The Discovery of Form

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-3-96999-474-0
Verlag: Steidl GmbH & Co.OHG

Buch, Englisch, Deutsch, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 216 mm x 299 mm, Gewicht: 1264 g

The Discovery of Form brings together two pivotal figures of art after 1945 whose practices, though distinct in medium and context, are united by a shared commitment to form, light and clarity. This book explores the unexpected visual dialogue between Robert Adams’ contemplative black-and-white photographs of the American West and Josef Albers’ vigorous color studies from his “Homage to the Square” series.
Adams is known for his subtle yet searing critique of urban sprawl and environmental degradation, in compositions serene yet static and often shaped by a sense of alienation. In iconic series such as “The New West” and “Prairies,” he turns to light as both subject and symbol, allowing it to transcend the ordinary and hint at more enduring forms beneath the surface of American life. Albers, in turn, isolates color into meditative geometries, seeking a quiet equilibrium that Adams also evokes. Delicately interacting colors transform the framework of several squares into a shimmering whole due less to individual hues and more to the textural vibrations between them.
Featuring 70 photographs by Adams and twelve paintings by Albers, The Discovery of Form offers new insight into how their different approaches converge in a common search for pictorial order and meaning. Any sense of the artist trying to assert himself disappears: form transcends thematic constraints and a lasting sense of calm prevails.

Co-published with Zander Galerie, Cologne

Autoren/Hrsg.

Adams, Robert

Albers, Josef

Liesbrock, Heinz

Zander, Thomas

Über Autor(innen)

Albers, Josef
Josef Albers (1888–1976) was a pioneering artist, educator and color theorist of twentieth-century modernism. After studying and teaching at the Bauhaus until its closure in 1933, he immigrated to the United States where he taught at Black Mountain College and later at Yale University. Albers’ most renowned body of work, “Homage to the Square” (1950–76), explores the interaction of color through nested geometric forms. Albers profoundly influenced generations of artists and remains a key figure in the history of modern art and color theory.

Adams, Robert
Robert Adams was born in 1937 in Orange, New Jersey. After earning a PhD in English literature and teaching the subject for several years at Colorado College, he became a photographer in the mid-1960s. Adams has published more than 40 books of photographs, with the changing landscape of the American West as his primary subject. His books with Steidl include Gone? (2009), The Place We Live (2013), From the Missouri West (2018), Los Angeles Spring (2023), Eden (2023), Summer Nights, Walking (2023) and Words That Helped (2023). Adams lives and works in northwest Oregon.