Black Mountain, Yale, the Met: the Alberses built American design education

Mutina Homage to the Square stoneware in a US corporate lobby

America gave them refuge in July 1933; they repaid it by teaching it to see. From Black Mountain College (1933-49) to Yale, where Josef led the Design Department from 1950, Josef and Anni Albers trained generations — until the Metropolitan Museum made Josef, in 1971, the first living artist ever given a solo retrospective there, two years after Anni's MoMA milestone of 1949. Their Foundation now extends the lesson into material: Homage to the Square by Mutina, glazed stoneware in seven layered shades, launched in 2026.

La Mercanti ships that legacy to US projects — Bauhaus colour theory, fired in Italy, walked on daily.