Interaction of Albers
This weekend I went to MoMA and found myself in the bookshop, as sometimes happens (every time).
And I came home with a new book about Josef Albers (another one).
The book is called Interaction of Albers, and it presents a large set of rarely-seen photographs captured by one of his students in the early 1950s.
The setting is a visiting lecture series Albers gave at the newly formed Hochschule fur Gestaltung (HfG) in Ulm, during his tenure as the director of the design department at Yale.
The title cleverly describes the storyline of the images - sleeves rolled up, with the students, running the experiments, reviewing the work - while echoing the name of Albers's own book, Interaction of Colors.
This is his happy place, at the intersection of creating and learning. Folding paper into geometric forms. Bending wire into sculptural shapes. Layering squares of color on top of each other to create new colors.
And of course, being silly. Although he dressed the part of the old-school professor, Albers was known for his modernist ideals, writing manifestos advocating newness over history and repeating kooky maxims like "let's cook a new pancake".
Interspersed between the images of the professor are examples of student work to reveal a more complete story of the interaction of teacher and students.
The final frames are at the Ulm train station, with Albers bidding his farewells.
Nearly 50 years after his death, it is hard to believe that such a large body of images never circulated. Where did they come from? And whom do we have to thank for it?
The photographs themselves were taken by HfG student Hans G. Conrad ("Conny"). After graduation, Conny went on to work as head of design for a number of global brands operating in/from Germany (Knoll International, Braun, Lufthansa). Conny's succession of successes may explain why these images have not been seen before. He was too busy!
The book was written and edited by Rene Spitz who catalogued and maintained the something-like 16,000 images, after receiving them from the photographer late in his life.
The book design was done by Petra Hollenbach. Her textured cover resembles grid paper, evoking the consistent and measured approach to education that Albers embodied. And her cover-wrap reveals the exacting process by which the images were catalogued and archived.
The book was published independently (no colophon), funded by Alfried Krupp von Bohlenand Halbach Foundation. It was printed in Germany by Druck & Medien. It is distributed in the United States by Distributed Art Publishers (DAP).
My sincere thanks to all of the above for getting these images out and letting us travel back in time to experience what it would have been like to attend one of Albers's workshops.
More here.
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End 1: The book's cover price is quite high (~$100) as a result of the decision to publish independently. IMO this works well for this type of niche, high-quality content where the total addressable audience may be very small, but able to pay a premium for scholarship and access. I would pay $200 for this book.
End 2: In several images (like above) one can see other students also documenting the workshops. An unreleased film is mentioned several times in the text. I would really like to see THAT come out of the archive too, and hope that Rene Spitz or others taking his lead can find a way to make it happen. It is what Kickstarter and/or Go Fund Me were made for!
