To Monte Alban 1942

Josef Albers made this print called “To Monte Alban” using lithography on paper. It’s an exercise in seeing; the lines create pathways that pull you in and push you back out. The texture here is all implied. The stark black lines against the white of the paper, it’s so clean, so crisp. It almost feels mechanical, but there's this subtle give and take, a hand-drawn quality that keeps it human. The way the lines thicken and thin, it's a dance of precision and imperfection. Focus on the two vertical rectangles, how they interrupt the flow, creating these little moments of pause. It’s almost like Albers is playing with positive and negative space, pushing our eyes to see the world in terms of what's there and what isn't. It reminds me of Sol Lewitt but without the architecture. It’s about space and how we perceive it, more than any fixed idea or explanation.