Provenance
Chester Kerr, New Haven, gift from the artist, 1963
Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art, Part II, 1 May, 1991, lot 246
Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
Private Collection
Sotheby's, London, Contemporary Art Day, 30 June 2011, lot 144
Richard Green Gallery, London
Private Collection, 2012
Catalogue Essay
'Our concern is the interaction of colour; that is, seeing what happens between colours. We are able to hear a single tone. But we almost never (that is, without special devises) see a single colour unconnected and unrelated to other colours. Colours present themselves in continuous flux, constantly related to changing neighbours and changing conditions.’ Josef Albers taken from Interaction of Colour, New London: Yale University Press, 1963, p. 5.

Homage to the Square was to become one of the most seminal art series produced in the twentieth century, eventually comprising of over a thousand works in an eclectic range of mediums including paintings, prints, tapestries and drawings. Albers began this ambitious project in the early 1950s and continued to develop it over a twenty-five year period, treating each work with the same scientific precision. Homage to the Square: Wide sight (study) rendered in 1963, as a gift to Chester Kerr who helped Albers publish his book on colour theory entitled Interaction of Colour, epitomises his mature artistic and theoretical preoccupations.

As one of the key pioneers of modernism, Albers greatly influenced the course of art both during his time as a teacher in Bauhaus, as well as after the 1930s when he immigrated to the United States. There, he built on his successful reputation as a theorist and artist, joining Yale after teaching many artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly and Susan Weil in North Carolina. Unlike the Abstract Expressionists of his time, Albers became consumed by the notions of optical experiments – charting through his art, the effects of certain colour combinations. The manner in which he recorded the pigments used for his Homage to the Square series on the back of many of the individual works, only displays his inquisitive nature all the more.

Every piece from this group is defined by a highly wrought and methodical style of construction, composed of three or four squares of pure colour nested within one another. As is characteristic of this series, Homage to the Square: Wide sight (study) gravitates to the bottom edge and is painted on Masonite. Utilising a palette knife to apply the oil paint, Albers was able to retain the unadulterated quality of the hues he was incorporating. No mixing or blending was to taint his clarity of vision. In this work, shades of yellow ranging from warm ochre to a near white give unity to these dissected planes of colour that seem to fade in and out of focus. By selecting adjacent hues very particularly, Albers experimented with the way in which he could make certain pigments recede while others rise out from the picture plane. Consequently, his abstract works create a disjointed sense of depth that engulfs and disorientates the viewer through their sheer expansiveness.

29

Josef Albers

Homage to the Square: Wide Sight (study)

1963
oil on masonite, in artist's frame
76.2 x 76.2 cm (30 x 30 in.)
Initialled and dated 'A63' lower right. Signed, titled and dated 'Albers study for "Homage to the Square: Wide Sight" 1963' on the reverse. Further inscribed, initialled and dated 'For Chester Kerr July 1963 A' on the reverse.
This work will be included in the forthcoming Josef Albers Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by The Anni and Josef Albers Foundation and is registered at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation as JAAF 1963.1.68.

Estimate
£250,000 - 350,000 ‡

Sold for £338,500

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Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art, London
psumner@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4063

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 14 October 2015 7pm

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Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Blue Eyes Brown Hanging Perforated Mark M3.d)
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
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2
Rosemarie Trockel
Study for Old Friend
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Peter Doig
Bird House
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Richard Prince
Untitled (Cowboy)
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Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Three-Tiered Perspective)
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Christopher Wool
Untitled
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Christopher Wool
Untitled (Jazz death)
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Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
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9
Yoshitomo Nara
Missing in Action
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10
Anish Kapoor
Untitled
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11
Keith Haring
Untitled
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12
Keith Haring
Untitled (Head Stand)
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13
John Baldessari
Two Dogs and Two Aliens
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14
Ed Ruscha
Pneumatic Muscles Hydraulic Smiles
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15
George Condo
Stranger on a Plane
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16
Albert Oehlen
Omegasachen-35
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17
Damien Hirst
Aminobenzoyl Hydrazide
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18
Alighiero Boetti
Alternandosi e Dividendosi
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19
Lucio Fontana
Concetto Spaziale, Attese
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20
Cy Twombly
Untitled
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21
Mark Bradford
Constitution IV
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22
Tauba Auerbach
Untitled (Fold)
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23
Danh Vo
VJ Star
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24
Richard Prince
Untitled (Couples)
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25
Urs Fischer
Horse Fraud
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26
Cory Arcangel
Photoshop CS: 110 by 72 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient "Russell's Rainbow" (turn transparency off), mousedown y=25300 x=17600, mouse up y=4300 x=17600
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27
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity-Nets (OPARHJ)
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28
Sterling Ruby
SP60
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29
Josef Albers
Homage to the Square: Wide Sight (study)
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £338,500
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30
Neo Rauch
Die Lage
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31
Anselm Kiefer
The Secret Life of Plants
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32
Anselm Kiefer
Paete non Dolet
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33
Antony Gormley
Domain XV
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34
This lot is no longer available.
35
Jonas Wood
D.J.
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36
Richard Prince
Untitled (portrait)
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37
KAWS
Snoopy: Red Baron
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 14 October 2015 7pm

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

29

Josef Albers

Homage to the Square: Wide Sight (study)

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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