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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Josef Albers Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by The Anni and Josef Albers Foundation.
'Seeing several of these paintings next to each other makes it obvious that each painting is an instrumentation in its own. This means that they are all of different palettes, and, therefore, so to speak, of different climates. Choice of the colors used, as well as their order, is aimed at an interaction - influencing and changing each other forth and back' (J. Albers, 'On My Homage to the Square', in Josef Albers, exh. cat., The Mayor Gallery, London, 1989, p. 31).
Bursting with a fresh palette of vibrant tones of blue and green, Josef Albers' Homage to the Square: Spring Starting displays the artist's mastery of both colour and form. This series was the culmination and focus of his late career and methodically examines the way in which the viewer perceives and experiences colour. In Albers' own words, 'Seeing several of these paintings next to each other makes it obvious that each painting is an instrumentation in its own. This means that they are all of different palettes, and, therefore, so to speak, of different climates. Choice of the colors used, as well as their order, is aimed at an interaction - influencing and changing each other forth and back' (J. Albers, 'On My Homage to the Square', in Josef Albers, exh. cat., The Mayor Gallery, London, 1989, p. 31).
One of the most influential artists of his generation, Josef Albers' ideas about colour became a leading theory in art during the Post-War period. After beginning his teaching career at the Bauhaus, Albers went on to to develop an influential course on colour at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina, whose experimental and interdisciplinary approach attracted many of the periods emerging talents including Cy Twombly, John Chamberlain and Robert Rauschenberg. Indeed, Rauschenberg was so inspired by Albers that he described him as being one of his most important teachers. In 1950 Albers left Black Mountain to head the Department of Design at Yale University where he developed the hugely influential Interaction of Color course that served as an inspiration for an entirely new generation of artists. Importantly, his courses, and by implication his paintings, were never meant to be a prescriptive philosophy of colour theory but rather 'an ongoing inquiry in which solutions were not conclusions, but steps on an endless path' (J. Albers, 'Color', in G. Alviani (ed.), Josef Albers, Milan 1988, p. 105).
The resolutely non-referential nature of Albers' works possess a distinctly spiritual nature. The artist was adamant that unlike many of his contemporaries his paintings were not meant to represent anything-physical or emotional. The Austrian art historian Wieland Schmied commented, 'Josef Albers went an empirical and more rational way. He doesn't appeal to those areas of feeling of our consciousness that we declare to be the realm of the soul. Hans Arp said about Josef Albers' paintings: 'They contain simple, great statements such as: I'm standing here. I'm resting here. I'm in the world and on earth. I'm in no hurry to move on. While Mark Rothko sought transcendence, Albers looked for fulfillment here on earth. Mark Rothko approached the ethereal through art. Josef Albers realized 'the spiritual in art'' (W. Schmied, 'Fifteen Notes on Josef Albers', trans. by B. Barrett and C. Deniers, in Josef Albers, exh. cat., London, 1989, pp. 9-10).
'Seeing several of these paintings next to each other makes it obvious that each painting is an instrumentation in its own. This means that they are all of different palettes, and, therefore, so to speak, of different climates. Choice of the colors used, as well as their order, is aimed at an interaction - influencing and changing each other forth and back' (J. Albers, 'On My Homage to the Square', in Josef Albers, exh. cat., The Mayor Gallery, London, 1989, p. 31).
Bursting with a fresh palette of vibrant tones of blue and green, Josef Albers' Homage to the Square: Spring Starting displays the artist's mastery of both colour and form. This series was the culmination and focus of his late career and methodically examines the way in which the viewer perceives and experiences colour. In Albers' own words, 'Seeing several of these paintings next to each other makes it obvious that each painting is an instrumentation in its own. This means that they are all of different palettes, and, therefore, so to speak, of different climates. Choice of the colors used, as well as their order, is aimed at an interaction - influencing and changing each other forth and back' (J. Albers, 'On My Homage to the Square', in Josef Albers, exh. cat., The Mayor Gallery, London, 1989, p. 31).
One of the most influential artists of his generation, Josef Albers' ideas about colour became a leading theory in art during the Post-War period. After beginning his teaching career at the Bauhaus, Albers went on to to develop an influential course on colour at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina, whose experimental and interdisciplinary approach attracted many of the periods emerging talents including Cy Twombly, John Chamberlain and Robert Rauschenberg. Indeed, Rauschenberg was so inspired by Albers that he described him as being one of his most important teachers. In 1950 Albers left Black Mountain to head the Department of Design at Yale University where he developed the hugely influential Interaction of Color course that served as an inspiration for an entirely new generation of artists. Importantly, his courses, and by implication his paintings, were never meant to be a prescriptive philosophy of colour theory but rather 'an ongoing inquiry in which solutions were not conclusions, but steps on an endless path' (J. Albers, 'Color', in G. Alviani (ed.), Josef Albers, Milan 1988, p. 105).
The resolutely non-referential nature of Albers' works possess a distinctly spiritual nature. The artist was adamant that unlike many of his contemporaries his paintings were not meant to represent anything-physical or emotional. The Austrian art historian Wieland Schmied commented, 'Josef Albers went an empirical and more rational way. He doesn't appeal to those areas of feeling of our consciousness that we declare to be the realm of the soul. Hans Arp said about Josef Albers' paintings: 'They contain simple, great statements such as: I'm standing here. I'm resting here. I'm in the world and on earth. I'm in no hurry to move on. While Mark Rothko sought transcendence, Albers looked for fulfillment here on earth. Mark Rothko approached the ethereal through art. Josef Albers realized 'the spiritual in art'' (W. Schmied, 'Fifteen Notes on Josef Albers', trans. by B. Barrett and C. Deniers, in Josef Albers, exh. cat., London, 1989, pp. 9-10).