Interaction of Color

Josef Albers a German born American painter was as well known for the art he created as he was for the forward thinking educational programs he designed. 

Albers' tome, Interaction of Color, a 1963 limited edition of 2000 copies, considered a twentieth century masterpiece, was written as a teaching guide for students and artists.  A visual perception of color, any color, is almost never seen as it really is.  It is constantly changing.  You almost never see one color alone, it is always influenced by other colors around it.  Color continually deceives the eye thru different altered media.  Josef placed practice over theory reversing a long held truth of color relatedness. 

Thru comparison and contrast we begin to see how each color affects the other.  "Color is absolute and  is always relative to its surroundings."

He favored a very disciplined approach to composition.

His most famous series of paintings are ~ 

Homage to a Square

I was somewhat familiar with Josef Albers' work but really took notice when I saw his square series on a limited edition collection of Hermes silk scarves.  I was smitten with the square in square design and color palette.  A perfect pairing which peaked my curiosity enough to learn more about Mr. Albers.  BTW:  the scarves are highly collectable!

Hermes Editeur

On the 50 year anniversary of the book's publishing, Yale Press created an interactive app.
The Interaction of Color app for the iPad allows you to experiment and interact with Albers' chosen color plates.  The 21st century edition allows us unprecedented accessibility to manipulate our own color /shape studies.  If nothing else, it inspires you to think more deeply about color and each color's relationship to another.   It's a visual lesson that needs to be experienced rather than read about.  Manipulating the plates allows the user to come away with a better understanding of the relatedness one color has to another.

 It's addictive.  I spent half of Saturday playing with it.