As a teacher, writer, painter, and color theorist, Josef Albers influenced a generation of artists and designers who studied at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and Yale. His inventive and influential book "Interactions of Color" (1963), introduced countless artists and teachers to his experiments with color theory. In 1935, Josef and Anni Albers made their first trip to Mexico. The architecture and color that they saw resonated deeply with Albers, who later wrote, “Mexico is truly the promised land of abstract art.” In 1947, he began a series of compositions inspired by the Pre-Columbian sites he and Anni visited on their travels. "Blue Front," from this series, evokes the artist's interest in Mexican architecture: the variegated surface, scraped with a palette knife, is reminiscent of a stucco wall.