“Manhattan” (1963)
[photo by Daniella on Design]
This series is an imagined collaboration with Josef Albers, who was a pioneer of the Bauhaus, modern art education, and curved-crease folding. Our curved-crease sculpture is always inspired by Albers' foldings from the late 1920s, but we wanted to incorporate his later work on colored murals. Specifically, we adapted Albers' infamous 25' × 55' mural “Manhattan” (1963) that was in the lobby of the Met Life building (formerly the Pan Am building) until its controversial removal in 2000. Because the piece is currently in a landfill, we based our interpretation on the better-documented “Maquette for Pan Am Building Mural” (1963). We took the repeating middle part of the design, warped it around a circle, printed it onto paper, and folded along aligned concentric circular creases. The resulting pieces newly combine two aspects of Albers' work in a way that we hope he would find exciting.
“Manhattan” (1963)
[photo by Daniella on Design]
New York Times article (2001) about the mural's removal
“Maquette for Pan Am Building Mural” (1963)
[photo by Yale University Art Gallery]
Here is the unfolded piece of paper:
[0631] “Pan Albers Maquette” (2019), Mi-Teintes watercolor paper, 6" × 9" × 7" high:
[0632] “Pan Albers” (2019), Mi-Teintes watercolor paper, 7" × 11" × 10" high:
