Joseph Albers: A national touring exhibition from the South Bank Centre

Recent exhibitions and publications on Josef Albers (1888–1976) have established this influential artist as a true Renaissance man of modernism--a painter, furniture designer, glass artist, writer, pedagogue and even album cover designer. Published on the occasion of the first major retrospective of Josef Albers in more than 20 years, and drawing on a wealth of information from the Albers archive, this volume consolidates this broad perspective, covering the full scope of Albers’ achievement. The artist’s career on both sides of the Atlantic is documented here, from his Weimar Bauhaus beginnings to his tenure as a teacher at Black Mountain College, to his years at Yale University and his considerable influence as a painter and theorist. The catalogue reproduces nearly 200 works, including 12 works in glass produced between 1921 and 1932; nearly 30 photographs and photocollages, many of which are previously unpublished; a selection of woodcuts and gouaches, and several items of furniture; the seven record sleeves Albers designed for Command Records (with their classic gatefold sleeves, which Albers helped to conceive); the paintings for which he is so well known; and a selection of theoretical texts. Also included is a rare text by Wassily Kandinsky, previously printed in a 1934 exhibition bulletin for a show of Alber’s woodcuts at the Galleria del Milione in Milan. This volume gives the most comprehensive account of Albers’ career to date.