Josef Albers (1888-1976) - Interaction of Colors - XVIII-13

One-panel screen print by German-American artist Josef Albers (1888 Bottrop - 1976 New Haven, CT), from his portfolio 'Interaction of Color' (1973), published by Josef Keller Verlag, Starnberg (ed.) on the kinship and influence of colors with themselves and with each other. Features: - From the portfolio 'Interaction of Color' (1973) - Serial number: XVIII-13 - 25 x 33 cm - Excellent condition (see photos, which form part of the description) - not signed, unnumbered - portfolio name and serial number on the back of the print - one print of the 1000 edition - handmade paper - Provenance: from the original portfolio 'Interaction of Color' and purchased at a recognized/reputable art auction (Germany) (!) Last page (in the photo) not included. This back contains only a pencil monogram of the title (no printed text). Additional information about Josef Albers: Josef Albers (1888–1976) was an influential German-American artist, designer and art educator, best known for his groundbreaking investigations into color and perception. He began his career as a lecturer at the Bauhaus in Germany, teaching glasswork, design and visual theory. After the Bauhaus was closed by the Nazi regime, Albers emigrated to the United States in 1933. In America he became a key figure in modern art and art education. He taught at Black Mountain College and later at Yale University, where he influenced an entire generation of artists and designers. Albers believed that color is relative and dependent on its surroundings—a idea he studied systematically in his art and teaching. His best-known work is the series Homage to the Square (1950–1976), in which he explored the interaction and illusions of color using simple geometric forms and carefully chosen colors. In addition to painting, Albers also worked in graphics, photography and furniture design. His theoretical book Interaction of Color (1963) remains a standard in art and design education worldwide. Josef Albers is regarded as a key figure in the transition from European modernism to postwar American abstract art. Josef Albers’ Interaction of Color is not a traditional color theory with fixed laws or schemes, but a fundamental inquiry into how color is perceived. For Albers, color did not exist as an objective given: color is always relative and changes depending on its context. His central conviction was that color "almost never is what it seems". Instead of explaining colors through physics or color wheels, Albers started from the experience of looking itself. He found that color can only be truly understood through observation and experimentation. Therefore he did not have his students paint, but work with colored paper: cutting, shifting and comparing. The eye had to be trained, not memory. A core idea in Interaction of Color is that colors continuously influence one another. When two colors stand next to each other, they alter each other’s appearance. This principle of simultaneous contrast causes the same color to appear lighter, darker, warmer or cooler depending on context. Thus a neutral gray can look cool beside red and warm beside blue, without the gray itself changing. Albers also demonstrated how color can deceive the eye. Two different colors can appear identical, while one color can appear as two different colors. These visual illusions were, for him, not tricks but demonstrations of how unreliable our perception can be. Color is not a fixed fact, but an event arising in the relation between colors. He also explored how color can suggest transparency and spatiality on a completely flat plane. Through careful color choices, a form can appear in front of or behind another, or a transparent effect can arise without real transparency. This insight would later be especially influential in abstract art, graphic design and architecture. Limitation played a crucial role in Albers’ method. By using fixed shapes and simple compositions—such as in his famous series Homage to the Square—attention could be entirely directed to the interaction between colors. Form was subordinate to perception. The book Interaction of Color, published in 1963, is structured as exercises, examples and observations. It is not a theoretical manual, but a practical learning tool that invites readers to look and discover for themselves. Its influence reaches today, across painting, graphic design, fashion, interiors, architecture and digital interfaces. Albers’ enduring message is simple but radical: color is the most relative medium in art. Those who work with color do not deal in certainties but with perception, context and experience. Albers was associated with the following artists: Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, Johannes Itten, Oskar Schlemmer, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich, Anni Albers, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Agnes Martin, Ad Reinhardt, Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, Sol LeWitt, Max Bill

Estimation:€150

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