Anni and Josef Albers

by Danilowitz, Brenda

• ISBN13: 9783775720571
• ISBN10: 377572057X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-01
• Publisher: Hatje Cantz Verlag Gmbh & Co Kg

Summary

Josef Albers (1888-1976) was a highly influential painter, color theorist and teacher--a monumental figure in international post-war art and aesthetics; his wife and artistic equal, Anni Albers (1899-1994), created important textile artworks as well as spare and abstract paintings and drawings. Together, their artistic roots can be traced to the time they shared at the Bauhaus in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s. After immigrating to the United States in 1933, the couple traveled regularly to Mexico and South America to study the art, architecture and textile designs of pre-Columbian cultures. Featuring previously unseen letters, manuscripts and photographs by the artists, as well as lush color plates of their artworks, this catalogue is the first to document the influence of Central and South America on the Albers' work. It also makes the case that their art, as we know it today, cannot be understood without acknowledging their pivotal encounters in Latin America, for Anni's weavings, drawings and painted studies demonstrate her deep knowledge of pre-Columbian textiles, and Josef's paintings and photographs testify to the development of his unique sense of color in Mexico, as well as the formation of his independent concepts of photography and Formalism. One particularly stunning chapter, "Hommage to the Pyramid" includes Josef Albers' photographic collages of South American Meso-American pyramids. The abstract, graphic quality of these images refers directly and surprisingly to both artists' paintings and textiles.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 11
Introduction	p. 15
"We are not alone." Anni and Josef Albers in Latin America	p. 17
Pre-Columbian Mexican Miniatures	p. 41
Anni Albers and Her Great Teachers, the Andean Weavers	p. 61
Josef Albers 1936-1946: A Decade of Abstract Painting	p. 93
Homage to the Pyramid: The Mesoamerican Photocollages of Josef Albers	p. 123
From Variants on a Theme to Homage to the Square: Josef Albers's Paintings 1947-1949	p. 143
On My Variants	p. 147
Anni Albers's Thank-You to Paul Klee	p. 159
Mapping the Preliminary Course: Josef Albers and Chile	p. 175
Statement on America Brick Mural at Harvard	p. 189
Josef and Anni Albers: The Meanings in Walls	p. 191
Towards an Ending: Anni and Josef Albers's Final Journey to Mexico	p. 201
A Chronology	p. 207
Selected Bibliography	p. 223
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