Nicholas Fox Weber, a longtime friend of Josef and Anni Albers and executive director of their foundation, has authored a visual biography of the renowned Bauhaus couple and their work. Here he discusses six of the most interesting projects from the book.
Called Anni & Josef Albers: Equal and Unequal, the book traces their artistic evolution from meeting at the Bauhaus, the German art school that gave birth to the Bauhaus design movement, in 1922 to fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s and teaching at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina.
Although they never formally collaborated and often worked in very different mediums ? Anni Albers in weaving and printmaking and her husband primarily in painting and glasswork ? the two are united by the same driving principles. "It's easier to find similarities between the Albers' than differences, especially the deeper we go," Weber told Dezeen.
"They were both very interested in form following function. Everything was about process and understanding the materials and technology of putting them together. So that was part of the Bauhaus mentality but then other aspects of their work are sheer poetry ? though they would never use the word poetry."

What sets their work apart is its enduring universality, which Weber says can be traced back to their obsession with basic visual elements and how these can be manipulated to influence our perception.
"Some of us have been bowled over by their wor...