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 Josef AlbersForeword 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 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 0.8 x 9.2 inchesISBN 9780300179354Artist Monographs, Art History, Color Theory

Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary 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

Original Price: $39.95 UP TO 20% ADDITIONAL SAVINGS FOR MEMBERS 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

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

Introduction by Nicholas Fox WeberTexts by Josef Albers, Elaine de Kooning, and Colm Tóibín Using minimal means—paint straight from the tube, applied meticulously with a palette knife—and a focused selection of colors, Josef Albers’s sustained, serial investigation into rhythm, mood, and spatial movement is explored in this lavishly produced catalogue that looks solely at his respective grey and yellow paintings, exploring two distinct color palettes pervasive to his oeuvre. Highlighting the rich diversity of effects Albers drew from a narrow range of colors, this publication centers around the groundbreaking Homage to the Square (A) (1950), the inaugural painting in the series that would occupy the artist until his death in 1976. The pairing of two palettes—black, white, and grey and an array of yellows—stems in part from Albers’s 1964 series of lithographs, Midnight and Noon, which brought together these two opposing color sets in a single portfolio. Together they address the limitless possibilities the artist found in color and form in relation to light. The impossible simultaneity of “midnight” and “noon” moreover speaks to Albers’s transcending of what he called “factual facts” in favor of the play of perception and illusion possible in art. Opening with an introduction by Nicholas Fox Weber, executive director of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, that contextualizes these works and their color palettes, this volume also includes Albers’s own writing on Homage to the Square. Additionally, Elaine de Kooning’s historic text and Colm Tóibín’s recent writing explore this body of work from different perspectives and time periods. Published on the occasion of exhibitions at David Zwirner’s New York and London galleries in 2016 and 2017, this beautifully illustrated publication looks at one of the most influential abstract painters of the twentieth century.Please note that Rare/Out-of-Print titles are very limited in stock. Hardcover144 pages | 75 color, 2 b&w IllustrationsDavid Zwirner Books, 200178 x 10.5 inchesISBN 9781941701621 Josef Albers, Monographs

Josef Albers: Midnight and Noon

Learn the wonder of different shapes through the art of Josef Albers Squares & Other Shapes uses the vivid artworks of Josef Albers to guide children through a wide range of geometrics, one artwork per page, beginning with squares and returning to them as a familiar refrain throughout. The variations between the vibrant shapes add to the book’s visual richness, and the accompanying text provides a relatable and engaging commentary that will encourage discussion. Josef Albers was a leading pioneer of 20th-century Modernism, best known for his Homages to the Square paintings, and his publication Interaction of Color. Albers was a teacher, a writer, a painter, a theorist, and, in this groundbreaking book, his influential art is used to teach shapes, one of the most important concepts for young children to learn. Each title in this must-own series of artful read-aloud boards uses masterpieces by celebrated artists to teach one of the top early-learning concepts for toddlers. Each concept is explored playfully through a curated selection of beautifully reproduced artworks while the accompanying text enriches the experience with witty, conversational commentary and an ‘about the artist’ text. Companion books in this series feature the art of Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Ellsworth Kelly, and Alexander Calder. Board Book30 pages | 30 illustrationsAge range: 1-3 yearsPhaidon Press, 20258 x 7 x 0.75 inches ISBN 9781838669607Children's Book, Josef Albers

Squares & Other Shapes with Josef Albers (First Concepts with Fine Artists)

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

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

Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition

Anni and Josef Albers: Equal and Unequal

Josef Albers: Life and Work

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

Josef Albers: Midnight and Noon

Squares & Other Shapes with Josef Albers (First Concepts with Fine Artists)

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

Interaction of Albers

Josef Albers: Discovery and Invention – The Early Graphic Works

Shop at Neue Josef Albers

Interaction of Color: Complete Edition

Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition

Anni and Josef Albers: Equal and Unequal

Josef Albers: Life and Work

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

Josef Albers: Midnight and Noon

Squares & Other Shapes with Josef Albers (First Concepts with Fine Artists)

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

Interaction of Albers

Josef Albers: Discovery and Invention – The Early Graphic Works

Shop at Neue
Josef Albers