rise of Printmaking in Southern California, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (2011)
• The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2006) (toured for seven years)
• Prints by Painters: American Abstractions, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle (2001)
• From Impressionism to Abstract Impressionism, Dana Art Centre, Seoul (1996)
• Who Framed Modern Art or The Quantitative Life of Roger Rabbit, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York City (1991)
• L’Art et La Couleur, Musée des Arts-Cholet, Cholet (1986)
• Contemporary American Prints and Drawings, 1940–1980, National Gallery of Art, 2 Washington DC (1981)
• America America, Galerie Beyeler, Basel (1976)

Further Reading

• The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
• Albers Foundation Instagram
• The 60th anniversary of Interaction of Colour from Yale News

Josef Albers FAQs

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