Josef Albers Quotes

Powerful Josef Albers for Daily Growth

About Josef Albers

Josef Albers (1888-1976) was a prominent German-American artist and educator who played a significant role in shaping modern art education. Born on March 19, 1888, in Bottgerstrasse, Bottgarzer Straße, Bavaria, Germany, Albers grew up in a working-class family. He began his artistic journey by learning stained glass techniques from his father, a master craftsman in the field. At age 16, Albers enrolled at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he studied painting and graphic design. His formative years were marked by the influence of Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and other pioneers of the Bauhaus movement. In 1920, Albers joined the Bauhaus school, quickly rising to become its head of the preliminary course in 1923. Albers's teachings at Bauhaus emphasized experimentation, interdisciplinary learning, and understanding the fundamental principles of art and design. His most famous work from this period is the book "The Art of Color" (1963), which explores color interactions, a subject he continued to investigate throughout his career. In 1933, with the rise of Nazi Germany, Albers immigrated to the United States and became a professor at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. He later moved to Yale University's School of Art and Architecture, where he served as head of the department from 1950 to 1958. During his time in America, Albers created several notable series of paintings, including the "Homages to the Square," which consist of thousands of small square paintings exploring the relationship between color and form. His work continues to inspire artists and designers globally due to its exploration of perceptual phenomena and the interplay of color and form. Albers passed away on March 25, 1976, leaving behind a lasting legacy in modern art education and theory.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Art is a visual language of great power, capable of uniting and of establishing bridges between peoples."

Josef Albers' quote emphasizes the universal and powerful nature of art as a means of communication that transcends linguistic, cultural, and geographical boundaries. It highlights art's ability to create connections, foster understanding, and promote unity among diverse groups of people by using a visual language. This shared visual vocabulary allows individuals from different backgrounds to engage with, appreciate, and learn from one another. The quote underscores the importance of art in promoting global harmony and fostering empathy through visual expression.


"The design of a picture plane should be considered complete when nothing can be added or subtracted without impoverishing its quality."

This quote by Josef Albers emphasizes that an artwork's design should reach a point of harmony where adding or removing any element would negatively impact its overall quality. The implication is that artists should strive to create balanced, cohesive, and self-contained pieces, ensuring every element serves a purpose within the work, and nothing is redundant or disruptive. This approach encourages the artist to think deeply about composition, color, texture, and form, resulting in an artwork that resonates with viewers as a complete, well-rounded whole.


"To create one's world in any of the arts requires courage."

This quote by Josef Albers underscores the bravery needed to express individual creativity, particularly within artistic realms. Creating a unique world through art involves risk-taking, originality, and self-expression – all of which demand personal courage. It signifies that the act of creation is not merely technical skill but also a fearless journey towards self-discovery and self-expression.


"Design is a method of putting materials together to get desired effects."

Josef Albers' quote emphasizes that design is not just about arranging materials, but rather it's a strategic process for achieving specific results or outcomes. This implies that the combination and placement of elements play a crucial role in creating an intended effect – be it aesthetic, functional, emotional, or any other desired impact on the observer. Essentially, design, according to Albers, is a methodical approach to transforming raw materials into meaningful experiences through clever use of arrangement and manipulation.


"Art is only art when it moves us, either physically or metaphorically."

Josef Albers' quote suggests that for art to be authentic, it should evoke a response – whether emotional, intellectual, or even physical – beyond just being visually pleasing. In other words, art that truly resonates with us has the power to stir our feelings, challenge our perceptions, or even provoke action. This could manifest in various ways, such as a profound sense of awe, deep reflection, or even a call to action. Thus, Albers asserts that art is not merely an object or a decoration; it's a powerful medium capable of engaging and affecting us on multiple levels.


Simultaneous contrast is not just a curious optical phenomenon - it is the very heart of painting.

- Josef Albers

Painting, Curious, Very, Simultaneous

In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art.

- Josef Albers

Art, Color, Fact, Medium

As basic rules of a language must be practiced continually, and therefore are never fixed, so exercises toward distinct color effects never are done or over. New and different cases will be discovered time and again.

- Josef Albers

Color, Discovered, Distinct, Fixed

And I started with this: I have not painted at all my childhood. In fact, I never painted. But I helped my father who was a house painter and decorative painter. He made stage sets, he made glass paintings, he made everything.

- Josef Albers

Childhood, Fact, Glass, Decorative

You see, I have in my teaching - I always say I've done it for a hundred years and have had thousands of students - I have always spoken against just falling onto your knees for so-called accidents, I mean a result you are not responsible for.

- Josef Albers

Against, Knees, Hundred, Hundred Years

Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely.

- Josef Albers

Art, Process, Same, Creative Process

I was at the Royal Art School. That was a preparatory school specially for art teachers. You see, it was not so much for the development of artists. But we had there terribly stiff training.

- Josef Albers

Art, Development, Stiff, Art School

When I came from horizontal vertical straight all old stuff then suddenly I go also again in curved lines. And there I submit to changes in the intensity of my hand leading a tool, you see.

- Josef Albers

Changes, Submit, Leading, Horizontal

I went to the Academy and studied with Stuck who was then a big man. But didn't interest me. I didn't know that before me there was Kandinsky and Klee who had also studied with Stuck. He had a good name at that time.

- Josef Albers

Big, Before, Studied, Stuck

The aim of our studies is to prove that color is the most relative means of artistic expression, that we never really perceive what color is physically.

- Josef Albers

Prove, Expression, Means, Studies

I have invented the Thermometer style.

- Josef Albers

Style, Thermometer, Invented

In Italy the artist is a god. Now if the artist is a god, the scientist is likewise a god.

- Josef Albers

Artist, Now, Scientist, Likewise

It is not so for art in appreciation because art is concerned with human behavior. And science is concerned with the behavior of metal or energy. It depends on what the fashion is. Now today it's energy. It's the same soul behind it. The same soul, you see.

- Josef Albers

Art, Behind, Concerned, Human Behavior

Apprentice is the beginner - the first years you work in a craft in the European sense you are an apprentice. That takes 3 or 4 years. Then you are a journeyman. You can go from one master to another and learn other tricks and other secrets.

- Josef Albers

Work, Learn, Other, Secrets

I think Kandinsky and I were very near friends.

- Josef Albers

Think, I Think, Very, Near

Any ground subtracts its own hue from the colors which it carries and therefore influences.

- Josef Albers

Own, Influences, Which, Carries

Instead of art I have taught philosophy. Though technique for me is a big word, I never have taught how to paint. All my doing was to make people to see.

- Josef Albers

Art, Doing, Big, Philosophy

On the little money I had collected I lived in Berlin very cheaply, ate very cheaply. And already in 1920 I saved the first salaries I received to go to Munich.

- Josef Albers

Saved, Very, Cheaply, Munich

When we are honest - that's my saying - if we are honest then we will reveal ourselves. But we do not have to make an effort to be individualistic, different from others.

- Josef Albers

Effort, Will, Reveal, Individualistic

I prefer to see with closed eyes.

- Josef Albers

Eyes, See, Prefer, Closed

When we were in the seminary we got a stipend direct from the government and for that stipend we had an obligation to stick to our teaching job for five years.

- Josef Albers

Teaching, Had, Direct, Obligation

My father's parents were carpenters. They were also builders partly. They were painters. And several of them were very, active in the theatre and all such nonsense, you know.

- Josef Albers

Father, Builders, Very, Partly

I count all the time on resonance. I call on this, you see.

- Josef Albers

See, Count, Call, Resonance

I'm not a talker. I'm a formulator.

- Josef Albers

Talker

If you don't do it my way, I suggest you commit suicide.

- Josef Albers

Suicide, You, Commit, Suggest

I've handled colour as a man should behave. You may conclude that I consider ethics and aesthetics as one.

- Josef Albers

Ethics, May, Conclude, Behave

I love very much to draw animals.

- Josef Albers

Love, Very, I Love, Draw

Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature.

- Josef Albers

Nature, More, Than, Abstraction

I have taught my students not to apply rules or mechanical ways of seeing.

- Josef Albers

Seeing, Ways, Taught, Mechanical

I was for years in the yellow period, you know.

- Josef Albers

Know, Years, Period, Yellow

If you're searching for quotes on a different topic, feel free to browse our Topics page or explore a diverse collection of quotes from various Authors to find inspiration.