“Color is the most relative medium in art”
—Josef AlbersThis set of ten screenprints comes from Josef Albers’ most well-known series, Homage to the Square (1949-1976). By reducing the figure plane to a sequence of squares nested inside one another, Albers draws the viewer’s focus to color itself. He was particularly interested in the synergy between colors and approached his ideas in a way that was both pragmatic and philosophical. He divided colors into two categories: the factual and the actual. The factual is how he referred to color in isolation, while the actual is the way a color appears in context. As Albers explained it, the appearance of a color can be altered by other colors around it, which leads to a different emotional response. He understood color to be unstable, saying that “in order to use color effectively, it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually.”
Albers was a very passionate teacher and believed that art students were not there to learn rules, but rather to learn how to see. Albers once said that his goal as a teacher was "to open eyes." He wanted his students to execute their assignments as if they were studying in a lab and pushed them to shift their perspectives to understand the importance of subtleties in the world around them, or what he referred to as an often-unseen reality. Albers’ book, Interaction of Color, initially intended to be a guide for other teachers, has been in print for almost 60 years and remains one of the most influential resources on color theory.
When I paint
I think and see
first and most—color
but color as motion
Color not only accompanying
form of lateral extension
and after being moved
remaining arrested
But of perpetual inner movement
as aggression—to and from the spectator
besides interaction and interdependence
with shape and hue and light
Color in a direct and frontal focus
and when closely felt
as a breathing and pulsating
—from within
Josef Albers, untitled poem
