After studying painting at a traditional art school, Albers entered the Bauhaus in 1920 as an older student, and the school's progressive educational ideas served as a catalyst for his creative development. After his first six-month term, Albers disregarded the required class for wall painting, preferring to work in the glass workshop. While there he created colorful, nonobjective glass assemblages that he called "wall glass paintings" because they were "made of opaque glass which is neither transparent nor translucent." These early experiments in glass preface his modernist paintings based on color studies that preoccupied him for much of his later career.
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the artist, Dessau, Germany and Orange, Conn. (1928–70; sold to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Josef Albers at The Metropolitan Museum of Art: An Exhibition of His Paintings and Prints," November 19, 1971–January 11, 1972, no. 2 [erroneous reproduction of "Walls and Screens (Pillars II)"]].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Accessions, 1967–1974," March 7–April 23, 1974, no catalogue.
New York. Helen Serger / La Boetie, Inc. "Art of the Bauhaus: Artists and Publications," March 20–June 30, 1982, unnumbered cat. (p. 10).
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915–1933," December 9, 1983–February 12, 1984, no. 263.
Berlin. Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung. "Kandinsky: Russiche Zeit und Bauhausjahre, 1915–1933," August 9–September 23, 1984, no. 251.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Design 1925–1945: Selections from the Collection," December 18, 1989–June 1, 1991, no catalogue [on view August 24, 1990–March 20, 1991].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Modern Design: Selections from the Collection," May 30–October 5, 2008, no catalogue.
Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. "Anni et Josef Albers. L'art et la vie," September 10, 2021–January 9, 2022, no. 11.
Jean Clay. "Albers: Josef's Coats of Many Colours." Réalités no. 213 (August 1968), ill. p. 68 (color), calls it "Composition in translucent glass".
Werner Spies. Albers. New York, 1970, pp. 16, 67, ill. p. 15 (upside down), calls it "Walls and Posts (thermometer style)".
Henry Geldzahler in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975. New York, 1975, p. 213, ill.
Clark V. Poling. Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915–1933. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1983, p. 75, no. 263, ill. p. 299.
Brenda Danilowitz inJosef Albers: Glass, Color, and Light. Exh. cat., Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. New York, 1994, p. 27, no. 24, ill. n.p. (color, upside down), notes that the artist called this work "Walls and Pillars I".
Oliver Barker inJosef Albers: Vitraux, dessins, gravures, typographie, meubles. Exh. cat., Musée départemental Matisse du Cateau-Cambrésis. Paris, 2008, ill. p. 19 (color, upside down).
Josef Albers (American (born Germany), Bottrop 1888–1976 New Haven, Connecticut)
1969
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