CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/18/2020

In breathtaking 'Josef Albers in Mexico,' matter and spirit intertwine

In his 1937 Harvard University lecture, Truthfulness in Art, Josef Albers declared, “Let us learn from the Mexican artist truthfulness to conception and material, truthfulness to art as spiritual creation.” Having traveled to Mexico fourteen times between 1935 and 1967, Albers and his wife, textile artist Anni Albers, found in pre-Columbian art elements of the streamlined, visionary ethos they had helped to forge at the Bauhaus prior to World War II. Through Modern abstraction, they sought, according to Latin American cultural historian Joaquin Barriendos, “to reinvigorate a constructive philosophy in which matter and spirit intertwine.” This synthesis is perfectly illustrated in the paintings and black-and-white architectural photo collages collected in bookseller favorite Josef Albers in Mexico —back in stock at last. Featured image is “Variant/Adobe, Orange Front” (1948-58).