Art and life of Annie and Josef Albers talk at IVAM

The art and life of Anni and Josef Albers dialogue at the IVAM Center Julio González which presents, from February 24 to June 19, the exhibition Anni and Josef Albers. Art and Life, an exhibition co-produced by the Musée d'Art Modern de Paris (MAM) and the IVAM. The exhibition together exhibits for the first time in the state the paintings, drawings, photographs, textiles, furniture, glass pieces and jewelry of this unique pair of creators. A total of almost 350 works, some never seen before, cover the work of the two artists.

“The exhibition brings the public closer to the fruitful relationship between Annie and Josef Albers and to the constant exchange that their coexistence produced throughout their artistic life. The two artists managed to break the stereotypes of design and art understood as independent spheres; even the roles between the two, as husband and wife, were affected at one point, in the 1920s, and in one place, the Bauhaus, where anything was possible, ”said Raquel Tamarit, secretary. autonomous.

On the one hand, Josef Albers (1888-1976), painter, designer and teacher; on the other hand, Anni Albers (1899-1994), textile artist, recorder, designer and art theorist. Although they developed their work independently, it was the intimacy and complicity of their relationship that allowed them, throughout their careers, to support and reinforce each other since they met in 1922 in the Bauhaus School in Weimar.

The director of the IVAM, Núria Enguita, explained that "the exhibition pays special attention to the connections between the two artists in the different periods of their careers, highlighting both the recurring motives and ideas and the experimental creations" .

This exhibition brings together some of the exceptional large-format tapestries made by Anni, including the singular With verticals, as well as the abstract series Tribute to the square made by Josef from 1950, along with its stained glass, collages, furniture and graphic works. Most of the works come from the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation, as well as institutions such as the Josef Albers Museum Square, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and individuals who have lent pieces.

Nuria Enguita thanked the special collaboration of the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation and the Banco Sabadell Foundation in the project, while recalling that the exhibition is part of the official program of Valencia Capital Capital of Design 2022.

In this sense, Enguita pointed out that “Anni and Josef Albers conceived design as part of a program where aesthetics and functionality, art and the world, aesthetics and life, are inseparable. His commitment to an art for life also incorporated the knowledge of ancestral cultures, relegated to the margins, decolonizing the Western canon. At a time when the imagination about the future seems incapable of proposing a better horizon, the artistic and pedagogical practices of Annie and Josef Albers are an essential example today ”.

The exhibition will completely cover their artistic careers, both individually and jointly, and will be the first time that the work of artists as a couple will be presented in Spain during the different creative stages. The exhibition will be organized chronologically and will consist of about 350 works including paintings, photographs, design and textiles, films, documentary material, as well as a selection of pieces of furniture from the Bauhaus stage that will represent the fundamental milestones in the career of this pair of artists.