Object number1976.92
Study for Homage to the Square: Open Land
Portfolio/Seriesfrom the series Homage to the Square
Date1964
Artist
Josef Albers
(American, b. Germany, 1888 - 1976)
CultureGerman, American
MediumOil on masonite
DimensionsUnframed: 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. (59.69 x 59.69 cm)
Framed: 24 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 3/8 in. (62.23 x 62.23 x 3.49 cm)
Framed: 24 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 3/8 in. (62.23 x 62.23 x 3.49 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Woodward Foundation, Washington, D.C.
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
SignedOn verso, signed upper right in ink: Albers
InscribedOn verso, by artist, upper left in ink [circled]: 24 x 24"; upper right: Study for / Homage to the Square: / "Open Land"[underlined] / Ground: 6 coats of Liquitex (Permt Pigment) / Painting: paints used -- from center: / Cadmium Yellow Pale (Winsor + Newton) / Cadmium Yellow Medium 3 (Lefebvre) / Yellow Ochre Pale (Winsor + Newton) / Ochre D'Or (Lefebvre) / [signature]' 1964;
by unidentified hand: VARNISH -- VARNISH WITH BUTYL METHACRYLATE / POLYMER IN XYLENE -- DANIEL GOLDREYER LTD. DEC 1963];
printed on a white label in red: Security Storage Company / of Washington / FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT
Vassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryU.S. Embassy Residence, Cairo, Egypt, September 1964 - May 1967;U.S. Embassy Residence, Bucharest, Romania, August 1970 - May 1973;
Promised Gifts '77, Vassar College Art Gallery, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, April 20 - May 22, 1977;
Geometric Art at Vassar, Vassar College Art Gallery, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, November 1982 - February 1983;
Paris--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 bright, deep yellow square at lower center surrounded by an off-center, more muted yellow square, surrounded by an off-center brown square with yellow undertones, surrounded by a off-center paler brown square with yellow undertones.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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