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A forerunner in the field
of graphic arts, Josef Albers began making prints as early as
1915. His first works in black and white reflect the influence of
Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso. His interest in color developed
from experiments in glassware during his tenure at the Bauhaus.
(Albers' well known variations on squares and rectangles first
appeared as stained glass windows.) His style became more
geometric through the 1920s and 1930s. The Varrant series
of 1966‑1967, ten works in silkscreen (a medium revitalized by
Albers in the early 1960s), was inspired by adobe architecture of
Mexico and the Southwest. Characteristic of his work is
utilization of a rectangular format, interest in color
relationships, and resultant spatial effects. Perceptual problems
and ambiguities of depth and perspective in his work are created
through a purely coloristic means of organization. Albers is
often credited as the father of Op Art, greatly contributing to
the study of color.
Albers was born in Westphalia, Germany, on March 19, 1888. He
taught school intermittently from 1908 to 1918, during which time
he also studied at the Royal Academy in Berlin (1913‑15) and at
the School of Applied Art in Essen (1916‑19). Albers also studied
at the Weimar Bauhaus (1920-23) and was invited to join the
faculty. After Hitler permanently closed the Bauhaus, he
immigrated to the United States in 1933.
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