Acknowledgments

Weber, Nicholas Fox

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Acknowledgments

Nicholas Fox Weber

The Drawings of Josef Albers

Acknowledgments

Author

Nicholas Fox Weber

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00133.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-16661

Acknowledgments

This book is the result of constant, enjoyable collaboration. It has been a long and complex undertaking, but the pleasure and adventure have been kept alive thanks not only to the enduring power of the art, but also to the warm and generous support of energetic and helpful co-workers, friends, and family members.

I am especially grateful to Ruth S. A. Villalovos for first taking me to meet the Alberses; to Saul Weber, my father, for his encouragement and indulgent financial support in the first stages of my working acquaintance with Anni and Josef; to Caroline Fox Weber, my mother, for giving me a respect early on for the techniques of art and for the life of an artist; to Nancy Weber, my sister, for being so persistent about the need to maintain one’s passions, and so relentless about the quality of language needed to express them; to Lee V. Eastman, a director of the Josef Albers Foundation, for his help in formalizing my relationship with the Foundation and his wisdom and good cheer ever since; to John G. Ryden, the director of Yale University Press, for his rare ability to combine work and friendship, and in particular for a pivotal conversation we once had about people who devote themselves to the affirmation of their beliefs; to Judy Metro, my editor, for her exceptional patience, humor, encouragement, and tenacity; and to Tina C. Weiner, the marketing director at the Press, for her seminal role in linking this book with its publisher.

I also am most grateful, in retrospect, to certain teachers, especially to the late Joseph Stookins for indicating early on the richness of single artworks, to Allan L. Wise for sharing his magical sense of language, to Meyer Schapiro for emphasizing the need to look at artworks in a fresh and original way, to Vincent Scully for conveying his passionate sense of form and the unusual scope of his vision, and to Rosamond Bernier for showing in a captivating and evocative way the relationship between how artists live and what they accomplish.

Ulrich Schumacher and Otto Bergermann, in Albers’s hometown of Bottrop, West Germany, were especially helpful with research for this book. John Elderfield and Steingrim Laursen, among the first people to look at the unknown drawings, both encouraged me greatly by their perceptive, enthusiastic responses to the work. Eleanor Powers, through her personal warmth and insights into human nature, contributed both to my ability to proceed with this project and to aspects of its contents. William C. Agee assisted with a number of comments about the text. Øystein Hjort offered many valuable observations. Elsie Childs and Monique Robinson patiently and diligently sorted and catalogued these drawings and assisted in the complex process of dating them. Sarah Lincoln Heartt fine-tuned the catalogue impeccably and, coming to this project in its late stages, helped immeasurably with her attention to an apparent infinity of details. Martina Yamin worked skillfully and graciously on the conservation and, when necessary, the restoration of these drawings and provided all of the technical information on the work. Phyllis Fitzgerald, the administrative assistant at the Josef Albers Foundation, assisted in countless ways, but most especially with her continuously positive approach as well as her unfailing efficiency. Becky Saletan was a rare copyeditor in leaving her author nothing but grateful and admiring—for her extraordinary acuity as well as her conscientiousness. Sally Harris, the designer, responded quickly and skillfully to all of my hopes for the feeling and function of the type and the layout.

For other forms of vital aid and support, thanks go to the late Gene Baro, and to Neal Benezra, Hans Farman, Jennifer Rose Gottlieb, Andrea Warburg Kaufman, Bernhard Küppers, Vivian McElroy, Justine Peterson, Bernd Schurmann, Irene Seligman, Vivienne Sikand, Halorie Thorne, and King-lui Wu.

Special thanks go of course to Anni Albers. From that first visit in Orange to the present time, she has shown a perceptiveness and a freshness of insight as rare and provocative as Josef’s. Throughout the work on this project, she has been a gracious collaborator and a splendid friend.

For as long as they have been on the scene, Lucy Swift Weber and Charlotte Fox Weber have been great inspirations, always helping to remind me of what is important and wonderful in life, and hence of the values vital to great works of art. Their mother, Katharine S. K. Weber, the extraordinary woman to whom this book is dedicated, has been, as always, flexible and understanding; I thank her for the constant originality of her perceptions, her imagination, her toughness and integrity, her consistent feeling for the true and essential role of art, and her love.

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