Paris, Eiffel Tower

1920s

From Expressionism to geometry: glass “diaphanies”

Under the influence of Bauhaus Constructivism, with László Moholy-Nagy among his chief mentors, Albers moved to a far stricter geometric abstraction and took up “diaphanies” — transparent compositions on glass made with a sandblaster.

1930

Deputy director of the Bauhaus

From 1930 Albers was deputy director of the whole school; earlier he had succeeded Marcel Breuer as head of the furniture workshop. He was also an active designer of furniture and of glass and metal ware.

1933

The Bauhaus closes; emigration to the United States

When the Bauhaus closed under Nazi pressure in 1933, Albers was among the first of its teachers to emigrate to the United States. The architect Philip Johnson, then a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, arranged for him to be offered the headship of a new art school, Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

November 1933

“To open eyes”: his first English sentence

When Albers arrived at Black Mountain College, a student asked him what he was going to teach. His first English sentence was “to open eyes” — and it became the motto of all his teaching.

1933–1949

Black Mountain summer seminars and famous pupils

To Black Mountain's summer seminars Albers invited leading American artists to teach — Willem de Kooning, the choreographer Merce Cunningham, the Harlem Renaissance painter Jacob Lawrence. His students included Ruth Asawa, Ray Johnson, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly and Susan Weil; Rauschenberg, despite their often combative relationship, later named Albers his most important teacher. In these years Albers made many woodcuts and leaf studies.

1933–1949

Employed by: Black Mountain College