9 - Josef Albers, "Poems and Drawings", limited first edition from 1958 with a dedication and signature by Josef Albers, a rare item

Josef Albers, "Poems and Drawings", limited first edition from 1958 with a dedication and signature by Josef Albers, a rare item Josef Albers, 1888 Bottrop - 1976 New Haven, Connecticut; German painter, art theorist and educator; here: ‘Poems and Drawings’ - a pioneering artist’s book that directly links Albers’ minimalist poetry with his famous geometric line drawings, complete and in good condition; one of 500 copies, first edition 1958 Readymade Press, New Haven/Connecticut. On the frontispiece is a personal dedication to Carl Maria Kiesel (1903 Kaiserslautern - 1971 Bischofsheim, German graphic artist and resistance fighter, director of the Pfalzgalerie after the Second World War and re-founder of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Pfälzer Künstler): “In recognition of his ‘I dared to do it’, warmly dedicated to Director Kiesel, Josef Albers”.About the book: Josef Albers understood the interplay between language and graphic art as a harmonious unity; in *Poems and Drawings*, poems and drawings are placed directly opposite one another. The book features 22 precise line drawings from the ‘Structural Constellations’ series. These geometric drawings create optical illusions - lines appear to tilt in the viewer’s eye, challenging our perception of space. The 22 poems included reflect Albers’ minimalist philosophy of art. They are often aphoristic, brief and printed in both German and English. They deal with themes such as perception, art, patience, nature and human vision.