Homage to the Square: Ten Works by Josef Albers

Homage to the Square: Ten Works by Josef Albers challenged Albers to reconsider how he worked with color, as he was used to using his paints unmixed, direct from the tube. He worked with his publisher, Ives-Sillman, to devise a system whereby Albers determined his color of choice and applied the oil paint to absorbent paper for Sillman to take back to the print shop and color match in printing ink. The process also required a rethinking of the creation of the clean-lined squares; Albers feared a distortion of the colors due to inexact registration or overlapping. Instead, the squares were superimposed onto one another and printed in layers, starting with the area of the most saturated ink. Printing Homage to the Square: Ten Works by Josef Albers required fastidious judgment and patient labor from the printing team.