Poems and Drawings

by Josef Albers, Nicholas Fox Weber

In Poems and Drawings , first published in 1958, Josef Albers attempted to penetrate the meaning of art and life by the simplest, most disciplined means. This project was extremely important to Albers, who used its format to create complementary forms in both word and line that appear deceptively simple until they begin to disclose the author’s insights into nature, art, and life. Conceived as a kind of artist’s book, the publication features 22 of Albers’s refined line drawings alongside the same number of his original poems—each appearing in both English and German.
Printed initially in a limited edition and long out of print, this new edition of Poems and Drawings replicates Albers’s original book design and includes four previously unpublished poems that reveal playful and tender details behind Albers’s personal relationships, along with a new introduction by Nicholas Fox Weber.
For admirers of Albers, Poems and Drawings will provide a closer look at a celebrated artist who was also an affectionate and articulate writer.

Genres: Poetry, Art, Design

80 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2006

About the author

Simple geometric patterns of various colors characterize works, such as the series Homage to the Square (1950-1959), of German-born American painter Josef Albers.

This artist and educator in Europe and the United States formed the basis of modern programs of the 20th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_A...

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading of mixed media is something we're starting to see more of lately as some novelists (Eg. Foer, Eco, Sebald) have more and less successfully begun experimenting with illustration to accompany narrative. Not everything venturing into this area, I'm convinced, represents work that has fully thought through the problem it is taking on. I am not closely familiar with Albers' technical and theoretical writing, but this piece obviously stands apart from his more instructive work because its content is so personal.

Albers' design sensiblity might be that best suited for first approaching the problem of logically synthesizing image and language on the page. The product is a simple, spare composition of poems and line drawings so that we view each at independent moments, but all in a common context. The design of the book is used as the binding mechanism (so to speak) within which these two otherwise distant expressive media actually interact both neatly and endlessly.

[Ochre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written with thoughtful investigation into nature.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

These drawings would make great quilt patterns.