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Josef Albers (1888 - 1976), was a German artist
and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the
United States, formed the basis of some of the
most influential and far-reaching art education
programs of the 20th century.

Born in Bottrop, Westphalia, on March 19, 1888,
Albers studied art in Berlin, Essen,
Germany|Essen, and Munich before enrolling as a
student at the prestigious Weimar Bauhaus in 1920.
 He began teaching in the preliminary course of
the Department of Design in 1922, and was promoted
to Professor in 1925, the year the Bauhaus moved
to Dessau.

With the closure of the Bauhaus under Nazi
pressure in 1933, Albers emigrated to the United
States and joined the faculty of Black Mountain
College, North Carolina, where he ran the painting
program until 1949. At Black Mountain his students
included Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg
and Robert Motherwell. In 1950 Albers left Black
Mountain to head the Department of Design at Yale
University in New Haven, Connecticut until he
retired from teaching in 1958. In 1963 he
published "Interaction of Color" which presented
his theory that colors were governed by an
internal and deceptive logic. Also during this
time, he created the abstract album covers of band
leader Enoch Light's Command LP  records. Albers
continued to paint and write, staying in New Haven
with his wife, textile artist Anni Albers, until
his death on March 26, 1976.

Accomplished as a designer, photographer,
typographer, printmaker and poet, Albers is best
remembered for his work as an abstract
art|abstract painter and theorist.  He favored a
very disciplined approach to composition. Most
famous of all are the dozens of paintings and
prints that make up the series "Homage to the
Square." In this rigorous series, begun in 1949,
Albers explored chromatic interactions with flat
colored squares arranged concentrically on the
canvas. 

Albers' theories on art and education were
formative for the next generation of artists.  His
own paintings form the foundation of both
hard-edge abstraction and Op art.

==External links==
* http://www.albersfoundation.org The Josef & Anni
Albers Foundation