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Lot Essay
This work is to be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being prepared by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation as No. JAAF 1960.1.84.
Part of Josef Albers’s seminal series, Homage to the Square: Late Green (1960) is a prime example of the artist’s exhaustive investigation into color theory. This work typifies the artist’s mature work, and exhibits one of several mathematically-derived templates that the artist conceived for this project. A central square is surrounded by a number of progressively larger squares, and the layers of teal, olive, tinted gray, and a final border of forest green play with the viewer’s handle on optical space. This format allowed Albers to explore the subjective nature of color and to more fully reveal how chromatic pairings influence our sight.
An early student of the Bauhaus, Albers went on to teach at the highly-influential school before its dissolution in the early 1930s. Bringing that utilitarian ethos with him to the United States, Albers taught at Black Mountain College and Yale, where he groomed a new generation of 20th century artists including Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly.
The revolutionary approach to form and material emphasized by the Bauhaus is clearly present in Albers’s comprehensive inquiry into the effects of color, and his dedication to the project has resulted in a comprehensive oeuvre. Homage to the Square: Late Green is a striking testament to the artist’s insatiable analysis of visual effects and how adjacent colors can be used to create illusionary space.
Part of Josef Albers’s seminal series, Homage to the Square: Late Green (1960) is a prime example of the artist’s exhaustive investigation into color theory. This work typifies the artist’s mature work, and exhibits one of several mathematically-derived templates that the artist conceived for this project. A central square is surrounded by a number of progressively larger squares, and the layers of teal, olive, tinted gray, and a final border of forest green play with the viewer’s handle on optical space. This format allowed Albers to explore the subjective nature of color and to more fully reveal how chromatic pairings influence our sight.
An early student of the Bauhaus, Albers went on to teach at the highly-influential school before its dissolution in the early 1930s. Bringing that utilitarian ethos with him to the United States, Albers taught at Black Mountain College and Yale, where he groomed a new generation of 20th century artists including Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly.
The revolutionary approach to form and material emphasized by the Bauhaus is clearly present in Albers’s comprehensive inquiry into the effects of color, and his dedication to the project has resulted in a comprehensive oeuvre. Homage to the Square: Late Green is a striking testament to the artist’s insatiable analysis of visual effects and how adjacent colors can be used to create illusionary space.