Josef + Anni Albers: Designs for Living

by Nicholas Fox Weber, Martin Filler, Paul Warwick Thompson (Foreword)

The first comprehensive book on the furniture, textiles and the other works of two of the most important and influential artists of the twentieth century. Features innovative objects that the couple designed for their homes while teaching at the Bauhaus in Germany and following their move to the United States in 1933. Includes specially commissioned photographs of important but little-known works. Illuminating essays celebrate the Alberses’ endless creativity and set their ground-breaking work in the context of international Modernism.

Genres: Art, Design

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 18, 2004

About the author

Nicholas Fox Weber is a cultural historian and Executive Director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. He has written extensively about both Josef and Anni Albers and curated many major exhibitions and retrospectives dedicated to their work. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Yale University and author of fourteen books including Patron Saints, The Art of Babar, The Drawings of Josef Albers, The Clarks of Cooperstown, Balthus, Le Corbusier: A Life, and The Bauhaus Group.

Reviews

[Cameron Toney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am fascinated by how artists live, and this is a double dose of that. Josef Albers literally wrote the book on color interactions. Anni Albers was an innovative weaver. Both played with scale, color, and texture. An interesting pair.
What's fascinating to me is, for two people whose work was rich in color and texture, how flat they loved to keep themselves. So much white! Such lack of ornament! Its too austere for my own personal tastes, but fascinating to look at in the context of these two artists.

[Kevin Umana · Rating 4 out of 5]

great insight into the design oriented minds of the albers

[Kerfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must admit to having become totally irritated with Nicholas Fox Weber. His fawning and gossipy writing is merely amusing and slightly annoying when first encountered, but since he is the "expert" often called on to comment on the Bauhaus, and particularly Josef and Anni Albers, it's all become a bit too much as I continue to read about them.

So that definitely colored my reception of the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition catalog.

Both Josef's glass work and Anni's weavings at the Bauhaus started in a loose and colorful way, and evolved to become almost interchangeable, stark, minimalist, grid-based designs. Although they never officially collaborated, it's very hard to divide the influence from the influenced.

Both liked the idea of mass-produced goods. Josef was an inventive furniture designer, using plywood in a simple, striking, and utilitarian way. Anni's manufactured fabrics--anonymous, practical, often synthetic--have less appeal to me than her distinctive woven room dividers.

I'm not sure how either Anni's fun industrial jewelry or Josef's very Bauhaus-inspired graphic design fit into the Cooper-Hewitt's theme, but the exhibition itself was probably well worth seeing. The book itself has a good selection of illustrations, but you can probably find equal and better in other books. Not a substitute for having viewed the actual items in the show.

Through Weber's essay here, and his writings in other books, I have gotten a feel for the way the Albers' lived and how they arranged the places where they lived. It's hard to reconcile with their art, which is vibrant and original. Interiors that include only unornamented synthetic mass production seems so cold and sterile to me. Weber refers to Zen and Japanese design, but there is warmth and depth and connection in the "emptiness" of Zen. The Albers' "empty rooms" are simply that--empty.

Although it does fit with the strange unsentimental and withholding emotional relationship Weber chronicles between husband and wife.

I also have trouble meshing this portrayal of the couple with the wonderful, adventurous, open-ended students and teachers Josef and Anni seemed to be, and with their love of Mexico and pre-Columbian art. No one in Mexico would ever say, "The empty room is best!!!"

[Tam G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the variety of works from the famous Bauhaus artist couple. Much more than paintings for Josef and wall-hangings for Anni.

It breaks into sections. One section reviews how the Albers' aesthetic dictated their home decor and overall lives. That section was a bit rough. Lots of adjectives without much holding it up . (Perhaps the author thought the proof was obvious from the visuals.) I enjoyed the overall information and room photos. The second section delved more into their background and early works. I really liked their important early works referenced in terms of their influences, colleagues, and each other. This section has some photos but relies mostly on the third section, a large group of plates (basically page after page of the artists works). It wasn't as fun to flip back and forth but I enjoyed the third section on its own. Just seeing Josef designed furniture, glassware, brickwork, Christmas cards, his own font! Anni's inclusions were a little less diverse...I thought they should have included some of her painting/prints...but it was fun to see her jewelry and read some of the more technical aspects of her fiber constructs.

In general, a short overview of the artist couple including many of their major works and a summary of their lives as Bauhaus designers.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romantic and sophisticated. The Alberses believed that every detail of how we live, every aesthetic choice, affects the quality of daily human experience. Josef said "that ethics are source and measure of esthetics." I believe this.

[Mary Bergs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, not exactly reading, because it is mostly images of their work....Inspiring!