Josef Albers in Black and White

This volume focuses on one aspect of Josef Albers's career: his work in black, white, and gray. By concentrating on this select group of drawings, prints, photographs, engraved vinylites, and paintings, one can survey his work from the early drawings (1910s) to the late prints (1970s). What becomes clear is that, with the key exception of his conversion to abstraction at the Bauhaus in the very early 1920s, Albers remained largely immune to changing currents in the art world. Throughout his life, he allowed only one of the pervasive social forces defining the 20th century to have a direct impact on his art -- a very modern embrace of industrialization.