Josef Albers

Josef Albers (1888-1976) was a German-American painter, printmaker, teacher, philosopher, typographer and photographer. Albers has had an enormous influence on modern design, and his artistical emphasis was on simple geometrical compositions and …. His work definitely shows that the Bauhaus was not strictly about architecture.

Albers received his formal educationin Berlin, Essen, Munich and also at the Bauhaus in Weimar. Later n life he thought advanced classes in printmaking, furniture design etc. at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Albers also played a major part in putting together the basic course in design that made the Bauhaus so famous.

In 1923 Albers and his wife moved to North Carolina to teach at the Black Mountain College. In 1950 he moved on to yale University where he became the Dean of the School of Architecture and design.

Albers artwork, paintings and graphic designs, became famous after he had moved to the U.S. His most famous paintings belonging to a series called "Homage to the Square,"

he started painting in 1947. The series consists of three paintings with the same composition, with three squares in each painting. The squares however have different colors. Also as early as 1913 he had finished his first completely abstract painting, and therefor he has been called the forunner of abstract art.??