Albers Foundation Celebrates 50th Anniversary With New Book 'You Can Go Anywhere'

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation has published their new book You Can Go Anywhere, edited by Édouard Detaille and Willem van Roij. You Can Go Anywhere features essays from artists worldwide who have worked with the foundation, including fashion designer Paul Smith, influential textile artist Christopher Farr, and renowned Japanese architect Toshiko Mori. 

Accomplished photographers Iwan Baan, Giovanni Hänninen, and Sofia Verzbolovskis illustrate the stunning book, which also includes rare archival materials from the Alberses and rare works of art that they donated to museums internationally. 

Josef Albers, best known for revolutionizing color theory, has had his iconic series Homage to the Square displayed at the Guggenheim, the Met, The Whitney, and other prominent institutions. Influential textile artist and printmaker Anni Albers is praised for her playfulness in traditional mediums and abstract work. The foundation, established by Josef Albers in 1971, seeks to preserve the achievements of the Alberses and promote the philosophies they lived by. 

Located in Bethany, Connecticut, the foundation supports the education of young artists, scholars, and curators. Inspired by the philanthropy of the Alberses, the foundation also supports humanitarian organizations such as Le Korsa, which provides education and health services to local communities in Senegal. 

Calling from Paris, Executive Director of the Albers Foundation Nicholas Fox Weber speaks with L'OFFICIEL on the foundation's evolution, the importance of removing forgeries from the market, and the impact of their humanitarian initiatives.

L'OFFICIEL: What can readers expect from the special anniversary book You Can Go Anywhere?

NICHOLAS FOX WEBER: They can expect to feel a combination of many different forces at once. To look at beautiful images of artwork and activities in Senegal. To read some really enthralling texts. A friend of mine, Pierre Alexis Dumas, the artistic director of Hermès, was here for breakfast today. I showed him the book, and he's written an absolutely beautiful text for it. He was amused to see that Paul Smith, the clothing designer, has also written a text, and Bruno Racine, who was head of the Pompidou Center. A lot of really insightful people have written very original narratives, and the reader can also see work that can't be assembled physically but could be assembled in the book because of these gifts that we've made to so many museums internationally.

L’O: What does this milestone mean to the foundation and the art world as a whole?

NFW: Well, I think that what the 50th anniversary means is really exemplified by the title of the book, You Can Go Anywhere from anywhere, which is something Anni Albers said periodically. Édouard Detaille and Willem van Roij wanted to show the breadth of what we've achieved as an artist foundation. The Albers Foundation has become increasingly recognized for the range of work that we do. So besides the normal work of art foundations, which would be catalog raisonnés, exhibitions, publications, education, and so on, we started a second organization that works in Senegal. We work on issues such as women's health in Dakar, in artist residencies, in education, and in a facility that allows young women to avoid early marriage by being housed in a very nice setting.

L’O: Traveling back in time a bit, how did you come to meet the Alberses?

NFW: A lot in life can just happen. I was an undergraduate at Columbia College, studying art history. In the summers, to earn some money, I worked at a tennis camp in New Hampshire. I fell for a woman who did not fall for me in the same way, but she still took me to meet her parents, who owned work by Anni and Josef. And I was gobsmacked. I just loved the two weavings by Anni that they owned and the paintings by Josef. Then my friend's mother decided that I should meet the Alberses. By the time I was at Yale Graduate School, she took me to meet them. That's how I ended up at the front door of Anni and Josef's house in Connecticut!

L’O: You had a close personal relationship with them: why did they create this foundation and what did they hope it would achieve?

NFW: They were people of incredible human values. The intention of the foundation, as they stated, was "the revelation and evocation of vision through art." I don't think that they overplanned beyond a very general idea and then the creation of a very good traveling fellowship in the Yale University anthropology department, allowing people to research art in Latin America. Trusting their friends, they just had to hope that it would go in the direction of representing their values, and their values had nothing to do with art world trends or art as a commodity. We don't use terms like blue-chip to refer to paintings [at the foundation]. It's much too commercial for us. They believed in people having the opportunity to enjoy art and work independently. They put a lot of personal trust in the older foundation trustees and in me to move forward in the directions that they generally hoped would occur.

L’O: You've been with the foundation for the past four decades. How have you seen it evolve during your time as executive director?

NFW: Oh, in lots of directions, we've increased our staff considerably. When I began with the foundation, I was in Josef Albers' studio, which was in the basement of Anni and Josef's house. We didn't even have our own phone number. We still had Anni's private number. I eventually hired one person, and now we have a considerable staff. We have beautiful headquarters in a wooded landscape in Bethany, Connecticut. We also have artist residency in rural Ireland, in rural Senegal, and on that site in Bethany. We've participated in major exhibitions and reached out in the field of education. 

L’O: On the topic of education, for many young people, the art world can be seen as an inaccessible, intimidating space to enter. How does the Albers foundation try to combat that?

NFW: My greatest goal, whether it's books I've written about Le Corbusier or Balthus and now Piet Mondrian, is to make the art accessible, not to use academic language that will lose the interest of the people we're working with. And also, we support scholarship programs in areas, for example, the South Bronx and some sections of Brooklyn. We support public education programs in various areas. And if all goes well, we'll succeed in developing a museum in rural Senegal, which will be the opposite of intimidating. It would be an inviting space for a population that has never dared to enter any museum.

L’O: Why has the foundation chosen to focus its philanthropic efforts in Senegal specifically?

NFW: Another coincidence! I was in Paris with my younger daughter, and I was there to write the biography of Le Corbusier, and she was completing high school. I needed a dermatologist, so I picked a name from Yellow Pages, someone with a very French-sounding name and address that was convenient, and I saw him. He told me that he ran an organization of doctors that went to rural Senegal. With very little money, they made a demonstrable change. And I said, 'I'd like to go with you, sir.' I went along, and then I thought, this wonderful organization needs some American support. They really succeeded in making a difference in people's lives. Josef used to talk about minimal means for maximum effect, and that's what we are now achieving in Senegal.

L’O: What's next for the Albers foundation?

NFW: There's a possibility of exhibitions in China and Japan. And if all goes well, the creation of that new museum in Senegal within the access of the international airport meant to serve communities where people have very little but rich cultural history. Anni and Josef Albers were the real thing, and there were people of integrity, value, and compassion to serve the world through art. It's been the greatest pleasure for me to devote much of my life to their legacy.