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Study for Homage to the Square: “Veiled” (work of art)

Artwork Info

Created
1958
Artist
Josef Albers
Nationality
American (born Germany)
Birth/Death
1880-1976
Dimensions
24 × 24 inches (61 × 61 centimeters)

Credit

Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object Number
62.10.1
Culture
American
Classification
Paintings
Department
Modern

Key Ideas

  • This painting is part of the artist’s Homage to the Square series. The series includes more than 1,000 paintings of nested squares that explore how different colors interact with one other. Based on the colors Albers used, his squares appear to move toward or away from the viewer. 
  • Albers kept careful notes about the paint colors he used in each painting. He often wrote these notes on the backs of his paintings. 
  • The paint colors used in this work, from the center square to the outermost square, are Permanent Bright Green (Grumbacher F brand), Cobalt Green Light (Rembrandt brand), Keilly’s Gray (Grumbacher brand), and Golden Ochre (Rhenish brand). 
  • The artist was a color theorist who wrote a bestselling book about color and how to teach color theory.
  • Albers taught art for 35 years. In 1933 he became the first art teacher at Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

Learn More

Josef Albers created this painting as part of his Homage to the Square series. The series explores human perceptions of color and how different colors or hues interact with one another. Homage to the Square includes over 1,000 paintings of squares that appear to expand and recede. The simple shapes allow the colors to be the focus of the painting. His “optical illusion” paintings helped influence the optical, or op art, movement. Op artists used geometric shapes, abstract patterns, and contrasting colors to create artworks that trick the eye.

Every perception of colour is an illusion . . . we do not see colors as they really are. In our perception they alter one another.

Josef Albers

His approach to painting was careful and mathematical. Albers applied paints directly from the tube using a palette knife, and he wrote the names of the colors that he used on the backs of his canvases. The paint colors used in this work, from the center square to the outermost square, are Permanent Bright Green (Grumbacher F brand), Cobalt Green Light (Rembrandt brand), Keilly’s Gray (Grumbacher brand), and Golden Ochre (Rhenish brand).

For me, color is the means of my idiom. It’s automatic. I’m not paying “homage to a square.” It’s only the dish I serve my craziness about color on.

Josef Albers

Albers was an influential artist and art teacher. He taught at the Bauhaus, a famous design school in Germany, until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then sought refuge in the United States and was hired as the first art teacher at Black Mountain College. This liberal arts school near Asheville, North Carolina, emphasized art as an essential part of learning. In 1963 Albers wrote a book titled Interaction of Color. It is still a bestseller that is used in teaching visual arts today.

Additional Resources

Resources for Teachers

 

Resources for Students

  • Read an article about color theory and how it can be used to create optical illusions. 
  • Watch a video to learn how to create Albers-inspired artwork. 
  • Play a game to learn about color theory.
  • Play a game to test your understanding of color theory.

Images

  • An oil painting of four nested squares by Josef Albers

    Study for Homage to the Square: “Veiled”

    A painting of four nested squares. The innermost square is a teal green color. It is surrounded by a lighter teal green square, which is surrounded by a gray square. The gray square is surrounded by a reddish brown square.