"When I came from horizontal vertical straight all old stuff then suddenly I go also again in curved lines. And there I submit to changes in the intensity of my hand leading a tool, you see"
About this Quote
Albers makes “horizontal,” “vertical,” and “straight” sound less like geometry than like a moral regime: the “old stuff” of discipline, training, and inherited taste. The turn in the sentence - “then suddenly” - is the real drama. It’s the moment the grid stops being a safe home base and becomes something to push against. For an artist associated with Bauhaus rigor and the cool authority of color theory, the confession is quietly destabilizing: even the apostle of system craves the curve.
The subtext is that control is not the opposite of feeling; it’s the instrument that makes feeling legible. “Curved lines” aren’t just a new look, they’re a new kind of risk, because curves expose the hand. Straight lines can be outsourced to tools and rules; a curve advertises pressure, speed, hesitation. That’s why he lingers on “the intensity of my hand leading a tool.” He isn’t romanticizing spontaneity. He’s describing a calibrated surrender, where the body re-enters the picture as a variable.
Context matters: Albers’s era worshipped modernist clarity while wrestling with how much personality to permit. His teaching and his work often revolve around constraints - the square, the study, the exercise - as a way to produce unexpected perception. Here, he frames change not as inspiration but as bodily adjustment, an artist re-learning the relationship between intention and execution. The “you see” lands like a classroom aside, but it’s also a dare: pay attention to process, because style is just the residue of decisions you can’t fully automate.
The subtext is that control is not the opposite of feeling; it’s the instrument that makes feeling legible. “Curved lines” aren’t just a new look, they’re a new kind of risk, because curves expose the hand. Straight lines can be outsourced to tools and rules; a curve advertises pressure, speed, hesitation. That’s why he lingers on “the intensity of my hand leading a tool.” He isn’t romanticizing spontaneity. He’s describing a calibrated surrender, where the body re-enters the picture as a variable.
Context matters: Albers’s era worshipped modernist clarity while wrestling with how much personality to permit. His teaching and his work often revolve around constraints - the square, the study, the exercise - as a way to produce unexpected perception. Here, he frames change not as inspiration but as bodily adjustment, an artist re-learning the relationship between intention and execution. The “you see” lands like a classroom aside, but it’s also a dare: pay attention to process, because style is just the residue of decisions you can’t fully automate.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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