
We never really perceive what color really is, as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art.
Josef Albers

Josef Albers 1888–1976
From a young age, Josef Albers possessed an innate interest in glass and color. His father was a painter, and as a child, Albers loved to watch his father create. Albers commenced his formal training in art under the Dutch glass artist Jan Thorn-Prikker, who was a former follower of Henry Van der Velde. Beginning his studies at the Bauhaus in 1920, Albers quickly became involved in new experimentations in glass and painting. While he was a student, Albers began dating Anni Fleischmann, a talented student in textiles at the Bauhaus and in 1925 the two married. That same year, Josef became the Bauhaus master, the first student to hold the position.
The Albers moved to the United States in 1933, leaving Germany due to the rise of the Nazi Party. The architect, Philip Johnson recommended Josef Albers for a position at the newly formed Black Mountain College. Albers headed the progressive school’s art program and while director he taught many of the most celebrated American artists of the twentieth century, including Ruth Asawa, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, and others. In 1949, Albers left Black Mountain College to serve as the Chairman of the Design department at Yale. It was there that he executed his most famous series of paintings entitled Homage to a Square.
Throughout the 1960s, Albers received several commissions to craft murals for new architectural projects; notably, in 1963, he completed a monumental abstract mural for the Pan Am building in New York. In 1971, five years before his death, Albers was the first living artist to be honored with a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Auction Results Josef Albers

Josef Albers
Portfolio I Folder 28 from Formulation : Articulation
estimate: $800–1,200
result: $875

Josef Albers
Portfolio I Folder 28 from Formulation : Articulation
estimate: $800–1,200
result: $750

Josef Albers
Portfolio I Folder 3 from Formulation : Articulation (two works)
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $938

Josef Albers
Portfolio II Folder 23 from Formulation: Articulation
estimate: $1,200–1,800
result: $1,063

Josef Albers
Portfolio II Folder 25 from Formulation: Articulation
estimate: $1,200–1,800

Josef Albers
WLS III from White Line Squares (Series I)
estimate: $3,500–4,500
result: $5,000

Josef Albers
Formulation: Articulation (Portfolio 1, Folder 10)
estimate: $800–1,000
result: $563

Josef Albers
Portfolio II Folder 25 from Formulation: Articulation
estimate: $400–600
result: $715

Josef Albers
I-S Va 3 (from Six Variants)
estimate: $700–900
result: $2,250

Josef Albers
Formulation: Articulations proofs
estimate: $1,000–1,500

Josef Albers
Folio II / Folder 2 (from the Formulation : Articulation portfolio)
estimate: $1,200–1,800
result: $813

Josef Albers
Folio II / Folder 15 (from the Formulation : Articulation portfolio)
estimate: $1,200–1,800
result: $750

Josef Albers
Folio II / Folder 29 (from the Formulation : Articulation portfolio)
estimate: $1,200–1,800
result: $715

Josef Albers
Folio II / Folder 17 (from the Formulation : Articulation portfolio)
estimate: $1,200–1,800
result: $780

Josef Albers
Folio II / Folder 21 (from the Formulation : Articulation portfolio)
estimate: $1,200–1,800

Josef Albers
Folio II / Folder 33 and Folio II / Folder 19 (from the Formulation : Articulation portfolio)
estimate: $2,500–3,500
result: $2,250

Josef Albers
Olympische Spiele München
estimate: $500–700
result: $2,000

Josef Albers
The Interaction of Color
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $5,625

Josef Albers
I-S VV II
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $2,250

Josef Albers
WEG XI
estimate: $1,500–2,500
result: $2,000

Josef Albers
Reserved (from Homage to the Square: Ten Works by Josef Albers)
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $813

Josef Albers
SK-ED from the Homage to the Square series
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $975

Josef Albers
I-S j
estimate: $2,500–3,500
result: $9,375

Josef Albers
I-S k
estimate: $2,500–3,500
result: $10,625