Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square (1964), via David Zwirner

Delving into the varied psychological and ephemeral aspects of Josef Albers’s practice, and his strong affinity for music, David Zwirner’s current exhibition at its 20th Street location, Sonic Albers, is a flowing, fluid affair.  Taking a far-reaching look at often overlooked prominence of music in both the artist’s sites of personal inspiration, and on the material aspects of his practice, Sonic Albers features a selection of paintings, glassworks, drawings, and ephemera from throughout Albers’s career, including a number of the album covers he designed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. (more…)

Josef Albers, Grey Steps, Grey Scales, Grey Ladders (Exhibition View), via Art Observed

On view at the David Zwirner Gallery, Grey Steps, Grey Scales, Grey Ladders delves into Josef Albers’s life-long exploration of color, form and space, focusing in particular on his works in white, grey and black, and featuring a range of his most acclaimed square paintings, as well as other abstract works from the course of his career.  A highly influential artist in the abstract movements of the early 20th Century, his works, shown in an open conversation, demonstrate the process of creating through rhythm and gradation. (more…)

David Zwirner will represent the estate of Josef Albers, the New York Times reports.  “He’s really one of the few artists of the 20th century whose life and work span both halves of the century, connecting the idealism of the German Bauhaus in Europe with postwar America,” said David Leiber, one of the gallery’s directors. (more…)

Josef Albers, Color Study for White Line Square, Courtesy The Morgan Library & Museum

Now on view at the Morgan Library & Museum are German-born American artist and educator Josef Albers’ studies and sketches for his most well-known series of work, Homage to the Square. Approximately eighty oil sketches on paper show Albers’ artistic process, thoughts and reasoning behind the iconic paintings.

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Josef Albers, Homage to the Square (1957). All images courtesy of Galleria Civica di Modena.

Currently on display at the Galleria Civica di Modena is the first retrospective exhibition held in Italy dedicated to the artist, designer, and teacher, Joseph Albers. The large scale retrospective takes up both exhibition spaces within the Galleria Civica to display a survey of Albers’ legacy.

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Eberhard Schrammen, “Maskottchen (Mascot)” (c. 1924), in “Bauhaus 1919-1933” at MoMA. Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin Photo: Gunter Lepkowski © Estate Eberhard Schrammen

Complementing the Maholy-Nagy exhibition in Frankfurt showing at Shirn Kunsthalle through February 7, 2010, New York’s Museum of Modern Art is celebrating the early-20th century Bauhaus collective in a show which runs in the Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery through January 25, 2010. This presentation of the highly influential German school comprises 400 works, many of which have never before been exhibited publicly in the United States. Drawn from both private and public collections, including 80 works from MoMA’s holdings, the show also features 150 pieces from the three German Bauhaus collections, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, and Klassik Stiftung Weimar. The exhibition comes to MoMA after an earlier version at Berlin’s Martin-Gropius Bau, which showed from July 22 to October 4, 2009.

Vasily Kandinsky, “Schwarze Form (Black form)” (1923), via MoMA. Private collection. Courtesy Neue Galerie New York. Photo: Jeffrey Sturges © 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

more images and story after the jump…
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Josef Albers, Pius and Schifra, Ascona VIII, 1930, via albers foundation

From May 1 to June 14, the Gering & López Gallery will be presenting Dan Flavin and Josef Albers’s work in the medium of light and canvas. In a unique paring, both artists will present their works which touch on color theory and line concepts.

Gering & López Gallery
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Dan Flavin And Josef Albers [Artcal]

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