Artist Eleven: Josef Albers

Josef Albers, born in 1888, was a poet, sculptor, art theorist, educator and most known as a painter.  He is seen as the one responsible for introducing American artists to European modernist concepts of the Bauhaus.  He did many experiments with color interaction and geometric shapes influenced the modern artists of the world.  His work even inspired movements such as Geometric Abstraction, Color Field Painting and Op Art.  After working in living in Germany his whole life, in 1933 he moved to the United States and with his wife worked at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina.  In 1949 he moved to Connecticut to be the chairman of the Design Department at Yale University.  While teaching at Yale, Albers did his series Homage to the Square, these are his most famous works that focus on the optical effects of color within the confines of a uniform square.  Walter Gropius invited Albers to design a mural for the Graduate Center at Harvard University.  This led to many more commissions until his death in 1976.  Even after his death, Albers continued to have an influence on minimalists through his art and color theories.  Joseph Albers considered art to be a process rather than a product, art is meant to open the eyes of the viewer.