Josef Albers
Acting
Biography
Josef Albers ( March 19, 1888 – March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA[2] and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, headed Yale University's Department of Design, and is considered one of the most influential teachers of the visual arts in the twentieth century. As an artist, Albers worked in several disciplines, including photography, typography, murals, and printmaking. He is best known for his work as an abstract painter and theorist. His book Interaction of Color was published in 1963. Description above from the Wikipedia article "Josef Albers," licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
A documentary short directed by Brian De Palma, The Responsive Eye documents the 1965 exhibition of optical art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Curated by William C. Seitz, the exhibition was the first major museum show dedicated to Op Art. The film captures both the artworks and the reactions of attendees, offering a snapshot of a pivotal moment in the relationship between contemporary art and public perception.
The Responsive Eye
The genesis of To Open Eyes: A Film on Josef Albers developed from Arnold Bittleman's appreciation for Albers while Bittleman was a student at Yale University in the 1960s. Wanting to preserve Albers’s teaching method—learning by doing—Bittleman set out with filmmaker and editor Carl Howard to make a visual record of Albers teaching students how to see and use color as a visual grammar. The film includes archival footage of Josef Albers at home in conversation with Bittleman, as well as footage from Black Mountain College and Yale University.
To Open Eyes
Sedat Pakay's documentary film is the first and only time that the work and lives of Josef and Anni Albers have been viewed in tandem. Pakay worked closely with the staff of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and its Executive Director, Nicholas Fox Weber, who was a close friend of both the Alberses, and conducted a number of unprecedented interviews with people significant in both of the Alberses' lives. The film includes rare footage of the art of both Josef and Anni and insightful commentary from personal friends of the artists, including architect Philip Johnson, who arranged for them to come to the U.S. as refugees from Nazi Germany in 1933.