1888

Born 19 March in Bottrop, Westphalia, Germany.

 

1895

 

Born 20 July in Borsod, later Bácsborsód, Southern Hungary.

1905-08

Attends teachers college in Büren, and receives teacher’s certificate.

 

1908-13

Teaches in an elementary school.

 

1913

 

Enrols as a law student at the Royal Hungarian University of Sciences, Budapest.

1913-15

Attends Royal Art School, Berlin, and qualifies as art teacher.

 

1915

 

Serves as artillery officer on Italian and Russian fronts. Documents war experience with drawings and watercolours.

1916 - 18

Attends part-time classes at the School of Applied Arts, Essen. First lithographs, blockprints and figurative drawings. Begins work in stained glass.

 

1917

Completes first commission, a stained glass window for St Michael’s Church in Bottrop (later destroyed).

Wounded on Russian front, recovers in military hospital in Budapest. Begins interest in photography.

1918

 

Exhibits for the first time at National Salon, Budapest.

1919 April: The Bauhaus opens in Weimar under Walter Gropius

Begins study at Bavarian Academy of Art, Munich. 

 

1920

Enrols as a student at the Bauhaus. From this point on, all his art, except photography and functional design, is abstract.

Moves to Berlin. Development of material collages and abstract paintings.

1921

Begins Shard pictures, assemblages made from found glass pieces.

Marries journalist and photographer Lucia Schulz. Becomes Berlin representative of avant-garde journal MA.

1922

Appointed ‘journeyman’ at the Bauhaus and placed in charge of glass workshop.

With Lajos Kassak publishes anthology of modern art and poetry.

Creates so-called ‘Telephone Paintings’. Experiments with photograms, camera-free photography. Works on simple sculptures made from wood, glass and reflective metal components.

1923 August-September. Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar

Invited by Gropius to conduct Preliminary Course in material and design studies together with Moholy-Nagy. Albers is the first ex-student to be appointed as a teacher.

Appointed with Albers to run Preliminary Course at Bauhaus. Takes over metal workshop from Paul Klee.

1925 April: The Bauhaus moves to Dessau.

Glass workshop is dissolved. Albers continues to work with glass and develops sandblasted flashed glass technique. Marries Anneliese Fleischmann, a former weaving student at the Bauhaus. Appointed a Bauhaus Master, responsible for teaching first semester of Preliminary course.

Bauhaus Books begin publication. Moholy designs eleven volumes, and writes The Bauhaus Stage (with Farkas Molnár and Oskar Schlemmer, 1925); Painting, Photography, Film (1925); and From Material to Architecture (1929).

1926

Designs upholstered bentwood chair, glass and metal household objects and a universal typeface.

 

1927

 

Falls out with Hannes Meyer, the new Professor of Architecture at the Bauhaus, who subordinates artistic creativity to science and technology. 

1928 February 3: Gropius resigns. 1 April: Hannes Meyer appointed as new Director of Bauhaus.

Takes over responsibility of teaching entire Preliminary Course. Also heads the Bauhaus furniture workshop after the departure of Marcel Breuer. His Armlehnstuhl Ti 144 bentwood chair goes into serial production.

Resigns from Bauhaus, along with Marcel Breuer and Herbert Bayer. Sets up a commercial design office in Berlin, and creates stage and costume designs until 1933.

1929

 

Separates with Lucia. Makes the film Marseille Vieux Port, one of seven surviving short films.

1930 Meyer resigns. Mies van der Rohe becomes Director of Bauhaus.

Appointed Assistant Director of Bauhaus.

With Gropius and Bayer, organises German section of 20e Salon des Artistes Décorateurs Français at Grand Palais in Paris. Shows kinetic sculpture Light Prop for an Electric Stage.

1931

 

Meets his second wife, Sibylle Pietzsch.

1932 Due to political pressure Bauhaus is moved to Berlin.

First solo exhibition at the Bauhaus.

 

1933 Nazis seize power.

Bauhaus closes. Anni and Josef emigrate to the US to take up teaching posts at Black Mountain College, North Carolina. 1933-34. Completes first series of abstract prints.

 

1934

Paints in oils for first time in many years.

Moves to Amsterdam, where he runs a commercial design studio.

Begins to work with colour photography in advertising design.

1935

The Albers make the first of fourteen visits to Mexico and Latin America.

Moves to London, where he works as an art adviser at the clothing store Simpson of Piccadilly and produces publicity material for Imperial Airways and London Transport. Experiments with painting on transparent plastics and with shadows on a white background

1936

 

Designs special effects for Alexander and Vincent Korda’s film Things to Come, but these are not used in final version.

1937

 

Appointed director of The New Bauhaus – American School of Design in Chicago. His work is included in Degenerate Art exhibition, at Haus der Kunst, Munich.

1938 Bauhaus 1919-1928 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York

 

New Bauhaus school closes in the summer due to financial problems.

1939

Becomes a US citizen.

Founds the School of Design in Chicago (later re-named the Institute of Design).

1944

 

Relinquishes control of the school’s finances, publicity and administration to devote his energies to his art, writings and teaching.

1945

 

Diagnosed with leukaemia but continues teaching, writing and producing artworks.

1946

Spends sabbatical year in Mexico with Anni.

Becomes American citizen.

Dies 24 November of leukaemia in hospital in Chicago.

1947

Begins Variants, his largest painting series to date.

 

1948

Appointed Rector of Black Mountain College.

 

1949

Resigns from Black Mountain College. Begins Structural Constellations series

 

1950

Begins Homage to the Square series. Appointed Chairman of Department of Design at Yale University. Moves with Anni to New Haven, Connecticut. 

 

1956

Retrospective at Yale University Art Gallery. Named Professor of Art Emeritus, Yale.

 

1958

Retires from Yale University Art School. Continues to lecture throughout much of the next 18 years at numerous universities mostly in the US .

 

1961

Designs glass and bronze mural for Time and Life building lobby, New York.

 

1963

Publishes Interaction of Color, seminal account of his colour theory. Monumental mural Manhattan installed in Pan Am Building in New York.

 

1970

The Albers move to Orange, Connecticut. 

 

1971

Becomes first living artist to have a retrospective at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

 

1976

Dies 25 March in New Haven, Connecticut.