Josef Albers

By Josef AlbersForeword by Nicholas Fox Weber"The magnificent presentation of this edition will continue to make this book indispensable to the next generation of art students and teachers alike."—Douglas F. Smith, Berkeley Public Library, Library Journal"Josef Albers' Interaction of Color stands alone among color theory books: a classic that never fails to surprise with its continued relevance."—ImprintOne of the most influential books on color ever published, Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color is a masterwork. Originally issued in 1963 as a limited-edition set of commentary and 150 silk-screened color plates, the book introduced generations of students, artists, designers, and collectors to Albers’ unique approach to complex principles.While the original publication has long been out of print, this beautiful new edition now brings Interaction back into classrooms, studios, and onto bookshelves, where it will find an eager new audience. Lavishly produced as a two volume slip-cased set, this book replicates Albers’s revolutionary exercises, explaining concepts such as color relativity and vibrating and vanishing boundaries through the use of color, shape, die-cut forms, and movable flaps that illustrate his astonishing demonstrations of the changing and relative nature of color. Also included for the first time are new studies from the Albers archive, produced by the artist’s students in the early 1960s.A celebration of Albers’s legendary achievements, this beautiful publication is an essential addition to any serious art library.Hardcover cloth-bound144 pages, 2-volume set | 6 black-and-white, 145 color illustrationsYale University Press, 200916.6 x 12 x 2.6 inchesISBN 9780300146936Artist Monographs, Color Theory

Interaction of Color: Complete Edition

By Nicholas Fox Weber "This handsome, cloth-bound visual biography celebrates the prolific output and fascinating relationship of Anni and Josef Albers, two pioneers of modern art and design."—Galerie"An ideal gift for the artist couple on your list."—The Strategist"This volume—the first to be fully dedicated to the couple—traces their relationship through rarely seen photographs, collages, paintings and weavings, which form a visual biography of the duo."—The Financial Times, How to Spend ItA spectacular and unprecedented visual biography of the leading pioneers and protagonists of modern art and design.Josef—painter, designer, and teacher—and Anni Albers—textile artist and printmaker are among the twentieth century's most important abstract artists, and this is the first— monograph to celebrate the rich creative output and beguiling relationship of these two masters in one elegant volume. It presents their life and work as never before, from their formative years at the Bauhaus in Germany to their remarkable influence at Black Mountain College in the United States through their intensely productive period in Connecticut.Accessibly written, the book is packed with more than 750 artworks, archival images, and documents—many published here for the first time—all tracing the remarkable lives and careers of this legendary couple.Dispersed throughout area series of short essays on artists that focuses on the Albers' relationship with a number of important artists and architects of the 20th century, like Ruth Asawa, Marcel Breuer, Merce Cunningham, Philip Johnson, Paul Klee, Jacob Lawrence, and many more.The beautifully cloth-bound package utilizes an elegant color palette and design that speaks to the work of both artists. This comprehensive visual biography showcases the artists’ rich and dynamic lives, and their infinite influence on each other, as they shared the profound conviction that art was central to human existence.Hardcover512 pages | 750 illustrationsPhaidon Press, 202012 x 9.3 inchesISBN 9781838661427Artist Monographs, Textile Design, Design

Anni and Josef Albers: Equal and Unequal

By Josef Albers Foreword by Nicholas Fox Weber “One of the most important books on color ever written.”—Michael Hession, Gizmodo “Interaction of Color with its illuminating visual exercises and mind-bending optical illusions, remains an indispensable blueprint to the art of seeing. . . . An essential piece of visual literacy.“—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color is a masterwork in twentieth-century art education. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this timeless book presents Albers’ unique ideas of color experimentation in a way that is valuable to specialists as well as to a larger audience. Originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates, Interaction of Color first appeared in paperback in 1971, featuring ten representative color studies chosen by Albers. The paperback has remained in print ever since and is one of the most influential resources on color for countless readers. This new paperback edition presents a significantly expanded selection of more than thirty color studies alongside Albers’s original unabridged text, demonstrating such principles as color relativity, intensity, and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the illusions of transparency and reversed grounds. Now available in a larger format and with enhanced production values, this expanded edition celebrates the unique authority of Albers’s contribution to color theory and brings the artist’s iconic study to an eager new generation of readers. Josef Albers, one of the most influential artist-educators of the twentieth century, was a member of the Bauhaus group in Germany during the 1920s. In 1933 he came to the United States, where he taught at Black Mountain College for sixteen years. In 1950 he joined the faculty at Yale University as chairman of the Department of Design. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Albers was the first living artist ever to be given a solo retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Paperback193 pages | 40 color illustrations, 16 line drawingsYale University Press, 2013Originally published in 19636 x 0.6 x 9.2 inchesISBN 9780300179354Artist Monographs, Art History, Color Theory

Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition

By Charles Darwent “A meticulously researched, elegantly written, and generously illustrated biography of an artist whose personality was as enigmatic as his art…Darwent deftly characterizes the outsized egos and philosophical and petty rivalries that roiled the Bauhaus…An authoritative and sensitive portrait of a modern master.” ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review“A gripping biography of a German artist unjustly pigeonholed as the creator of interminable variations of pictures of squares…Darwent draws extensively on Albers’s previously unpublished writings and drawings to fully capture the artist’s life…Sympathetic and generously illustrated.”―Publishers Weekly Drawing on extensive unpublished archival writings, documents, and illustrations, this is the first full-scale biography of one of the 20th-century’s great artists. In his accessible study of the “whole” Albers, Charles Darwent combats the fables while telling the fascinating story of an artist, friend, and intellectual. Among Albers’s unpublished papers are letters from friends John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, and Eva Hesse, as well as fans and collectors ranging from the composer Virgil Thomson to the cartoonist Saul Steinberg. If his network of influence was surprisingly wide, so too, were his interests. He started life at the Bauhaus as a glass-maker and went on to create fonts, to run their famous wallpaper workshop, and to make furniture whose designs are still in production eighty years later. He pioneered the study of color at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and chaired the design department at Yale University. While books have been written about Albers for specialist audiences, this new volume fulfills the clear need for a more general study. Hardcover400 pagesThames & Hudson, 20186.8 x 1.5 x 9.8 inchesISBN 9780500519103Artist Monographs, Art History, Biography

Josef Albers: Life and Work

Edited by Ortrud Westheider and Michael Philipp Spanning six decades, three continents, and multiple mediums, this exhibition catalog explores one of the most significant and influential artistic movements of the twentieth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, painting underwent a profound transformation. Artists no longer wanted to depict the visible; they aspired to a new visual language that reduced artistic expression to an interplay of colors, lines, and shapes; reflected the modern world; and transcended national boundaries. A central figure of this art movement was Wassily Kandinsky, who laid the theoretical foundations with his work Point and Line to Plane. This lushly illustrated and highly researched volume showcases how Geometric Abstraction found radical expression in all its variations in Europe, the USA and beyond. It features more than one hundred works by over seventy artists, including Josef Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Barbara Hepworth, El Lissitzky, Agnes Martin, Piet Mondrian, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella, and Victor Vasarely. Essays by leading scholars illuminate the ways these artists were inspired by the advanced technologies and theories of their time, including concepts of the fourth dimension and the space- time continuum. The authors explore the movement through a transnational lens—from Belgium, Germany, and Great Britain, to France, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and the United States; and emphasize the long-neglected role of women in the movement’s advancement. Through its insightful essays and stunning visuals, this volume offers a definitive exploration of how geometric abstraction revolutionized modern art and continues to inspire artists across the globe. Hardcover 320 pagesPrestel, 20259.5 x 11.75 inchesISBN 9783791377919Art History, Movements

Kandinsky's Universe: Geometric Abstractions in the 20th Century

By Robin Schuldenfrei "One of the most interesting and essential texts on modernism to be written in the last decade. . . . Schuldenfrei has made a fairly niche art historical subject incredibly approachable with brilliant but accessible text. . . . [Objects in Exile] is a phenomenally well researched and important text on the subject and should be required reading for anyone interested in modern art and design."---Angelina Lippert, New York Journal of Books "A thought-provoking read that sheds light on the hidden narratives of objects and their profound influence on our collective heritage."-- "Metropolis" In the fraught years leading up to World War II, many modern artists and architects emigrated from continental Europe to the United States and Britain. The experience of exile infused their modernist ideas with new urgency and forced them to use certain materials in place of others, modify existing works, and reconsider their approach to design itself. In Objects in Exile, Robin Schuldenfrei reveals how the process of migration was crucial to the development of modernism, charting how modern art and architecture was shaped by the need to constantly face—and transcend—the materiality of things. Taking readers from the prewar era to the 1960s, Schuldenfrei explores the objects these émigrés brought with them, what they left behind, and the new works they completed in exile. She argues that modernism could only coalesce with the abandonment of national borders in a process of emigration and resettlement, and brings to life the vibrant postwar period when avant-garde ideas came together and emerged as mainstream modernism. Examining works by Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy, Lucia Moholy, Herbert Bayer, Anni and Josef Albers, and others, Schuldenfrei demonstrates the social impact of art objects produced in exile. Shedding critical light on how the pressures of dislocation irrevocably altered the course of modernism, Objects in Exile shows how artists and designers, forced into exile by circumstances beyond their control, changed in unexpected ways to meet the needs and contexts of an uncertain world. Hardcover352 pages | 76 color + 82 black-and-white illustrations Princeton University Press, 20247.5 x 10.5 inchesISBN 9780691232669 Modernism

Objects in Exile: Modern Art and Design across Borders, 1930–1960

By Fritz Horstman The essence of Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color in a format that engages learners of all ages and levels and encourages a hands-on approach Interaction of Color is often presented as an overarching theory of color, but it is actually a method of learning how to better see and understand color—many of the color exercises illustrated in Interaction of Color were devised by Albers’s students: cutting and pasting, looking, pondering, and learning. This workbook companion is a teaching tool designed to enable readers to engage in the kinds of tactile creativity and exploration that characterized Albers’s own classroom.Focusing on eight of the most important lessons in Interaction of Color, this book invites readers to learn by doing, using only simple materials. Core instructions for each exercise are enhanced by additional tips, references to Albers’s original text and illustrations, and stories about how Albers presented the ideas in class. The book and exercises are sufficiently nuanced to challenge and inspire seasoned artists, designers, and educators while also being readily accessible to younger readers and less-experienced practitioners.Paperback144 pages | 112 color illustrationsYale University Press, 20246 x 9.25 inchesISBN 9780300272437Literature, Education

Interacting with Color: A Practical Guide to Josef Albers's Color Experiments

Edited by René SpitzPhotographs by Hans G. ConradPrefaces by Volker Troche and Alexander Wetzig A rare and intimate portrait of Albers in the classroom Legendary for his tenure at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College and Yale, Josef Albers (1888–1976) was one of the most influential art educators of the 20th century. Between 1953 and 1955, Albers taught several preliminary design courses at the Ulm School of Design (HfG) in Germany. Swiss photographer Hans G. Conrad (born 1926), then a student at HfG, documented Albers’ teaching in an extensive series of over 400 photographs, depicting his lectures to and interactions with the students. These images are published here for the first time in their entirety. Juxtaposed with around 80 works on paper by Conrad from Albers’ exercise on “Interaction of Color,” they create a multifaceted and lively portrait of Albers in action teaching the fundamentals of art and design. Hardcover302 pagesText in German and EnglishWalther Koenig, 20219.8 x 1 x 9.1 inchesISBN 9783753300634Monographs

Interaction of Albers

Foreword by David Cleaton-RobertsTexts by Brenda Danilowitz and Jeannette Redensek Josef Albers was one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists, teachers, and theorists of art. Alongside teaching at the Bauhaus school in Germany and later at Black Mountain College and Yale University in the United States, he created seminal work in diverse mediums from painting and printmaking to furniture design and stained glass. His lifelong explorations into form, vision, and the processes of making art led to his ground-breaking Homage to the Square paintings and confirmed his reputation as a leading proponent of abstraction. This publication considers Albers’s early development as an artist, beginning with the pre-Bauhaus years when he worked as an elementary-school teacher in his native Bottrop in north-west Germany, while sketching the landscape and architecture of his home town and studying courses in art by night. Focusing on his prints and other works on paper, the book reveals not only the unappreciated naturalistic origins of his art, but also his ongoing interest in producing organic, surrealistic forms alongside the geometric abstraction for which he is best known. It presents dozens of prints, paintings, and drawings from the first half of his career, as well as previously unseen photographs of the artist at work and on research trips to the ancient sites of Mexico where he found important sources of inspiration for his art and theories. With texts by two recognized Albers scholars, this volume offers a fresh and surprising view of a celebrated pioneer of modernism.Hardcover160 pages | 158 illustrationsArt/Books, 20228.2 x 10.5 x 0.8 inchesISBN 9781908970572Modernism, Artist Monograph

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Josef Albers

Interaction of Color: Complete Edition

Anni and Josef Albers: Equal and Unequal

Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition

Josef Albers: Life and Work

Kandinsky's Universe: Geometric Abstractions in the 20th Century

Objects in Exile: Modern Art and Design across Borders, 1930–1960

Interacting with Color: A Practical Guide to Josef Albers's Color Experiments

Interaction of Albers

Josef Albers: Discovery and Invention – The Early Graphic Works

Shop at Neue Josef Albers

Interaction of Color: Complete Edition

Anni and Josef Albers: Equal and Unequal

Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition

Josef Albers: Life and Work

Kandinsky's Universe: Geometric Abstractions in the 20th Century

Objects in Exile: Modern Art and Design across Borders, 1930–1960

Interacting with Color: A Practical Guide to Josef Albers's Color Experiments

Interaction of Albers

Josef Albers: Discovery and Invention – The Early Graphic Works

Shop at Neue
Josef Albers