J Albers Quotes & Sayings

I have taught my students not to apply rules or mechanical ways of seeing. — Josef Albers

The purpose of art is to re-present nature, not represent it. — Josef Albers

Instead of art I have taught philosophy. Though technique for me is a big word, I never have taught how to paint. All my doing was to make people to see. — Josef Albers

Change is a constant machine, but not one designed by human hands.
from changeING — K.R. Albers

In my basic courses I have always tried to develop discovery and invention which, in my opinion, are the criteria of creativeness. — Josef Albers

I think art parallels life; it is not a report on nature or on intimate disclosure of inner secrets. Color, in my opinion, behaves like man
in two distinct ways: first in self-realization and then in the realization of relationships with others. — Josef Albers

The role of art for me is the visualization of attitude, of the human attitude towards life, towards the world. — Josef Albers

I only wear suits to funerals and I only cash checks when the bank is about to take the house.
from surely he's dead by now — K.R. Albers

To design is to plan and to organize, to order, to relate and to control. In short it embraces all means of opposing disorder and accident. Therefore it signifies a human need and qualifies man's thinking and doing. — Josef Albers

Simultaneous contrast is not just a curious optical phenomenon - it is the very heart of painting. — Josef Albers

I felt a lot better; not being alone in being alone. — K.R. Albers

I prefer to see with closed eyes. — Josef Albers

Traditionally art is to create and not to revive. To revive: leave that to the historians, who are looking backward. — Josef Albers

In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art. — Josef Albers

I have invented the Thermometer style. — Josef Albers

There is no punishment man can bring down on another man's head more powerful than forgiveness — K.R. Albers

Every man can change, no matter how long it takes;
patience and persistence. — K.R. Albers

It's the only dish I serve my craziness for color in. — Josef Albers

You see, I have in my teaching - I always say I've done it for a hundred years and have had thousands of students - I have always spoken against just falling onto your knees for so-called accidents, I mean a result you are not responsible for. — Josef Albers

I love very much to draw animals. — Josef Albers

Whether something 'has color' or not is as hard to define verbally as are such questions as, 'What is music?' or 'What is musical? — Josef Albers

I count all the time on resonance. I call on this, you see. — Josef Albers

I paint the way I spread butter on pumpernickel. — Josef Albers

We were born for sorrow
we were born for pain
we were born for loss
but we were also born to love
from follow your heart — K.R. Albers

Changing what you eat isn't going to help unless you start managing your stress level, — Susan Albers

In Italy the artist is a god. Now if the artist is a god, the scientist is likewise a god. — Josef Albers

I'm not a talker. I'm a formulator. — Josef Albers

Color is like cooking. The cook puts in more or less salt, that's the difference! — Josef Albers

Thus art is not an object, it is an experience. — Josef Albers

I've handled colour as a man should behave. You may conclude that I consider ethics and aesthetics as one. — Josef Albers