Seclusion
1942
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph in black on Serir wove paper
Dimensions
image: 30.48 × 31.75 cm (12 × 12 1/2 in.) sheet: 48.26 × 60.96 cm (19 × 24 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams
Accession Number
2008.115.617
Art Historical Context
**Seclusion** (1942) is a striking lithograph by Josef Al, the German-born artist and influential Bauhaus educator who emigrated to the United States in the 1930s. Created during World War II while Albers taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, this monochrome print on Serir wove paper captures his early explorations in abstraction and visual perception. Measuring 30.48 × 31.75 cm (image) on a larger 48.26 × 60.96 cm sheet, it exemplifies Albers' precise geometric style, where interlocking shapes play with figure-ground relationships, evoking a sense of isolation hinted at by the e...
About the Artist
Josef Albers
Josef Albers, born on March 19, 1888, in Bottrop, Westphalia, into a Roman Catholic family of craftsmen, received early practical training from his father, Lorenzo Albers, a housepainter and carpenter, mastering skills in engraving glass, plumbing, wiring, and printmaking. After working as a schoolteacher in Bottrop from 1908 to 1913, he trained as an art teacher at the Königliche Kunstschule in B...