UofM’s Art Museum Unveils Collection of Paintings and Prints by Bauhaus Master Josef Albers and Colleagues

Sept. 22, 2022 — The Art Museum of the University of Memphis (AMUM) will unveil Opening  Eyes, a collection of paintings and prints by Bauhaus Master Josef Albers and his colleagues beginning Oct. 16.

Main Gallery-- Opening Eyes 1: Josef Albers’ Paintings and Prints at AMUM

Shortly after the Nazis closed the world-famous Bauhaus school in 1933, many faculty left Germany. Albers and his wife, textile artist Anni Albers, went to Black Mountain College, an experimental institute in North Carolina. Later, Albers related that on his first day a student asked what he intended to teach. His answer, the first English words he uttered as a professor, was “to open eyes.” Albers’ work as an artist and teacher explored the “eye-opening” space between what one sees and what one knows.

Albers’ largest body of work is the color studies collectively entitled, Homage to the Square, which he pursued from 1950 during his tenure at Yale through his retirement and up until his death in 1976. AMUM’s collection from this series includes three paintings, 36 prints in four portfolios (one a gift shared with Rhodes College) plus individual prints. All AMUM’s Albers’ works, with the exception noted, are gifts of professor of architecture William Huff, who knew Albers at Yale and collected directly from the artist.

During Albers’ professional years (1925-1976,) his work was regularly exhibited internationally, including in 1971 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, in its first retrospective exhibition of a living artist.

Crone Gallery--Opening Eyes 2: Colleagues at AMUM

The Bauhaus, international in concept and realization, fostered a worldwide, multi-generational diaspora that was a driving force in post-World War II art and design. Albers role as a leader, colleague and mentor was seminal. AMUM’s collections include work by several international artists representing self-defined, mutating groups of post-war abstractionists.

Opening Eyes debuts with a public reception on Sunday, Oct. 16 from 3-5 pm. Admission is free.

The Art Museum of the University of Memphis is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday 9 am-5 pm except for University holidays.  

AMUM is located in the Communication and Fine Arts Building. Free parking is available on weekends. Paid parking is available on weekdays. Please call 901.678.2224 for more information.