Josef Albers (March 19, 1888 – March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator best known as an abstract painter, sculptor, architect, and theorist. He is also considered one of the most influential teachers of visual arts in the twentieth century. Born into a family of craftsmen, Albers’ childhood included practical craftsmanship training. Albers worked as a schoolteacher in his hometown for five years prior to training as an art teacher. In 1916, Albers began working as a printmaker and learning stained-glass making with Dutch artist Johan Thorn Prikker. In 1920, Albers enrolled in the preliminary course at the Weimar Bauhaus art school, joining the faculty two years later as a stained glass maker. In 1925, Albers was promoted to professor at the Bauhaus. With the closing of the Bauhaus in 1933, Albers immigrated to the United States and became head of the painting program at Black Mountain College in North Carolina until 1949. His most notable students include Ruth Asawa, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and Susan Weil. From 1950 until his retirement in 1958, Albers served as head of the department of design at Yale University. Albers completed his famous book Interaction of Color in 1963, in which he suggests that color is best studied via experience. His color theory incorporated influences from the Constructivist and Bauhaus movements, inspiring “hard-edge” abstract painters, optical artists, and conceptual artists. In 1971, he and his wife founded the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation to expand artistic vision. The Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop, Germany holds a large part of his estate, but his work can also be found in collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Tate Gallery, London.