Author Description

Josef Albers (1888-1976) was one of the great abstract artists of the twentieth century, as well as one of its most important teachers, influencing generations of artists with his color theories. Born in Germany and a leading figure at the Bauhaus, he settled permanently in the United States at the end of 1933.<br><br>The processes and excitement of printmaking fulfilled many of Albers's loftiest dreams. He relished its implicit detachment: the way that the medium removed his hand at least one step from the end result. He appreciated the possibilities of texture available, from his playful use of wood grains, through the crisp straight lines afforded by zinc plate lithography, to the wet embossing he used in the 1950s. He also treasured the multitude of color choices available in ink---a range he often said was far greater than was possible with paints.<br><br>Albers's career as a printmaker falls into three broad periods: First was the brief but productive period between 1915 and 1918 when he studied printmaking in Essen and created representational linoleum cuts and lithographs, including a series of self-portraits. The second period, 1933-1950, began with the closing of the Bauhaus in Berlin and continued through the artist's years at Black Mountain College. During this time Albers, now committed to abstraction, began working in woodcut, drypoint, and engraving. The third period, from 1958 until Albers's death in 1976, includes the numerous portfolios and suites in silkscreen, lithography, and inkless intaglio and embossing for which Albers is best known as a printmaker, including Homage to the Square, White Line Squares, Embossed Linear Constructions, and Mitered Squares. It culminates in the explosion of color, in daring and unexpected combinations and juxtapositions, of his final group of twelve prints, Never Before.<br><br>This revised edition of The Prints of Josef Albers presents nine newly catalogued entries, an introductory essay rewritten to include new