Exceptional Works: Josef Albers

Josef Albers, 1976

“In the late 1960s, Mrs. Bliss Parkinson, who was then the president of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, pleased Josef Albers greatly when she said that it was insufficient to own a single , but that it was necessary to have at least two of them. That way, all sorts of color relationships would occur between the paintings as well as within each of them. ‘In math and science, one plus one is two; in art, one plus one is two and also many more,’ Josef said.

These two gray and green paintings not only invite multiple readings, but also demonstrate a principle which was dear to Josef—that the same color looks different according to its surroundings. Each painting in this pair is composed of identical paints. (Josef annotated them on the back not only with the name of the pigment, but additionally with information on its manufacturer.) Nonetheless, how they appear changes according to their position in the painting. Their apparent hue is also impacted by their relative size within the classic Homage composition.

Moreover, the juxtaposition of a verdant green, a color associated with nature, and a steely gray, associated with what is manufactured, fulfills Josef’s passion for putting warm and cool together. The universe of color offered endless possibilities for transformation and unprecedented forms of beauty.”

—Nicholas Fox Weber, executive director, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation

Josef Albers

Study for Homage to the Square, 1968

Oil on masonite

40 x 40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm)
Framed: 40 1/2 x 40 1/2 inches (102.9 x 102.9 cm)

Study for Homage to the Square: Starting Anew, 1964

Oil on masonite

40 x 40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm)

Framed: 40 1/2 x 40 1/4 inches (102.9 x 102.2 cm)

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Josef Albers (1888–-1976) was one of the most influential painters of the twentieth century. His career, which bridged European and American modernism, consisted mainly of a tightly focused investigation into the perceptual properties of color and spatial relationships. Working with simple geometric forms, Albers sought to produce the effects of chromatic interaction, in which the visual perception of a color is affected by those adjacent to it.

Josef Albers with Homage to the Square works, n.d.

Albers began the Homage to the Square series in 1950, and continued to elaborate upon it until his death in 1976.

Working meticulously by hand without masking the different areas to be painted, Albers used a palette knife to apply the pigments, leaving the paintings for a period of time to dry before applying a separate color. Using commercial paints directly from the tube, Albers explored a vast spectrum of colors and hues which were often illuminated by a layer of varnish applied over the paint.

Josef Albers, n.d. Photo by Rudy Burckhardt © Estate of Rudy Burckhardt/Artists Right Society (ARS), New York

“Across twenty-six years, the artist shows single-minded dedication. He does not veer or alter his course. The composition remains constant: configurations of nested squares. It is a tale of perseverance that brings to mind … performances intended to test the limits of endurance, fortitude, and aesthetic understandings.”

—Jeannette Redensek, “Farbenfabeln: On the Origins and Development of the Homage to the Square,” in Josef Albers: Interaction, 2018

Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square: Starting Anew, 1964 (detail)

“There is no color tone or scrap of line that Albers did not see as full of latent meaning, evocative of mood and spirit, able to exert a decisive, life-altering effect on another color or line. Detail and nuance were his deepest nourishment. Calmly and systematically … he found multitude and stability in a few forms.”

—Nicholas Fox Weber, “The Artist as Alchemist,” in Josef Albers: A Retrospective, 1988

Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square, 1968 (detail)

“In the fixed composition of the Homages, Albers used color to create movement, a sense of temporal unfolding: the paintings seem to change, the colors to shift. The nested squares let the beholder apprehend the composition in multiple ways.… The Homages conjure metaphors—they are stages, or windows, or landscapes—comparisons that Albers himself recognized and explored.”

—Jeannette Redensek, “Farbenfabeln: On the Origins and Development of the Homage to the Square,” in Josef Albers: Interaction, 2018

Installation view, Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square: Despite Mist, 1967–1968 in the exhibition Icônes, Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy, 2023

A diptych titled Study for Homage to the Square: Despite Mist (1967–1968) is currently on view at Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy as part of the exhibition Icônes, which presents important works from the Pinault Collection.

These works will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of Josef Albers, 1914-1976 currently being prepared by The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, registered under #1976.1.1804. and #1976.1.808., respectively.

“Painting is color acting. To act is to change character and behavior, mood and tempo.… Acting color loses identity, appears as another color, lighter or dark, more or less intensive, brighter or duller, warmer or cooler, thinner or lighter or thicker or heavier, higher and nearer or deeper and farther away, opaque turns translucent, joining color colors appear overlapping each other. When color acts we can never tell what color it is.”

—Josef Albers, studio note, 1950s

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