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Fatherhood Quote by Josef Albers

"My father's parents were carpenters. They were also builders partly. They were painters. And several of them were very, active in the theatre and all such nonsense, you know"

About this Quote

Albers drops this family inventory like he is ticking off items in a hardware store, then snaps the whole list shut with a single, telling phrase: "all such nonsense". The dry dismissal is the point. He is signaling a temperament that will later define his work and teaching: the suspicion that romance, theatrics, and self-mythology are distractions from making.

The first half reads like a blueprint for modernism's favorite origin story - craft, labor, materials, surfaces. Carpenters, builders, painters: trades that imply measurement, patience, and an ethic of competence. Even "partly" matters. It refuses the neatness of lineage; these people did more than one thing because work required it, not because it looked good in a biography. Albers is subtly claiming a practical inheritance, not a bohemian one.

Then comes the twist: theatre. In another mouth, that would be proof of artistic flair. Albers frames it as clutter, "nonsense", with the conversational shrug of "you know", as if assuming the listener shares the disdain. The subtext is less anti-art than anti-performance. He wants art stripped of the cult of personality and the backstage drama of "the scene". Coming from a Bauhaus figure who championed disciplined experimentation and perception over confession, the line reads as a manifesto in miniature: value construction over spectacle, doing over posturing.

Contextually, it also reveals class and cultural positioning. He is not selling genius; he is grounding authority in craft. In a century when artists increasingly became celebrities, Albers keeps insisting on the workshop.

Quote Details

TopicGrandparents
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Albers, Josef. (n.d.). My father's parents were carpenters. They were also builders partly. They were painters. And several of them were very, active in the theatre and all such nonsense, you know. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-fathers-parents-were-carpenters-they-were-also-153646/

Chicago Style
Albers, Josef. "My father's parents were carpenters. They were also builders partly. They were painters. And several of them were very, active in the theatre and all such nonsense, you know." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-fathers-parents-were-carpenters-they-were-also-153646/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My father's parents were carpenters. They were also builders partly. They were painters. And several of them were very, active in the theatre and all such nonsense, you know." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-fathers-parents-were-carpenters-they-were-also-153646/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Josef Albers

Josef Albers (March 19, 1888 - March 26, 1976) was a Artist from Germany.

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