Suite of 127 Silkscreen Plates by Josef Albers on View at Peter Blum Gallery

Written by Leslie Kaminsky Saturday, 27 March 2010 20:21

NEW YORK, NY.- Peter Blum presents the exhibition Josef Albers: Formulation : Articulation, 1972, a suite of 127 silkscreen plates, at 99 Wooster Street, New York. Published by Harry N. Abrams and Ives and Sillman, just 4 years before Albers’ death in 1976, Formulation : Articulation is a collection of 127 silkscreen plates, 121 in color, organized into two portfolios, each containing 33 folders on which one, two, or four silkscreen plates are printed. The portfolio is accompanied by a text with Albers’ notes on each of the plates.

Albers refers to these notes as “Statements of Content” in which he discusses the design and color selections and often comments on the work in relation to the plate previous to it. In fact, Albers took great care in selecting the order of the plates to create particular juxtapositions or series of his visual explorations.

Over a period of two years of concentrated work, Albers, while in his eighties, created the prints for Formulation : Articulation. The collection is not a retrospective of past works, yet the images represent a gathering of over 4 decades of the artist’s investigation into color, perception, and abstraction.

From his iconic Homage to the Square series, to lesser-known images, the prints display the optical possibilities of color and design. Ever the consummate teacher, Formulation : Articulation can be seen as a summation of the artist’s pedagogy. Albers’ writing, work, and teaching profoundly influenced a generation of artists and visual arts instruction the world over.

In 1971 (nearly five years before his death), Albers founded the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, a non-profit organization he hoped would further "the revelation and evocation of vision through art." Today, this organization not only serves as the office Estate of both Josef Albers and his wife Anni Albers, but also supports exhibitions and publications focused on Albers works. The official Foundation building is located in Bethany, Connecticut and "includes a central research and archival storage center to accommodate the Foundation's art collections, library and archives, and offices, as well as residence studios for visiting artists.

The exhibition closes on May 8, 2010. Visit Peter Blum Gallery at : http://peterblumgallery.com/

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