Josef & Anni Albers Foundation

In this film, artist and educator Anoka Faruqee has gathered firsthand accounts of Albers from his former students and colleagues, including William Bailey, Audrey Flack, Karsten Harries, Erwin Hauer, Sheila Hicks, and Richard Lytle. These reflections suggest Albers's teaching methods and ideals, while also providing a glimpse into his personality and relationships.

Students

  • 1938-2013

    Frederick A. Horowitz

    Frederick A. Horowitz was a student at Yale College in 1956 when he took Albers’s drawing course.

  • 1922–2008

    Peter Oberlander

    "I spent the last forty years teaching, and most of what I've taught, I learned that significant summer of 1946 at Black Mountain."

  • 1928-

    Harriet Pattison

    While at Yale, Harriet Pattison applied to Josef Albers’s course on color, where she reveled in the experimentation and play and Albers’s teachings about how colors “could knock you out or bore you.”

Student Work

  • Leaf Study, ca. 1950–56, Yale University - Kodachrome slide

  • Construction Study, ca. 1927, Bauhaus Dessau, student: Lotte Gerson
    silver gelatin print, photographer unknown, possibly Edmund Collein
    Albers annotated photographs of this construction with the statement that it was over 80 cm tall.

  • Matière: stones and yellow paint on yellow background, ca 1941–49, Black Mountain College - Kodachrome slide

  • Color study: vibrating boundaries, ca. 1945–49, Black Mountain College - Kodachrome slide

  • Dogwood Leaves, ca. 1946–49, Black Mountain College, student: Ruth Asawa
    oil and watercolor on paper, 7 × 12.5 in. (17.8 × 30.8 cm)

  • Reordering study, wire screen, ca. 1926–33, Bauhaus Dessau
    wire mesh, 8 × 13.5 in. (20.3 × 34.3 cm)

  • Lettering study, Egyptienne "E”, ca. 1954–58, Yale University, student: Casey Miller
    colored pencils on paper mounted on cardboard, 12 × 16.8 in. (30.5 × 42.7 cm)

  • Folded paper construction, ca. 1943, Black Mountain College
    black and white positive film in slide mount

  • Matière: coal, wood blocks, toothpicks, and cellophane on black fabric, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    Kodachrome slide

  • Study in material characteristics: the effect of wire mesh on plasticine, ca. 1927–31, Bauhaus Dessau
    silver gelatin print

  • Color study: free study in transparency, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    color positive film in slide mount

  • Leaf study with reversed grounds, ca. 1945–55, Black Mountain College or Yale University
    Kodachrome slide

  • Study in varied distances between lines of identical weights, Yale University, student: Orr Marshall
    pencil on paper, 12 × 17.75 in. (30.5 × 45 cm)

  • Matière: weathered wood and crumpled paper, ca. 1934–40, Black Mountain College
    6 × 9 cm black and white negative film

  • Exercise in order: multiplication of profiles, ca. 1927, Bauhaus Dessau, student: Kurt Stolp
    silver gelatin print

  • Color study: transparency / film color, ca. 1951–58, Yale University, student: Roland Peagle
    color-aid paper mounted on cardboard, 8.25 × 10.375 in. (21 × 26.3 cm)

  • Stacked Triangles, ca. 1946–49, Black Mountain College, student: Ruth Asawa
    oil and watercolor on paper, 5.5 × 12 in. (14 × 30.4 cm)

  • Folded paper construction: zig-zag folding, ca. 1937–47, Black Mountain College
    black and white positive film in slide mount

  • Typewriter study: two pyramids created using two characters, ca. 1926–33, Bauhaus Dessau
    typewriter ink on paper mounted on cardboard, 11.75 × 17.25 in. (29.8 × 43.8 cm)

  • Fiber rearrangement: burlap, ca. 1939, Black Mountain College
    burlap, tape, 7.375 × 7.75 in. (18.7 × 19.6 cm)

  • Reordering study: “Volkswohl” ca. 1928–30, Bauhaus Dessau, student: Gertrude Herold
    printed matter collaged on newsprint, 8.25 × 11.625 in. (21 × 29.5 cm)

  • Color study: free study in transparency, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    Kodachrome slide

  • Typofacture: newspaper word games, ca. 1929–31, Bauhaus Dessau, student: Fritz Tschaschnig
    ink on paper mounted on cardboard, 6.375 × 8 in. (16.2 × 20.3 cm)

  • Elizabeth Gellhorn (Resnick), ca. 1946–49, Black Mountain College, student: Ruth Asawa
    ink on paper, 17.125 × 22 in. (43.5 × 55.9 cm)

  • Matiere: Baking cups and dyed wool, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    Kodachrome slide

  • Color study: transparency and spatial illusions, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    Kodachrome slide

  • Folded paper constructions, ca. 1935–42, Black Mountain College
    black and white positive film in slide mount

  • Color study: transparency / film color, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    color positive film in slide mount

  • Drawing of pliers and scissors, ca. 1951–58, Yale University, student: Neil Welliver
    pencil on paper, 12 × 17.75 in. (30.5 × 45 cm)

  • Color study: make one color look like two, ca. 1951–58, Yale University, student: Livingston
    color-aid paper on cardboard, 6 × 8.5 in. (15.3 × 21.6 cm)

  • Color study: transparency and overlapping planes, ca. 1948, Black Mountain College, student: Ernest Costa,
    colored paper on cardboard, 9.75 × 12 in. (24.7 × 30.5 cm)

  • Folded paper construction, n.d., Black Mountain College or Yale University
    black and white positive film in slide mount

  • Leaf study, ca. 1941–55, Black Mountain College or Yale University
    Kodachrome slide

  • Leaf study, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    Kodachrome slide

  • Still life, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    Kodachrome slide

  • Matière: lace, gear, leather, and fuzz on red background, ca. 1941–49, Black Mountain College
    Kodachrome slide