Josef Albers

Born in Bottrop, Germany Josef Albers trained as a teacher before going on to study art in Berlin and Munich and most significantly in Weimar at the Bauhaus. He later become a teacher at the Bauhaus from 1923-33, first at Weimar and then at Dessau, teaching furniture design, drawing and calligraphy. After the forced closure of the Bauhaus, Albers moved to the United States where he taught at the Black Mountain College, North Carolina, where his students included Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly and Ray Johnson. He later taught at Yale. Albers first solo exhibition was at the Peri-13dico ‘El Nacional’ in Mexico City, 1936. Albers made many trips to Mexico which inspired his series of paintings, lithographs and screenprints entitled Homage to the Square, which demonstrate his interest in colour interaction and tonal variations. Albers died in New Haven in 1976.