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| Sello alemán conmemorativo de Josef Albers. 1993. | |
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En Josef Albers se cumplió el ideal formativo al que aspiraban Walter Gropius y los padres fundadores de la Bauhaus: por primera vez, un alumno egresado del centro (tras superar brillantemente en Weimar el aprendizaje de las disciplina teóricas y el conocimiento práctico de los materiales y los procesos artesanos e industriales), llegaba a ser profesor en Dessau.
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| Josef Albers. Las siete portadas para Command Records. En torno a 1960. |
Luego llegó el nazismo y arrumbó criminalmente con todo, y Albers formó parte del ámplio exilio de inteligencia que tan bien recibido fue y tan buenos frutos dió en los Estados Unidos de América.
Recaló en el mítico Black Mountain College (donde participó en la formación de la mejor generación de la vanguardia norteamericana) y después pasó a Yale.
Además de un influyente pedagogo fue un creador polifacético muy personal, y es conocido especialmente por su larga serie titulada Homenaje al cuadrado, en la que juega con la interacción cromática de colores planos dentro de un reducido formato, logrando notables resultados de intensidad, contraste, gradación y ritmo que siguen influyendo después de tantas décadas en las corrientes minimalistas.
Pero a lo que vamos: que un promotor discográfico (el director de orquesta Enoch Light, de Command Records, especializado en grabaciones con tecnología de novedosa alta fidelidad) recurriera a un artista de esas características para elaborar las portadas de alguno de sus discos es un caso admirable de buen gusto, de inteligencia empresarial, de oportunidad y, sobre todo, de justicia poética.
Aunque lo que realmente consagra a un creador, más allá de los sellos oficiales, del reconocimiento institucional e histórico o del apoyo a su fundación y a su legado es que Matt Groening recoja en su serie la visita de Marge Simpson a una de sus exposiciones.
Eso tiene que ser la gloria.
Josef Albers’ Designs
Command Records was distinguished by its highly modern, boldly graphic,
abstract album cover designs. Charles E. Murphy was the label’s art
director and he worked closely with a number of artists, including
Albers, Barbara Brown Peters, and Gerry Olin, on designs for the label.
Enoch Light’s daughter, Julie Light, first made the connection to Albers
-– she studied with him at Black Mountain College.
Albers’ designs for Command Records in 1959-1961 came at a pivotal
and highly-productive point in his professional career. In 1958, at age
70, he had just retired from his position as chairman of the Department
of Design at Yale University. In the short period between 1959-1961, he
completed many, large-scale public commissions, including for the
Corning Glass and Time & Life Buildings in New York City; the
Manuscript Society Building in New Haven, CT; and St. Patrick’s Church
in Oklahoma City, OK. Several years later, in 1963, he published his
seminal book Interaction of Color.
By 1959, Albers had been working on his Homage to the Square series
for nearly a decade. He would continue to work on this series until his
death in 1976. His designs for the Command Records, however, were a bit
of a stylistic anomaly for him. Although references to music do appear
in his work 25 years earlier, in works such as Keyboard (1932) and his
Treble Clef series (1932-1935), his designs for Command Records
prominently featured new formal elements for the first time,
specifically circles and grids of circles. There are only two other
instances of Albers using circles in his work: first, in the
Christmas/New Year’s greeting cards he designed for his personal use
(1952, 1957); and second, the sand-blasted glass door panels he designed
for the Todd Theater in Chicago (1957).
Albers designed the following seven album covers for Command Records:
* Provocative Percussion (Volume 1), 1959
* Provocative Percussion (Volume 2), 1960
* Provocative Percussion (Volume 3), 1961
* Persuasive Percussion (Volume 1), 1959
* Persuasive Percussion (Volume 3), 1960
* Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky – Ravel, 1961
* Leonid Hambro and Jascha Zayde, Magnificent Two-Piano Performances, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, 1961
About Josef Albers
Josef Albers (1888-1976) was an influential artist, teacher, and writer.
He is widely known for his painting series Homage to the Square
(1950-1976), his innovative publication about color theory Interaction
of Color (1963), and the legacy of his teaching at the Bauhaus, Black
Mountain College, and Yale University.
Interestingly, a short biography about Albers was included on many of the Command Records albums he designed. It read: “
JOSEPH
ALBERS is one of America’s foremost contemporary painters, was born in
Westphalia, Germany in 1888. After studying in Berlin, Essen and Munich
he taught at the famous Bauhaus school from 1923-1933. When the Bauhaus
was closed by order of the German government in 1933 Mr. Albers came to
the United States to head the Art Department at Black Mountain College
where he remained until 1950. After leaving Black Mountain, Mr. Albers
took over the direction of the Department of Design at Yale University.
At the present time, Mr. Albers lives and works in New Haven,
Connecticut.”
For further information about Josef Albers, please see The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation’s web site (
www.albersfoundation.org).
- See more at: http://www.minusspace.com/2009/12/josefalbers-minusspaceprojectspace/#sthash.nRcdb0ZW.dpuf
Josef Albers’ Designs
Command Records was distinguished by its highly modern, boldly graphic,
abstract album cover designs. Charles E. Murphy was the label’s art
director and he worked closely with a number of artists, including
Albers, Barbara Brown Peters, and Gerry Olin, on designs for the label.
Enoch Light’s daughter, Julie Light, first made the connection to Albers
-– she studied with him at Black Mountain College.
Albers’ designs for Command Records in 1959-1961 came at a pivotal
and highly-productive point in his professional career. In 1958, at age
70, he had just retired from his position as chairman of the Department
of Design at Yale University. In the short period between 1959-1961, he
completed many, large-scale public commissions, including for the
Corning Glass and Time & Life Buildings in New York City; the
Manuscript Society Building in New Haven, CT; and St. Patrick’s Church
in Oklahoma City, OK. Several years later, in 1963, he published his
seminal book Interaction of Color.
By 1959, Albers had been working on his Homage to the Square series
for nearly a decade. He would continue to work on this series until his
death in 1976. His designs for the Command Records, however, were a bit
of a stylistic anomaly for him. Although references to music do appear
in his work 25 years earlier, in works such as Keyboard (1932) and his
Treble Clef series (1932-1935), his designs for Command Records
prominently featured new formal elements for the first time,
specifically circles and grids of circles. There are only two other
instances of Albers using circles in his work: first, in the
Christmas/New Year’s greeting cards he designed for his personal use
(1952, 1957); and second, the sand-blasted glass door panels he designed
for the Todd Theater in Chicago (1957).
Albers designed the following seven album covers for Command Records:
* Provocative Percussion (Volume 1), 1959
* Provocative Percussion (Volume 2), 1960
* Provocative Percussion (Volume 3), 1961
* Persuasive Percussion (Volume 1), 1959
* Persuasive Percussion (Volume 3), 1960
* Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky – Ravel, 1961
* Leonid Hambro and Jascha Zayde, Magnificent Two-Piano Performances, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, 1961
About Josef Albers
Josef Albers (1888-1976) was an influential artist, teacher, and writer.
He is widely known for his painting series Homage to the Square
(1950-1976), his innovative publication about color theory Interaction
of Color (1963), and the legacy of his teaching at the Bauhaus, Black
Mountain College, and Yale University.
Interestingly, a short biography about Albers was included on many of the Command Records albums he designed. It read: “
JOSEPH
ALBERS is one of America’s foremost contemporary painters, was born in
Westphalia, Germany in 1888. After studying in Berlin, Essen and Munich
he taught at the famous Bauhaus school from 1923-1933. When the Bauhaus
was closed by order of the German government in 1933 Mr. Albers came to
the United States to head the Art Department at Black Mountain College
where he remained until 1950. After leaving Black Mountain, Mr. Albers
took over the direction of the Department of Design at Yale University.
At the present time, Mr. Albers lives and works in New Haven,
Connecticut.”
For further information about Josef Albers, please see The Josef & Anni Albers Foundation’s web site (
www.albersfoundation.org).
- See more at: http://www.minusspace.com/2009/12/josefalbers-minusspaceprojectspace/#sthash.nRcdb0ZW.dpuf
