One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Josef Albers was a painter, printmaker, photographer, and designer known for his crucial role in developing the Bauhaus, his innovations in Geometric Abstraction, and his explorations into the subjective experience of color. As Albers noted, "When you really understand that each color is changed by a changed environment, you eventually find that you have learned about life as well as about color."

Born in Germany, Albers was a student at the Bauhaus—an institution renowned for its impact on all aspects of modern design—and began working in stained and sandblasted glass, designing windows, furniture, household objects, and typography, as well as publishing poetry and art writing. In 1933 he moved to the United States with his wife, the artist Anni Albers, where he was professor at the noted avant-garde institution Black Mountain College. He has influenced many significant artists including Peter Halley, Donald Judd, and Robert Rauschenberg.

In 1950, Albers began what would be his most famous work, the Homage to the Square series, a body of more than a thousand paintings, drawings, prints, and tapestries, created over a period of twenty-five years. The series was based on a mathematically determined format of several squares, which appear overlapping or within one another.

In 1971, Albers was the first living artist ever to be honored with a solo retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Image courtesy of Susan Sheehan Gallery