Josef Albers

Creator of the Color-Aid, Josef Albers (1888-1976) is better known for his long abstract series of paintings entitled "Homage to the Square." By working in families of related colors, a series of squares of different sizes are employed to study the effects of colors to react to neighboring colors which seem to grow, contract, move toward or away from the viewer.

"The square was the ideal shape for Albers’ "Homage’s," series. Squares were mathematically related to each other in size, perfect for superimposition, shapes that never occur in nature - thus assuring its man-made quality. Albers intended that the colours in his "Homage’s" series react with each other when processed by the human eye, causing optical illusions due to the eye's ability to continually change the colors in ways that echo, support, and oppose one another. He executed these paintings with a deliberate, careful technique using a minimum of tools and paint. He hated chaos and was adamantly opposed to the freedoms of Abstract Expressionism. When working, he applied one base or primary coat to Masonite, a ground he found most durable, and then squeezed unmixed paints directly from the tubes and spread the paint evenly and as thinly as possible with a palette knife" (Pierre).

Albers is credited with influencing the movements of Geometric Abstraction and Minimalism, was also one of the first modern artists to investigate the psychological effects of color and space and to question the nature of perception.

"As gentlemen prefer blondes, so everyone has a preference for certain colors and prejudices against others. This applies to colour combinations as well." - Albers


Albers' Interaction of Color Demonstration
Interaction of Color book