Object number1997.3.1
Homage to the Square: Bright Air
Portfolio/Seriesfrom the series Homage to the Square
Date1954
Artist
Josef Albers
(American, b. Germany, 1888 - 1976)
CultureGerman, American
MediumOil on masonite
DimensionsUnframed: 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in. (60 x 60 cm)
Framed: 24 7/16 x 24 7/16 x 1 3/16 in. (62 x 62 x 3 cm)
Framed: 24 7/16 x 24 7/16 x 1 3/16 in. (62 x 62 x 3 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Edith Ferry Hooper, class of 1932
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
Terms
SignedOn recto, incised initial lower right corner: A;
On verso, signed upper right in ink: Albers
InscribedOn recto, by artist, incised lower right corner: 54;
On verso, upper right in ink: Homage to the Square / "Bright Air"[underlined] / [signature] '54 / Ground: [illegible] coats of Luminall (Cadein) with addition of / Linseed oil, damar varnish + turpentine / Painting: paints used (from center) / Cadmium Orange (Shiva) (casein) / Yellow Ochre (Grumbacher) (casein) / Mixture of Monastral Blue (Greco) / + Zinc White (Winsor + Newton) -- oil / all in one primary coat / without additional painting medium;
by unidentified hand, upper left: E. F. Hooper / 1100 Copper Hill Rd. / Baltimore 9 Md.
ProvenanceSidney Janis GalleryVassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryParis--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Shimane Art Museum, Matsue, Japan, March 7 - May 11, 2008; Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume, Japan, May 17 - July 20, 2008; Yamagata Museum of Art, Yamagata, Japan, July 30 - August 31, 2008; Fuchu Art Museum, Fuchu, Japan, September 6 - November 3, 2008; Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, Miyazaki, Japan, November 14 - December 14, 2008;Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art from the Permanent Collection, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, July 12 - September 8, 2013
Label TextThis painting is from Albers's celebrated series, Homage to the Square, begun around the time that he joined the Yale faculty in 1950 and continuing for the next quarter century until his death in 1976. Albers set strict limits for himself having to do with format, composition, and most importantly, color relationships, yet he was able to achieve a remarkable range of optical effects. In 1963, in an essay about the use of color in his paintings Alberts wrote, "Colors are juxtaposed for various and changing visual effects. They are to challenge or to echo each other, to support or oppose one another...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 colors almost never unrelated to each other..."
DescriptionA deep, medium orange square at lower center surrounded by an off-center, medium orangish-brown square, surrounded by a vivid, medium blue square.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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