Description
Albers in Mexico reveals the profound link between the magnificent art and architecture of ancient Mesoamerica and Albers's abstract works on canvas and paper.
`Mexico is truly the promised land of abstract art', Josef Albers once wrote to Vassily Kandinsky. Albers in Mexico reveals the profound link between the magnificent art and architecture of ancient Mesoamerica and Albers's abstract works on canvas and paper. With his wife, the artist Anni Albers, he visited Mexico and other Latin American countries more than a dozen times from 1935 to 1968, where he toured pre-Columbian archeological sites and monuments. On each visit, Albers took blackand- white photographs of the pyramids, shrines, sanctuaries and landscapes in and around these ancient sites, often grouping multiple images printed at various scales onto 8 x 10 inch sheets. The result was nearly 200 photo-collages that illustrate formal characteristics of the pre-Columbian aesthetic. Albers in Mexico brings together rarely exhibited photographs, photo-collages, prints and significant paintings from the Homage to the Square and Variants/Adobe series from the Guggenheim Museum collection and the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation. This catalogue includes two scholarly essays, Albers's poetry from the period and an illustrated map, as well as rich colour reproductions of paintings and works on paper.
About the Author
Lauren Hinkson is Associate Curator, Collections, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Reviews
A necessary corrective to Albers's reputation as more pedagogue than painter and the misconception that abstraction can ever be free of outside influence. -- Dennis Zhou * Hyperallergic *
"Josef Albers in Mexico" has an energetic syncopation generated by the paintings' singing colors, which alternate with the silvery sepia of the photographs. -- Roberta Smith * The New York Times *
the architecture and sculpture of ancient Mexico were vital to [Albers'] art, not only as a database of motifs for his paintings but also as a kind of secular church where his faith in abstract art for the modern age was renewed. -- Richard Woodward * Wall Street Journal *
Book Information
ISBN 9780892075362
Author Lauren Hinkson
Format Hardback
Page Count 160
Imprint Guggenheim Museum Publications,U.S.
Publisher Guggenheim Museum Publications,U.S.
Weight(grams) 1150g
`Mexico is truly the promised land of abstract art', Josef Albers once wrote to Vassily Kandinsky. Albers in Mexico reveals the profound link between the magnificent art and architecture of ancient Mesoamerica and Albers's abstract works on canvas and paper. With his wife, the artist Anni Albers, he visited Mexico and other Latin American countries more than a dozen times from 1935 to 1968, where he toured pre-Columbian archeological sites and monuments. On each visit, Albers took blackand- white photographs of the pyramids, shrines, sanctuaries and landscapes in and around these ancient sites, often grouping multiple images printed at various scales onto 8 x 10 inch sheets. The result was nearly 200 photo-collages that illustrate formal characteristics of the pre-Columbian aesthetic. Albers in Mexico brings together rarely exhibited photographs, photo-collages, prints and significant paintings from the Homage to the Square and Variants/Adobe series from the Guggenheim Museum collection and the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation. This catalogue includes two scholarly essays, Albers's poetry from the period and an illustrated map, as well as rich colour reproductions of paintings and works on paper.
About the Author
Lauren Hinkson is Associate Curator, Collections, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Reviews
A necessary corrective to Albers's reputation as more pedagogue than painter and the misconception that abstraction can ever be free of outside influence. -- Dennis Zhou * Hyperallergic *
"Josef Albers in Mexico" has an energetic syncopation generated by the paintings' singing colors, which alternate with the silvery sepia of the photographs. -- Roberta Smith * The New York Times *
the architecture and sculpture of ancient Mexico were vital to [Albers'] art, not only as a database of motifs for his paintings but also as a kind of secular church where his faith in abstract art for the modern age was renewed. -- Richard Woodward * Wall Street Journal *
Book Information
ISBN 9780892075362
Author Lauren Hinkson
Format Hardback
Page Count 160
Imprint Guggenheim Museum Publications,U.S.
Publisher Guggenheim Museum Publications,U.S.
Weight(grams) 1150g
