On his first trip to Mexico, in 1935, Josef Albers encountered the magnificent architecture of ancient Mesoamerica. He later wrote to Kandinsky, ‘Mexico is truly the promised land of abstract art.’ Josef Albers and his wife Anni visited Mexico and other Latin American countries nearly a dozen times between 1935 and ’67. This exhibition brings together photographs and photo collages from those travels, from the Guggenheim’s collection and various lenders. Many of these works have never been exhibited publicly before. They suggest that the artist’s abstract canvases may have been influenced by pre-Columbian motifs and monuments. Find out more about the Josef Albers exhibition from the Guggenheim’s website.
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The Great Pyramid in Tenayuca, Mexico (c. 1940), Josef Albers. © 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
To Mitla (1940), Josef Albers. © 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Study for Sanctuary (1941–42), Josef Albers. © 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photograph of the details in the stonework at Mitla (c. 1937), Josef Albers. © 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Prismatic II (1936), Josef Albers. © 2017 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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