.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Begun in 1959, Josef Alber’s Homage to the Square paintings—of which Influence is an early large-scale example—became one of the most influential series in postwar Western art. Over the course of twenty-five years, Albers used his disarmingly simple composition of advancing and receding planes to investigate the optical properties of color. In Homage to the Square: Influence, the artist begins with a central core of warm rich golden yellow, surrounding this with a more ethereal version of a similar shade, before culminating the composition with a grey square. With works such as this, Albers was interested in investigating if our perceptions of the central square were influenced by what colors, or shades of a color, were placed next to it. Sometimes the differences in tone were minimal, but here, Albers has opted for a more dramatic and striking tonal difference between his colored elements.
Albers believed that color was one of the most important, and yet one of the most misunderstood aspects of art. “Color is a deception,” he once said, “Color is always fooling us, continually” (J. Albers, quoted by F. A. Horowitz, Josef Albers: To Open Eyes, London, 2006, p. 195). For the artist, the only way to understand the true impact of color was to observe the ‘push and pull’ effect of various chromatic values when placed in close proximity to each other, and he found his Homage to the Square motif the most successful way of demonstrating the direct physical effects that he believed various colors had on the human mind. “Such action, reaction, interaction—or interdependence—is sought in order to make obvious how colors influence and change each other: that the same color for instance –with different grounds or neighbors looks different….Such color deceptions prove that we see color almost never unrelated to each other…color is changing continually…Thus, character and feeling alter from painting to painting without any additional “hand writing” (J. Albers, Color, in G.Alviani (ed.), Josef Albers, Milan, 1988, pp. 104-105).
Albers executed his Homage to the Square in a number of different sized formats; measuring 40 x 40 inches square, Homage to the Square: Influence was painted in the second largest size that Albers worked with. Its immersive dimensions helped Albers to achieve his intention to challenge the viewer’s faculties of visual reception. Using this series as a model to demonstrate his theory, he tried to teach his students the mechanics of looking at color, and show the uninformed viewer the effects of different colors when viewed together.
A student, and later faculty member of the Bauhaus, Albers arrived in the United States in 1933 where he was asked to establish the visual arts curriculum at the influential Black Mountain College (whose students included Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly and Ruth Asawa). He later moved to teach at Yale University School of Art, where he was particularly proud that many non-art students took his classes in color theory. In 1963 he published Interaction of Color, described by one critic as the most influential book in art education.
In Albers's mind, color seduced, beguiled, schwindled, and it was these characteristics that made color the most fascinating of art's formal elements. From the outset of Interaction of Color he noted that “In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is—as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art. In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually” (J. Albers, quoted by F. A. Horowitz, Josef Albers: To Open Eyes, London, 2006, p. 195). Few artists can claim a true mastery of their particular aesthetic, and fewer still have been truly liberated by the intensity of their self-imposed limitations. In addition to his own paintings, Albers also influenced generations of artists and teachers. As such, Influence ably illustrates the continued relevance and importance of his teachings today.
Albers believed that color was one of the most important, and yet one of the most misunderstood aspects of art. “Color is a deception,” he once said, “Color is always fooling us, continually” (J. Albers, quoted by F. A. Horowitz, Josef Albers: To Open Eyes, London, 2006, p. 195). For the artist, the only way to understand the true impact of color was to observe the ‘push and pull’ effect of various chromatic values when placed in close proximity to each other, and he found his Homage to the Square motif the most successful way of demonstrating the direct physical effects that he believed various colors had on the human mind. “Such action, reaction, interaction—or interdependence—is sought in order to make obvious how colors influence and change each other: that the same color for instance –with different grounds or neighbors looks different….Such color deceptions prove that we see color almost never unrelated to each other…color is changing continually…Thus, character and feeling alter from painting to painting without any additional “hand writing” (J. Albers, Color, in G.Alviani (ed.), Josef Albers, Milan, 1988, pp. 104-105).
Albers executed his Homage to the Square in a number of different sized formats; measuring 40 x 40 inches square, Homage to the Square: Influence was painted in the second largest size that Albers worked with. Its immersive dimensions helped Albers to achieve his intention to challenge the viewer’s faculties of visual reception. Using this series as a model to demonstrate his theory, he tried to teach his students the mechanics of looking at color, and show the uninformed viewer the effects of different colors when viewed together.
A student, and later faculty member of the Bauhaus, Albers arrived in the United States in 1933 where he was asked to establish the visual arts curriculum at the influential Black Mountain College (whose students included Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly and Ruth Asawa). He later moved to teach at Yale University School of Art, where he was particularly proud that many non-art students took his classes in color theory. In 1963 he published Interaction of Color, described by one critic as the most influential book in art education.
In Albers's mind, color seduced, beguiled, schwindled, and it was these characteristics that made color the most fascinating of art's formal elements. From the outset of Interaction of Color he noted that “In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is—as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art. In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually” (J. Albers, quoted by F. A. Horowitz, Josef Albers: To Open Eyes, London, 2006, p. 195). Few artists can claim a true mastery of their particular aesthetic, and fewer still have been truly liberated by the intensity of their self-imposed limitations. In addition to his own paintings, Albers also influenced generations of artists and teachers. As such, Influence ably illustrates the continued relevance and importance of his teachings today.