Josef Albers
(1888 - 1976) Bauhaus master, Advisor Council of the Arts at Yale University
Previously Sold Works
JOSEF ALBERS
Variants 1967: IX
colour silkscreen
numbered 264/300 within the lower left margin; titled, dated and numbered to a label on the reverse
8.75 x 13 ins ( 22.2 x 33 cms ) ( image )
Auction Estimate: $900.00 - $1,200.00
Price Realized $752.00
Sale date: July 14th 2020
JOSEF ALBERS
Untitled (Variants VI, Greys and Reds)
colour silkscreen
10.75 x 11.75 ins ( 27.3 x 29.8 cms ) ( image )
Auction Estimate: $800.00 - $1,200.00
Price Realized $752.00
Sale date: July 14th 2020
JOSEF ALBERS
I-S f (Danilowitz 195)
colour screenprint
signed, titled, dated 1970 and numbered 109/125 in pencil in the lower margin; titled and numbered 109/125 on two labels in the reverse; Printer: Sirocco Screenprints, New York; Publisher: Ives-Sillman Inc. New Haven, Connecticut.
21 x 21 ins ( 53.3 x 53.3 cms ) ( sheet - sight )
JOSEF ALBERS
Variant I (From Ten Variants)(Danliowitz 173.1)
silkscreen
titled lower left; titled, dated 1967 and numbered 264/300 on a gallery label on the reverse; Printer: Sirroco Screenprints, New York; Publisher: Ives-Sillman Inc. New Haven, Connecticut
17 x 17 ins ( 43.2 x 43.2 cms ) ( sheet )
JOSEF ALBERS
One Plate (from Hommage au Carré) (Danilowitz 160.5)
colour serigraph
signed, dated 1964 and numbered 5/125 in the lower margin; tilted on a gallery label on the backing on the reverse. Publisher/Printer: Éditions Galerie Denise René/Atelier Arcay Paris.
11 x 11 ins ( 27.9 x 27.9 cms ) ( image )
JOSEF ALBERS
Untitled (from Hommage au carré) (Danilowitz 160.2)
colour screenprint
signed with initials, dated 1964 and numbered 89/125 in the lower margin; titled “Hommage to the Square” and dated 1966 (sic) on a label on the backing on the reverse. Printed by Atelier Arcay, Paris, and published by Éditions Denise René, Paris
11 x 11 ins ( 27.9 x 27.9 cms ) ( image )
JOSEF ALBERS
WLS-XVI (from White Line Squares, Series II) (Danilowitz 172.8/Gemini 17)
colour lithograph
signed, titled, dated 1966 and numbered 44-125, with the publisher's blindstamps in the lower margin; publisher's stamp on the reverse, titled and numbered on a gallery label on the backing on the reverse. Published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles
20.5 x 20.5 in ( 52.1 x 52.1 cm ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $3,000.00 - $5,000.00
Price Realized $3,240.00
Sale date: October 22nd 2024
J. Albers Biography
(1888 - 1976) Bauhaus master, Advisor Council of the Arts at Yale University
Josef Albers was a pioneer of twentieth-century modernism, as well as an influential teacher, writer, painter, and colour theorist—now best known for the “Homages to the Square” he painted between 1950 and 1976 and for his innovative 1963 publication “The Interaction of Color”.
He enrolled at the Bauhaus in 1920. This new teaching institution, now so renowned for its effects on all modern design, had been founded one year earlier, and emphasized the connection between artists, architects, and craftspeople. In 1925, he was the first of its student to be asked to join the faculty as a professor. By 1933, when pressure from the Nazis forced the school to close, Josef Albers had become one of its best-known artists and teachers.
Josef and his wife Anni, also a fundamental figure in modernism, emigrated to the United States in November 1933. He had been asked to make the visual arts the centre of the curriculum at the newly established Black Mountain College near Asheville in North Carolina, where they remained until 1949. During this time, Josef and Anni Albers travelled widely both in the United States and Mexico, a country that captivated their imagination and had a strong affect on their art.
In 1950, the Albers moved to Connecticut. From 1950 to 1958 Josef Albers was chairman of the Department of Design at the Yale University School of Art. At Yale, and as guest teacher at art schools throughout America and in Europe, he trained a whole new generation of art teachers. At the same time, he was writing, painting and making prints. In 1971, he was the first living artist ever to be honoured with a solo retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He was still working on his “Homages to the Square” at the time of his death in New Haven, Connecticut in 1976.
