Table of Contents

1. Homages to the Square • 2. Am Anfang • 3. Berlin and Munich • 4. Weimar • 5. Dessau and Berlin • 6. Black Mountain College • 7. Yale • 8. Beginnings and Ends

Promotional Information

The first full-scale biography of one of the 20th century's great makers, theorists and painters

About the Author

Charles Darwent is an art critic and reviewer. He contributes regularly to the Guardian, the Art Newspaper and Art Review and was the Independent on Sunday’s chief art critic from 1999 to 2013. He appeared in the Netflix series, Raiders of the Lost Art, from 2014 to 2016. Darwent’s publications include Mondrian in London and The Drawing Book: A Survey of Drawing. He spent five years researching Josef Albers at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut.

Reviews

'Lively, lucid, compelling and revealing, offering fascinating insights into Albers – as artist and teacher – while convincingly reframing his place at the heart of modernism on both sides of the Atlantic' - Frances Morris, Director of Tate Modern

'Darwent is a highly engaging writer on the visual arts. … Albers lived through a remarkable period, mixing with some extraordinary people' - The Spectator

'A revealing read, leading to a deeper understanding of Albers's life and his impact on the landscape of art' - Arts Society Magazine

'Carefully researched and engagingly written … fascinating … beautifully designed' - The Art Newspaper

'Darwent is a thorough chronicler of this long and complex life, and it is in the moments of critical insight that his text soars' - Crafts magazine

'Charles Darwent examines not just Albers’s artwork … but how he became probably the most important art teacher of the century' - Sunday Times, Art Books of the Year

'Charles Darwent’s biography gives the German-born American artist and teacher his due [and] makes a strong case for an artist who was not as recognized as fellow Bauhaus teachers … A gruff yet caring teacher, a ladies’ man and a daily Mass-going Catholic, both jealous of and generous with his peers, Albers steps convincingly from these pages' - The Washington Post

'A sedulously researched and urgent guide to its subject’s art, his vexed professional life and his somewhat ummoving personality' - Literary Review

'Casts new light on the man whose art wasn’t valued highly until he was in his seventies … provides a sense of Albers’ tremendous imaginative stamina: his ideas remained cutting-edge for six decades' - Financial Times

'Drawing on previously untapped archival sources, in addition to five years spent at the Albers Foundation, Darwent has assembled a wealth of historical material … a lean and cohesive narrative that is a pleasure to read' - The Burlington Magazine

'Brings Albers to life' - Country Life