Josef & Anni Albers

Anni and Josef Albers were pioneering 20th-century artists whose work, writing, and teaching demonstrably transformed the way that people see color and the processes of making art.

The Albers were key contributors to the Bauhaus Movement, as some of the first students to join the School of Bauhaus in 1920, and continued to teach there until 1933.

In 1933, when the Bauhaus faculty, Josef among them, elected to close the school rather than comply with the Third Reich, the Alberses were left without jobs and with complete uncertainty about the future, especially because they already realized the significance of Anni being Jewish in the Nazi era.

The pair then moved to America, and began teaching at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina. They remained here for 16 years before moving to NYC, where Anni became the first woman and the first textile artist to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

In 1950, Josef was appointed Head of the newly formed Design Department at Yale University, and the couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut.

The Albers' and their ideas live on through the efforts of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and their work continues to be featured in countless museums and institutions all over the world.