Starting with the Square: Parallels in Practice in the Works of Josef Albers and Louis Kahn

Abstract

This article examines one example of another Modern tradition – a tradition in which spatial concepts, ordering principles, experiential precepts and design methods are shared in the work and teaching of both Modern artists and Modern architects: a tradition originating in the beginnings of Modernism and continuing unabated, if largely unrecognized, to this day. The work of the painter Josef Albers and the architect Louis I Kahn are presented as an example of a parallel in practice, an actual relationship where contemporaries shared principles of space, order, perception and design, as well as being influenced by each other’s work, thought and pedagogical insights. The article briefly explores a number of the ways in which Kahn’s architecture actively engaged the implications of the spatial speculations to be found in Albers’ paintings and teaching.