Jen Library Archives and Special Collections

We included a few of the images from our new acquisition, Formulation: Articulation, by Josef Albers.  See our post about this important addition to Special Collections.  There are more and higher quality images available in the Visual Resources Center’s Digital Image Database.  And, Artstor recently announced that the images from the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation are now available on Artstor.  Of course, we welcome visitors to the collection anytime during our open hours.

Folio I Folder 6-1

Folio I Folder 6-2

We have included 2 of the 4 images from this series.
From Albers’ Commentary:
I:6
Four upright rectangular backgrounds (taken from folder I:5). Each of these carries the same design (from an early glass picture), which consists of overlapping and penetrating groups of horizontal lines and blocks which we read vertically up and down. The color in all four cases is precisely the same middle gray. This appears dark at the far left and light at the far right, and on the second and third grounds appears somewhat metallic, with a yellowish and reddish tinge.

Folio I Folder 16-1

Folio I Folder 16-2

We have included 2 of the 4 images from this series.
From Albers’ Commentary:
I:16
Four different temperaments of a very first group of serial variants, derived from and named after an elaborated G-clef (or treble clef or violin clef), started about 1931 abroad and ended about 1935 in the United States. These were developed mainly in so-called colorless colors — various shapes of gray plus black and white.
These show that any shape permits and invites various readings, which are caused by changing associations and different reactions and which result all together in a change of meaning.
Such changes of meaning depend on altered relationships of the parts of the compositions, on changing contrasts and affinities (different groupings), on placement, and on more or less concentration or emphasis. All together, this changes the direction of our reading of the content of the pictures. This is where we begin and end our wandering through the picture, where we return to or meet again. On this journey we notice, first and most quickly, the large before the small, the loud before the soft, the bright before the dull; in short, all increased or intensified qualities and activities. Compare, for instance, each of the lower parts of the figures — the “torso”. All are of different character though precisely of the same shape. They even appear of different size, extension, weight, and density, and the movement of the spiral of different speed, swirling more outward or inward, increasing or decreasing in tempo, looking more flat or more oblique, and so more dynamic or more static. (From an early commentary for a slide lecture.)

Folio I Folder 30
We have included the left image of the 2 images from this series.
From Albers’ Commentary:
I:30
Again, two contrasting Variants.
Left: Mostly yellow with gradations of light — probably “morning.”
Right: No color, little light, no temperature — possibly “timeless.”

Folio I Folder 31

We have included the vertical image of the 2 images from this series.
From Albers’ Commentary:
I:31
Graphic Tectonic
1. Synopsis
The term tectonic implies that these abstract compositions are “constructed,” built with elements that are produced by mechanical means and arranged in and emphasized mechanical order…
2. Syntax
These are built exclusively of horizontal and vertical lines which are the most two-dimensional and therefore the most nonspatial elements…

Folio II Folder 2-1

Folio II Folder 2-2

From Albers’ Commentary:
II:2
Originally a single print pulled from a woodblock, which could be looked at from any direction.  It is now printed with the same image turned  in its four different positions, alternatingly horizontal and vertical.  The design on the printblock was so formulated that, by turning it, the respective center of action would wander in our perception and our reading would thus indicate various creatures and/or simultaneously, various functions…

Folio II Folder 27-1

Folio II Folder 27-2

We have included the 2 of the 4 images from this series, which also include Folio II, Folder 28.
From Albers’ Commentary:
II:27 and 28
After these eight Homage to the Squares, all only in reds, see that the four squares of the same size (see folder I-23) in grays are no less appealing.

Folio II Folder 31

We have included 1 of the 2 images from this series.
From Albers’ Commentary:
II:31
After two early sandblasted flashed glass pictures.