This will be the first exhibition to look at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s never before exhibited photographs and photocollages alongside significant paintings by Josef Albers (1888–1976). It will also include a select group of loans from the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation, holdings of rarely seen photocollages from Mexico, and early paintings that will provide further context for this least known of Albers’s practice. The exhibition will present a unique opportunity to experience the revelatory influence the archaeological sites and monuments of Mexico had on Albers, showing his interest in the geometry and formal elements of pre-Columbian architecture. At the same time, Albers’ long-term commitment to studying Mexican art and architecture also positions him as a prescient figure in the history of post-WWII American art, when artists such as Donald Judd, Ad Reinhardt and Robert Smithson looked toward ancient traditions with a new sensitivity and self-awareness.
