Anni and Josef Albers were titans of twentieth century art and design; they were important figures at the Bauhaus and they managed to carve vital and impressive careers.

As the subtitle of this book suggests they had parallel careers which took them in different directions to each other but they had a shared interdependence as well. This book by Nicholas Fox Weber presents both the wonderful magnitude of their work but also that of their world. It is part biography of each of the protagonists and part biography of them as a unit. Fox Weber met the Anni and Josef in 1970 when he was twenty two - Josef was eighty-two and Anni seventy-one - and he began to work for the Albers foundation a year after he first met them.

Josef was a carpenter's son whereas Anni grew up in relative wealth but always from the position of an outsider in Germany; her family were Jewish.

Fox Weber uncovers elements of each of their work and explores them in concise but detailed essays: Anni and the Orchestra (one of her most famous patterns), Giotto and Duccio (an exploration of the admiration that the Alberses had for these artists), The Teacup (a design that Josef came up with in 1925) etc.

The whole book is richly illustrated not just with images of their work but also photographs of the artists, their homes and the photographs that they took themselves.

Beautifully designed and laid out.

Hardback. 512 pages.

Measurements:

24.8cm x 31.2cm x 4cm