an older gentleman (67) now and has gotten quite wise. Watching him teach takes me back to being at the Bauhaus … it has been a joy for me to watch him at work with the students, and I only hope he’ll come again.” 30 On completing his lectureship, Albers filed a report to the U.S. High Commissioner.31 In it, he paid tribute to Bill as both artist and college president (German: “rector”), by saying: “… I have the highest respect for … and base my hopes for the HfG [Ulm School of Design] particularly on the great artistic abilities Herr Bill, the rector of the school, possesses.” Albers ended up returning to Ulm for a second HfG lectureship in 1955. He was given a welcome reception by Max Bill and HfG students as he alighted from the train at Ulm Hauptbahnhof on May 19, 1955. As a further example of their mutual esteem, Albers and Bill gave each other examples of their work during this time. Albers also made a series of portrait photographs of Bill in Ulm in June 1955.32 In August, before returning to the United States, Albers paid a visit to Bill’s friend Georges Vantongerloo in Paris. All three had been members of the Abstraction-Création group in the 1930s, along with other “Bauhaus folks” Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy.
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