Josef Albers and Dorothea Rockburne

“Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I prefer to see with closed eyes.”
Josef Albers

Josef Albers spent his life exploring spatial ambivalence through variations on geometric themes. Most famous for his “Home to the Square” series, Albers also explored line-based forms that became increasingly detailed and complex from the 1940’s to the 1960’s.

“It is about fact and poetry, mechanics and art, discipline and freedom.”
Nicholas Fox Weber

The 13 years Albers had spent at the Bauhaus, as a student and subsequently as a teacher, played a definitive role in his balance between artistic creativity and exacting craftsmanship. His vocabulary was joyful, mischievous, and reductivist. In the “Interlinear” lithograph, one perceives three-dimensional imagery and yet when one follows the lines, he has created a visual contradiction. This spatial ambivalence is furthered by the preciseness of the lines contrasting with the softness of the vertical margins where the ink was not applied to total opacity. In the “W + P” suite, Albers took a woodblock he had made in the 1940’s and made a series of works utilizing paper stencils on the block to allow for variation in imagery without changing the matrix.

“Art is concerned with the HOW, not the WHAT; not with literal content, but its performance of the content. The performance —how it is done— that is the content of Art.”
Josef Albers

“Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I prefer to see with closed eyes.”
Josef Albers

Josef Albers spent his life exploring spatial ambivalence through variations on geometric themes. Most famous for his “Home to the Square” series, Albers also explored line-based forms that became increasingly detailed and complex from the 1940’s to the 1960’s.

“It is about fact and poetry, mechanics and art, discipline and freedom.”
Nicholas Fox Weber

The 13 years Albers had spent at the Bauhaus, as a student and subsequently as a teacher, played a definitive role in his balance between artistic creativity and exacting craftsmanship. His vocabulary was joyful, mischievous, and reductivist. In the “Interlinear” lithograph, one perceives three-dimensional imagery and yet when one follows the lines, he has created a visual contradiction. This spatial ambivalence is furthered by the preciseness of the lines contrasting with the softness of the vertical margins where the ink was not applied to total opacity. In the “W + P” suite, Albers took a woodblock he had made in the 1940’s and made a series of works utilizing paper stencils on the block to allow for variation in imagery without changing the matrix.

“Art is concerned with the HOW, not the WHAT; not with literal content, but its performance of the content. The performance —how it is done— that is the content of Art.”
Josef Albers

“Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I prefer to see with closed eyes.”
Josef Albers

Josef Albers spent his life exploring spatial ambivalence through variations on geometric themes. Most famous for his “Home to the Square” series, Albers also explored line-based forms that became increasingly detailed and complex from the 1940’s to the 1960’s.

“It is about fact and poetry, mechanics and art, discipline and freedom.”
Nicholas Fox Weber

The 13 years Albers had spent at the Bauhaus, as a student and subsequently as a teacher, played a definitive role in his balance between artistic creativity and exacting craftsmanship. His vocabulary was joyful, mischievous, and reductivist. In the “Interlinear” lithograph, one perceives three-dimensional imagery and yet when one follows the lines, he has created a visual contradiction. This spatial ambivalence is furthered by the preciseness of the lines contrasting with the softness of the vertical margins where the ink was not applied to total opacity. In the “W + P” suite, Albers took a woodblock he had made in the 1940’s and made a series of works utilizing paper stencils on the block to allow for variation in imagery without changing the matrix.

“Art is concerned with the HOW, not the WHAT; not with literal content, but its performance of the content. The performance —how it is done— that is the content of Art.”
Josef Albers

“Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I prefer to see with closed eyes.”
Josef Albers

Josef Albers spent his life exploring spatial ambivalence through variations on geometric themes. Most famous for his “Home to the Square” series, Albers also explored line-based forms that became increasingly detailed and complex from the 1940’s to the 1960’s.

“It is about fact and poetry, mechanics and art, discipline and freedom.”
Nicholas Fox Weber

The 13 years Albers had spent at the Bauhaus, as a student and subsequently as a teacher, played a definitive role in his balance between artistic creativity and exacting craftsmanship. His vocabulary was joyful, mischievous, and reductivist. In the “Interlinear” lithograph, one perceives three-dimensional imagery and yet when one follows the lines, he has created a visual contradiction. This spatial ambivalence is furthered by the preciseness of the lines contrasting with the softness of the vertical margins where the ink was not applied to total opacity. In the “W + P” suite, Albers took a woodblock he had made in the 1940’s and made a series of works utilizing paper stencils on the block to allow for variation in imagery without changing the matrix.

“Art is concerned with the HOW, not the WHAT; not with literal content, but its performance of the content. The performance —how it is done— that is the content of Art.”
Josef Albers

“Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I prefer to see with closed eyes.”
Josef Albers

Josef Albers spent his life exploring spatial ambivalence through variations on geometric themes. Most famous for his “Home to the Square” series, Albers also explored line-based forms that became increasingly detailed and complex from the 1940’s to the 1960’s.

“It is about fact and poetry, mechanics and art, discipline and freedom.”
Nicholas Fox Weber

The 13 years Albers had spent at the Bauhaus, as a student and subsequently as a teacher, played a definitive role in his balance between artistic creativity and exacting craftsmanship. His vocabulary was joyful, mischievous, and reductivist. In the “Interlinear” lithograph, one perceives three-dimensional imagery and yet when one follows the lines, he has created a visual contradiction. This spatial ambivalence is furthered by the preciseness of the lines contrasting with the softness of the vertical margins where the ink was not applied to total opacity. In the “W + P” suite, Albers took a woodblock he had made in the 1940’s and made a series of works utilizing paper stencils on the block to allow for variation in imagery without changing the matrix.

“Art is concerned with the HOW, not the WHAT; not with literal content, but its performance of the content. The performance —how it is done— that is the content of Art.”
Josef Albers

“Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I prefer to see with closed eyes.”
Josef Albers

Josef Albers spent his life exploring spatial ambivalence through variations on geometric themes. Most famous for his “Home to the Square” series, Albers also explored line-based forms that became increasingly detailed and complex from the 1940’s to the 1960’s.

“It is about fact and poetry, mechanics and art, discipline and freedom.”
Nicholas Fox Weber

The 13 years Albers had spent at the Bauhaus, as a student and subsequently as a teacher, played a definitive role in his balance between artistic creativity and exacting craftsmanship. His vocabulary was joyful, mischievous, and reductivist. In the “Interlinear” lithograph, one perceives three-dimensional imagery and yet when one follows the lines, he has created a visual contradiction. This spatial ambivalence is furthered by the preciseness of the lines contrasting with the softness of the vertical margins where the ink was not applied to total opacity. In the “W + P” suite, Albers took a woodblock he had made in the 1940’s and made a series of works utilizing paper stencils on the block to allow for variation in imagery without changing the matrix.

“Art is concerned with the HOW, not the WHAT; not with literal content, but its performance of the content. The performance —how it is done— that is the content of Art.”
Josef Albers

“The ‘Locus’ prints take vision as their subject matter … [but] in fact they are not of or about vision – they are ‘for’ vision. They invite the gaze, focusing it and making it self-conscious… They challenge the viewer with a richness of detail that can only be seen.”
Carter Ratcliff

The process for Dorothea Rockburne’s “Locus” works consisted of printing grey ink in the form of an “X” onto flat sheets of paper. Rockburne then folded the paper with the “X” being the locus for the folds. She then took these folded-up pieces of paper and printed upon/into them with white ink by running them through an etching press. Once dried and unfolded, each sheet displays the “X” along with visible, yet subtle contrasts between the velvety off-white ink (printed from an aquatinted plate) and the unprinted areas of the white paper. In addition, when the paper had been folded and run through the press, its edges and folds created debossed and embossed lines. These lines become quite significant, formally, once the paper is unfolded and further emphasize the angular planes. Altogether, the works are etching, drawing, sculpture, collage, and installation all at once.

“I was involved in an interaction between the paper, the ink, the plate, the bed, and the roller and how the weight of the bed and the weight of the roller caused the ink and the paper to interact with each other against a plate… Because the paper went through the press folded, there are three different inking surfaces: one which is fully inked, one which is medium inked, one which is hardly inked…. etching is tactile, obstinate, and challenging.”
Dorothea Rockburne

Dorothea Rockburne (b. 1932, Montréal, Canada) has been the subject of three significant survey exhibitions in the last decade, including Dorothea Rockburne, Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY (2018-ongoing, where the Locus series is currently on view in its entirety); Dorothea Rockburne: Drawing Which Makes Itself, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2013-2014); and In My Mind’s Eye, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY (2011). Additional solo museum exhibitions include A Gift of Knowing: The Art of Dorothea Rockburne, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine (2015); Dorothea Rockburne, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (1989); and Dorothea Rockburne: Locus, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1981), among others.

Rockburne’s work is represented in prominent private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; and the Auckland City Art Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, among many others.

“The ‘Locus’ prints take vision as their subject matter … [but] in fact they are not of or about vision – they are ‘for’ vision. They invite the gaze, focusing it and making it self-conscious… They challenge the viewer with a richness of detail that can only be seen.”
Carter Ratcliff

The process for Dorothea Rockburne’s “Locus” works consisted of printing grey ink in the form of an “X” onto flat sheets of paper. Rockburne then folded the paper with the “X” being the locus for the folds. She then took these folded-up pieces of paper and printed upon/into them with white ink by running them through an etching press. Once dried and unfolded, each sheet displays the “X” along with visible, yet subtle contrasts between the velvety off-white ink (printed from an aquatinted plate) and the unprinted areas of the white paper. In addition, when the paper had been folded and run through the press, its edges and folds created debossed and embossed lines. These lines become quite significant, formally, once the paper is unfolded and further emphasize the angular planes. Altogether, the works are etching, drawing, sculpture, collage, and installation all at once.

“I was involved in an interaction between the paper, the ink, the plate, the bed, and the roller and how the weight of the bed and the weight of the roller caused the ink and the paper to interact with each other against a plate… Because the paper went through the press folded, there are three different inking surfaces: one which is fully inked, one which is medium inked, one which is hardly inked…. etching is tactile, obstinate, and challenging.”
Dorothea Rockburne

Dorothea Rockburne (b. 1932, Montréal, Canada) has been the subject of three significant survey exhibitions in the last decade, including Dorothea Rockburne, Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY (2018-ongoing, where the Locus series is currently on view in its entirety); Dorothea Rockburne: Drawing Which Makes Itself, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2013-2014); and In My Mind’s Eye, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY (2011). Additional solo museum exhibitions include A Gift of Knowing: The Art of Dorothea Rockburne, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine (2015); Dorothea Rockburne, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (1989); and Dorothea Rockburne: Locus, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1981), among others.

Rockburne’s work is represented in prominent private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; and the Auckland City Art Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, among many others.

“The ‘Locus’ prints take vision as their subject matter … [but] in fact they are not of or about vision – they are ‘for’ vision. They invite the gaze, focusing it and making it self-conscious… They challenge the viewer with a richness of detail that can only be seen.”
Carter Ratcliff

The process for Dorothea Rockburne’s “Locus” works consisted of printing grey ink in the form of an “X” onto flat sheets of paper. Rockburne then folded the paper with the “X” being the locus for the folds. She then took these folded-up pieces of paper and printed upon/into them with white ink by running them through an etching press. Once dried and unfolded, each sheet displays the “X” along with visible, yet subtle contrasts between the velvety off-white ink (printed from an aquatinted plate) and the unprinted areas of the white paper. In addition, when the paper had been folded and run through the press, its edges and folds created debossed and embossed lines. These lines become quite significant, formally, once the paper is unfolded and further emphasize the angular planes. Altogether, the works are etching, drawing, sculpture, collage, and installation all at once.

“I was involved in an interaction between the paper, the ink, the plate, the bed, and the roller and how the weight of the bed and the weight of the roller caused the ink and the paper to interact with each other against a plate… Because the paper went through the press folded, there are three different inking surfaces: one which is fully inked, one which is medium inked, one which is hardly inked…. etching is tactile, obstinate, and challenging.”
Dorothea Rockburne

Dorothea Rockburne (b. 1932, Montréal, Canada) has been the subject of three significant survey exhibitions in the last decade, including Dorothea Rockburne, Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY (2018-ongoing, where the Locus series is currently on view in its entirety); Dorothea Rockburne: Drawing Which Makes Itself, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2013-2014); and In My Mind’s Eye, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY (2011). Additional solo museum exhibitions include A Gift of Knowing: The Art of Dorothea Rockburne, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine (2015); Dorothea Rockburne, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (1989); and Dorothea Rockburne: Locus, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1981), among others.

Rockburne’s work is represented in prominent private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; and the Auckland City Art Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, among many others.

“The ‘Locus’ prints take vision as their subject matter … [but] in fact they are not of or about vision – they are ‘for’ vision. They invite the gaze, focusing it and making it self-conscious… They challenge the viewer with a richness of detail that can only be seen.”
Carter Ratcliff

The process for Dorothea Rockburne’s “Locus” works consisted of printing grey ink in the form of an “X” onto flat sheets of paper. Rockburne then folded the paper with the “X” being the locus for the folds. She then took these folded-up pieces of paper and printed upon/into them with white ink by running them through an etching press. Once dried and unfolded, each sheet displays the “X” along with visible, yet subtle contrasts between the velvety off-white ink (printed from an aquatinted plate) and the unprinted areas of the white paper. In addition, when the paper had been folded and run through the press, its edges and folds created debossed and embossed lines. These lines become quite significant, formally, once the paper is unfolded and further emphasize the angular planes. Altogether, the works are etching, drawing, sculpture, collage, and installation all at once.

“I was involved in an interaction between the paper, the ink, the plate, the bed, and the roller and how the weight of the bed and the weight of the roller caused the ink and the paper to interact with each other against a plate… Because the paper went through the press folded, there are three different inking surfaces: one which is fully inked, one which is medium inked, one which is hardly inked…. etching is tactile, obstinate, and challenging.”
Dorothea Rockburne

Dorothea Rockburne (b. 1932, Montréal, Canada) has been the subject of three significant survey exhibitions in the last decade, including Dorothea Rockburne, Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY (2018-ongoing, where the Locus series is currently on view in its entirety); Dorothea Rockburne: Drawing Which Makes Itself, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2013-2014); and In My Mind’s Eye, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY (2011). Additional solo museum exhibitions include A Gift of Knowing: The Art of Dorothea Rockburne, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine (2015); Dorothea Rockburne, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (1989); and Dorothea Rockburne: Locus, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1981), among others.

Rockburne’s work is represented in prominent private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; and the Auckland City Art Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, among many others.

“The ‘Locus’ prints take vision as their subject matter … [but] in fact they are not of or about vision – they are ‘for’ vision. They invite the gaze, focusing it and making it self-conscious… They challenge the viewer with a richness of detail that can only be seen.”
Carter Ratcliff

The process for Dorothea Rockburne’s “Locus” works consisted of printing grey ink in the form of an “X” onto flat sheets of paper. Rockburne then folded the paper with the “X” being the locus for the folds. She then took these folded-up pieces of paper and printed upon/into them with white ink by running them through an etching press. Once dried and unfolded, each sheet displays the “X” along with visible, yet subtle contrasts between the velvety off-white ink (printed from an aquatinted plate) and the unprinted areas of the white paper. In addition, when the paper had been folded and run through the press, its edges and folds created debossed and embossed lines. These lines become quite significant, formally, once the paper is unfolded and further emphasize the angular planes. Altogether, the works are etching, drawing, sculpture, collage, and installation all at once.

“I was involved in an interaction between the paper, the ink, the plate, the bed, and the roller and how the weight of the bed and the weight of the roller caused the ink and the paper to interact with each other against a plate… Because the paper went through the press folded, there are three different inking surfaces: one which is fully inked, one which is medium inked, one which is hardly inked…. etching is tactile, obstinate, and challenging.”
Dorothea Rockburne

Dorothea Rockburne (b. 1932, Montréal, Canada) has been the subject of three significant survey exhibitions in the last decade, including Dorothea Rockburne, Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY (2018-ongoing, where the Locus series is currently on view in its entirety); Dorothea Rockburne: Drawing Which Makes Itself, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2013-2014); and In My Mind’s Eye, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY (2011). Additional solo museum exhibitions include A Gift of Knowing: The Art of Dorothea Rockburne, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine (2015); Dorothea Rockburne, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (1989); and Dorothea Rockburne: Locus, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1981), among others.

Rockburne’s work is represented in prominent private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; and the Auckland City Art Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, among many others.