A rare and intimate portrait of Albers in the classroom

Legendary for his tenure at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College and Yale, Josef Albers (1888-1976) was one of the most influential art educators of the 20th century. Between 1953 and 1955, Albers taught several preliminary design courses at the Ulm School of Design (HfG) in Germany. Swiss photographer Hans G. Conrad (born 1926), then a student at HfG, documented Albers’ teaching in an extensive series of over 400 photographs, depicting his lectures to and interactions with the students. These images are published here for the first time in their entirety. Juxtaposed with around 80 works on paper by Conrad from Albers’ exercise on Interaction of Color, they create a multifaceted and lively portrait of Albers in action teaching the fundamentals of art and design.