Albers in Art in Embassies program

There are as many ways for art to be political as there are for politicians to be artful, but one of the simplest is to participate in the United States' Art in Embassies (AIE) program. First envisioned by the Museum of Modern Art in 1953, AIE was formalized ten years later by President John F. Kennedy to encourage cross-cultural dialogue and exchange by exhibiting significant works of art in U.S. embassies and consulates throughout the world.


The Albers Foundation has long supported AIE, lending multiple works by both Josef and Anni to the program. It is fitting that their art has been displayed in U.S. embassies. The Alberses emigrated to the United States from their native Germany in 1933, when the Nazi regime closed the Bauhaus. It was in the U.S. where the Alberses found the freedom to continue to live and work as they wished—as artists and teachers who believed in the value of art to promote critical and creative thinking.

Works by the Alberses have been on view in U.S. embassies in Vienna, Tokyo, Brasília, and Beijing, among others. Currently, two Homage to the Square paintings are prominently featured at the Ambassador's Residence in Madrid, and one in Paris. While the Ambassador's Residences aren't open to the public, Albers enthusiasts in those cities can avail themselves of the Homage to the Square exhibition at Galería Cayón, Madrid, through April 23, or catch an original Josef Albers photograph in the La Boîte de Pandore exhibit organized by the artist Jan Dibbets at the Musée d'art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, which opened on March 25.