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All auctions / Arts & Graphics / Josef Albers (1888-1976) - Interaction of Colors - IX-2
One-sheet screenprint by the German-American artist Josef Albers (1888 Bottrop - 1976 New Haven, CT), from his portfolio 'Interaction of Color' (1973), issued by Josef Keller Verlag, Starnberg (ed.) on the color relationships and influence of colors on themselves and on each other. Features: - From the portfolio 'Interaction of Color' (1973) - Serial number: IX-2 - 25 x 33 cm - Excellent condition (see photographs, which are part of the description) - not signed, unnumbered - portfolio name and serial number on the back of the screenprint - one screenprint of the 1000 editions - handmade paper - Provenance: from the original portfolio 'Interaction of Color' and purchased at a reputable/renowned art auction (Germany) (!) Last leaf (in the photograph) not included. This back contains only a pencil monogram of the title (no printed text). Extra information about Josef Albers: Josef Albers (1888–1976) was an influential German-American artist, designer and art educator, best known for his groundbreaking research into color and perception. He began his career as a teacher at the Bauhaus in Germany, where he taught glass, 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 used simple geometric shapes and carefully chosen colors to investigate the interactions and illusions of color. In addition to painting, Albers also worked with 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 study of 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 is almost never 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 the memory. A core idea in Interaction of Color is that colors continuously influence each other. When two colors sit side by side, they alter each other’s appearance. This principle of simultaneous contrast makes the same color appear lighter, darker, warmer or cooler depending on the context. Thus a neutral gray can look cool next to red and warm next to blue, without the gray itself changing. Albers also demonstrated how color can deceive the eye. Two different colors can appear identical, while one color may present itself as two different colors. These visual illusions were, to him, not tricks but proofs of how unreliable our perception can be. Color is not a fixed fact, but an event that arises in the relationship between colors. He also explored how color transparency and spatiality can be suggested on a completely flat plane. Through careful color choices, a form can seem in front of or behind another, or a transparent effect can arise without genuine transparency. This insight later proved especially influential in abstract art, graphic design and architecture. Limitation played a crucial role in Albers’ method. By using fixed forms and simple compositions—such as in his famous Homage to the Square series—attention could be directed entirely toward the interaction of colors. Form was subordinated to perception. The book Interaction of Color, published in 1963, is structured around exercises, examples and observations. It is not a theoretical manual, but a practical learning tool inviting readers to look and discover for themselves. Its influence reaches to this day, from painting and graphic design to fashion, interior design, 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 connected 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.
Estimate:£127.53
To the auctionView all items fromCatawikiorArts & Graphics
Estimate:
£127.53
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG. Utställningsaffisch, 1977, Museum of Modern Art
09/15/2026
£62.23
Est: £75.88
Utställningsaffisch, The New York collection for Stockholm, Moderna
09/15/2026
£41.79
Est: £75.88
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