Albers, Josef [key], 1888–1976, German-American painter, printmaker, designer, and teacher, b. Bottrop, Germany. After working at the Bauhaus (1920–33), Albers and his wife, the textile designer and weaver Anni Albers, emigrated to the United States when Hitler came to power. Albers taught throughout the Americas and Europe, headed the art department (1933–49) and was rector (1941–49) at Black Mountain College, and was director of the Yale School of Art (1950–58), where he was responsible for major innovations in art education. An extremely versatile artist, he is best known for his Homage to the Square, a series of paintings and prints begun in 1949. These serene works, quasiconcentric squares of subtly related colors, form an extensive examination of color properties.
See his Interaction of Color (1963); studies by E. Gomringer (1968) and W. Spies (1971).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: American and Canadian Art: Biographies
