“Josef Albers in Mexico”

In 1935, the famed artist and Bauhaus instructor Josef Albers (1888-1976) paid his first visit to Mexico. Struck by the abstract quality of Mayan and Aztec buildings, Albers began photographing Mesoamerican pyramids and temples, focusing on architectural details like friezes and steps. He used some of these images to create collages, borrowing subtle style cues from them for his paintings from the period. That journey was the first of many made to Latin America between 1935 and 1967 and the impact they had on his art is the subject of this survey, which gathers together the work (photos and collages along with paintings) that grew out his experiences South of The Border.