references
A seminal figure of the Bauhaus coming from a humble background unlike Kandinsky, Klee or his wife Anni, Albers was nourished with the black charcoal of Westphalia when he was a child. His life was entirely dedicated to his quest for light and for the optical illusion sometimes created by colors. His objective was set: «I want to open the eyes».
Close friend of the Albers family Nicholas Fox Weber, also the chief officer of their Foundation, wrote wonderful books including «The Bauhaus group - Six masters of Modernism» published by Yale in which he describes the inner experience of art in the soul and flesh, in the everyday life and imaginary of each of the following grand names: Gropius, Klee, Kandinsky, Mies van der Rohe, Josef and Anni Albers. One woman only and five men in the fascinating movement of what now seems a moment suspended in time thanks to them. Art history was marked by the name Albers and its twofold face: Josef and Anni.
Josef Albers was not interested in genre: feminine or masculine, he did not pay attention to it when it came to art. He had internalized his relation of complicity with Anni.
[1976-7-1106]Umbo (Otto Umbehr), J.A. Foto Umbo ’28, 1928-Gelatin silver prints mounted on paperboard © Phyllis Umbehr/Gallery Kicken, Berlin
