Josef Albers

 

Josef Albers was born on the 19th of march 1888 and died on the 25th of march 1976, he was a German-born American artist and educator. His work in Europe and the United States was highly influential and far-reaching. His ideas formed the basis of many art education programs in the 20th century.

In 1963 he published Interaction of color which presented his theory that colors were governed by an internal and deceptive logic. A key idea, which he proved by examples, was that our perception of color is not constant. It is influenced by the juxtaposition (placing together) of one color with another. This interested artists interested in optical illusions.


Albers is best remembered for his work as an abstract painter and theorist. Most famous of all are the hundreds of paintings and prints that make up the series Homage to the squares. In this rigorous series, begun in 1949, Albers explored chromatic interactions with flat colored squares arranged inside each other. This was a union of geometric abstraction with experiments in color.


Albers’s important works include the glass pictures that he created in 1928 during his Bauhaus period, designs for furniture and everyday utility objects made of wood and glass, as well as his Structural Constellation series that was realized between 1950 and 1958. His artwork, which finished in the Homage to the Square series, has been distinguished with numerous awards.