Anni and Josef Albers DonationFrom the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation

This donation is the largest one made by the Foundation since the deaths of the two artists. It constitutes an important addition to the museum's collection, which until now did not have any of the two artists' works. In the words of Nicholas Fox Weber, executive director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, « this gift is the fruit of the close collaboration between the teams at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris and the Albers Foundation. I am certain that Anni and Josef Albers would have admired the bold artistic choices made by the Musée d'Art Moderne. »

With works representing all the stages in the creative lives of these two great artists – from their beginnings at the Bauhaus, their period at Black Mountain College and then in Connecticut and in particular (for Josef) at Yale University –, this group of fifty-seven works encompasses all the techniques and materials used by the Albers: painting, weaving, drawing, photography and a variety of printing processes.

Anni and Josef Albers were both born in Germany and met in 1922 at the Bauhaus art school. They married three years later. In 1933, they emigrated to the United States, where they were invited to teach at Black Mountain College, an experimental liberal arts college in the mountains of North Carolina. In this new environment, Josef intensified his research into colour whilst Anni continued to explore different weaving techniques. The intimate and close bond they shared underpinned a lifetime of mutual support and encouragement through an ongoing dialogue based on mutual respect. With their particular attention to form, material and colour, they produced a body of work now considered as part of the foundations of modern art and which continues to exert considerable influence. Their work not only as artists, but also as teachers is all about constantly raising new questions by sensitively observing the visual and tactile world.

Curation : Julia Garimorth, assisted by Sylvie Moreau-Soteras