Accession Number2007/2.5
TitleUntitled (Structural Constellation drawing)
Artist(s)Josef AlbersArtist NationalityAmerican (North American)Object Creation Datecirca 1955Medium & Supportpen and ink on half inch grid graph paper ruled in blueDimensions 8 1/16 in x 11 in (20.48 cm x 27.94 cm);8 1/16 in x 11 in (20.48 cm x 27.94 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in memory of Charles H. SawyerLabel copyMarch 28, 2009
Like his fellow Bauhaus professor Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Albers was preoccupied throughout his long career with perceptual ambiguity. In this drawing, created two decades after Albers had immigrated to the United States, a geometric shape floats in an undefined and seemingly infinite space, denying the stable viewpoint associated with traditional perspective.
After leaving Germany in 1933, Albers brought the Bauhaus model of experimentation in art, craft, and architecture to the United States at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he and his wife, Anni, taught from 1933 to 1949. At Black Mountain and subsequently at the Yale University Art School, where he chaired the Department of Design from 1950 to 1958, Albers exerted a powerful influence on the development of postwar American art.
Subject matterabstract deconstructed geometric linear form
Physical Descriptionpen and ink drawing on half inch grid graph paper ruled in blue
Primary Object Classification Drawing Primary Object Typeline drawingRightsIf you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit
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Keywords
Abstract (fine arts style)
Conceptual
Hard-edge
diagrams
geometric abstraction
graphic document genres
ink
line drawings (drawings)
modern and contemporary art