Anni and Josef Albers, Latin American journeys (book)

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Anni and Josef Albers, Latin American journeys (book) by Jenny Anger (Author), Kiki Gilderhus (Author), Heinz Liesbrock (Editor), Brenda Danilowitz (Editor), Anni Albers (Artist), Josef Albers (Artist). Hatje Cantz, 2008. 228 pages. Book new in English in blister.

Josef Albers (1888-1976) was a highly influential painter, color theorist and teacher – a monumental figure in post-war international art and aesthetics; his wife and artistic equal, Anni Albers (1899-1994), created important works of textile art as well as simple and abstract paintings and drawings. Together, their artistic roots date back to their time at the Bauhaus in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s. After immigrating to the United States in 1933, the couple traveled regularly to Mexico and South America to study the art, architecture and textile design of pre-Columbian cultures.

Featuring previously unpublished letters, manuscripts, and photographs by the artists, as well as lushly colored plates of their works, this catalog is the first to document the influence of Central and South America on the Albers’ work. It also shows that their art, as we know it today, cannot be understood without recognizing their crucial encounters in Latin America, as Anni’s weavings, drawings and painted studies demonstrate her deep knowledge of pre-Columbian textiles, and the Josef’s paintings and photographs demonstrate the development of his unique sense of color in Mexico, as well as the formation of his independent concepts of photography and formalism.

A particularly stunning chapter, Homage to the Pyramid, includes Josef Albers’ photographic collages of Mesoamerican pyramids in South America.

The abstract and graphic quality of these images directly and surprisingly references the artists’ paintings and textiles.

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