Homage to the Square: Restrained Glow

Details

Josef Albers (1888-1976)
Homage to the Square: Restrained Glow
signed with the artist's initial and dated 'A 51' (lower right); signed again, titled and dated again 'Homage to the Square 'Restrained Glow' Albers '51' (on the reverse)
oil on Masonite in artist's frame
24 x 24 in. (60.9 x 60.9 cm.)
Painted in 1951.

Provenance

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1952

Literature

"Manet to Arp--The Colin Collection," Vogue, vol. 135, no. 8, April 1960, pp. 110 and 149 (illustrated).

Exhibited

New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Albers: "Homage to the Square" and "Transformations of a Scheme", January 1952.
New York, Downtown Gallery, Art Our Children Live With, December 1957, no. 1.
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Josef Albers: Retrospective Exhibition, February-March 1962, no. 15.
New York, M. Knoelder & Co., The Colin Collection: Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, April-May 1965, no. 65 (illustrated).

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Joanna Szymkowiak

JSzymkowiak@christies.com +1 212-636-2100

Lot Essay

This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.

'I know my interest in color comes from handling color for years... I like to believe that in playing with color combinations I came across a promising accident (as happens sometimes) and I did not overlook it but tried to articulate it... I’ll continue as long as I am able. Not because of the squares but because there is no end with color' (J. Albers, quoted in J.H. Holloway and J.A. Weil, ‘A Conversation with Josef Albers’, in Leonardo, vol. 3, no. 4, October 1970, pp. 462-463).

Homage to the Square: Restrained Glow

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Lot Essay

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