Even when Josef had become financially successful thanks to the success of the Homages to the Square, the Alberses had few material luxuries. But they liked their Mercedes SL 140 and enjoyed knowing that its color was called “racing green.” They continued to drive late in their lives, but for trips to New York city or to their printmaker an hour from Orange in Bedford Village, they were driven by a young friend delighted to assist them—first Fiske Crowell, and then Nick Weber. What was remarkable was the way that the Alberses noticed everything on the way—the forms of bridges over the Merritt Parkway, the construction technique of a skyscraper being built alongside the Cross County Parkway, the design of billboards. Seeing was a way of gathering information about the world.
Narratives
