Josef Albers started his academic education in Berlin, Essen and Munich. In 1920 he took up his studies at the Weimar Bauhaus. His successful careeer as an art teacher began in 1923, when he was commissioned to run the workshop for glass painting at the Weimar Bauhaus. During the following decade he designed glass paintings, numerous pieces of furniture as well as glass and metal devices. At the time, color played hardly any role in Albers' work. Probably inspired by Theo van Doesburg ("De Stijl"), the artist created clear arrangement, independent from nature. A decisive continuum in Albers' work is the continuous variation of individual themes and subjects. After the Nazis closed Bauhaus in 1933, Albers went to Black Mountain College in Ashville, NC and moved to the United States. In 1958 Albers was director emeritus of the Art School of the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Yale. This marked the end of his career as an art teacher. A new period in the creative life of the artist Josef Albers had started with his moving to the United States. From then, Albers experimented with linear shapes which transgress the safety of geometric arrangements, in which he now also included colors. His 'Geometric Surrealism' (Werner Spies) challenged the audiences' sensual perception, asking them to experience the artwork as individuals and continuously recreate it. His series like 'Homage to the Square' dealt with the interactions of colors, which can change their effect indefinitely by comparison. Both as a teacher and as an artist Josef Albers was seminal for an entire generation of American artists. Art genres such as Op-Art, Kinetic Art, Colorfield Painting and New Abstraction were influenced by his work. The exhibition 'The Responsive Eye' at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, turned Albers into an internationally acclaimed artist. He received numerous awards, including a total of fourteen honorary doctorates.