...a mammoth, profusely illustrated doorstopper of a book.... Mr. Weber's approach in this book is not so much straightforward biography as a smorgasbord of chapters, long and short, detailing the artists' lives but also examining their relationships with students, collectors, mathematical systems, pre-Columbian art, Duccio and Giotto, Paul Klee and Marcel Breuer (among others), along with the couple's own tastes in dress, furnishings and even food. With its staggering array of photos and reproductions, this is a book meant to be browsed and savored rather than read straight through.
Anni and Josef Albers: Equal and Unequal is published by Phaidon.
Nicholas Fox Weber is an authority and celebrant of 20th century modernism, ranging from the paintings of Balthus to the architecture of Le Corbusier. He was a close associate of Anni and Josef Albers, the last living giants of the Bauhaus. His books include The Bauhaus Group: Six Master of Modernism, Le Corbusier: A Life, Patron Saints: Five Rebel Patrons who Opened America to a New Art (1928-1943), and iBauhaus: The iPhone as the Embodiment of Bauhaus Ideals and Design, among others. His next book is a comprehensive biography of Piet Mondrian, to be published by Alfred A. Knopf.