Influence of Color: Luis Barragán and Josef Albers

Fascinated and intrigued by the pre-Hispanic and folk art they saw during their first trip to Mexico in 1936, Josef and Anni Albers made thirteen additional visits from 1937 to 1967. It was indeed this art that inspired most of Albers’s most significant work, mainly related to the use of color: the series Variants on a Theme and Homage to the Square. Their visits coincided with the period when Luis Barragán was developing some of his most outstanding work and introducing his signature use of color (Casa Barragán, Casa Prieto-López, Capilla Capuchinas, Casa Gálvez, Las Arboledas, and Establos San Cristóbal). However, it is not clear if the artists and architects ever met in Mexico. Given Albers’s and Barragán’s interest in and use of color, and mutual friends, it would seem likely that the two men met in Mexico. However, there is no evidence that they met before their encounter at the Albereses’ New Haven studio in 1967. So, what triggered their interest in color? And more importantly, did one have an influence upon the other? This paper studies the relationships between the work of Albers and Barragán, the possible influences and inspirations at play, and the student work from the seminar “Luis Barragán: Light, Color, and Water,” a course that helps better understand Barragán’s use of color.