The artists

The artistic adventure of Josef Albers and Anni Albers, which started at the Bauhaus and lasted a lifetime, was among the most pioneering of the twentieth century. Tireless experimenters, they began their artistic career as teachers, devoting themselves completely to art as a means of sharing knowledge and experience.

The artistic adventure of Josef Albers (Bottrop 1888 - New Haven 1976) and Anni Albers (Annelise Elsa Frieda Fleischmann, Berlin 1899 - New Haven 1994), which began at the Bauhaus and lasted a lifetime, was among the most pioneering of the twentieth century.

Josef Albers, painter, designer, teacher and theoretician of color, has always been interested in the potential of materials, using incessant and rigorous experimentation. Every line and form, both imagined or seen, could be tamed by a hand that becomes accustomed to movement and contact. Mind and arm are both coordinated in the meticulous study of geometries and the perspective of volumes that seem infinite.

Anni Albers, weaver, painter and teacher, from the first years of experimentation on weaving with the loom, understood the expressive potential offered by the fabrics and took them as a starting point to transform the fabrics into abstract works of art. Through interweaving of straight lines or sinuous knots of threads, unusual materials and traditional textures, Anni invented elegant organic and geometric shapes.

Both abandoned figurative representation, choosing abstraction as a language to express their inner universes, partly influenced also by the music, nature and art of pre-Columbian civilizations, which they found was authentic and incorrupt. The two were constantly motivated by the indefatigable desire to test the possibilities of new materials and shapes that led them to learn to really see the world outside and inside each of us. The Albers lived art as an experience capable of involving all the senses and through their activity as passionate teachers, it became a great place for sharing and human growth.