Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition

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This book, written almost 60 years ago, does not touch on how colors are viewed, used and manipulated in this digital age. An absence that will only grow more pronounced as "colored papers", the principal material used in the book for practice, become more and more scarce.

Holland Cotter (July 26, 2012), Harmony, Harder Than It Looks – ‘Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper,’ at the Morgan The New York Times. A color has many faces, and one color can be made to appear as two different colors. Here it is almost unbelievable that the left small and the right small squares are part of the same paper strip and therefore are the same color. And no normal human eye is able to see both squares — alike. He’d also produced a vast and growing series of artworks that would land him squarely among the giants of modernism.awakening, it seepedinto my understandingof Albers quite surreptitiously, in the form of an artifact, In all, Albers constructs a pioneering way of seeing, learning, teaching and studying color by drawing new attention to how it is perceived and understood in people’s lives. My two cents…

Bucher, François (1977). Josef Albers: Despite Straight Lines: An Analysis of His Graphic Constructions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. comfortable chair, a large table, and a good bit of time” to come to grips with this “very large book Josef Albers produced album covers for over three years between 1959 and 1961, Albers' seven album sleeves for Command Records incorporated elements such as circles and grids of dots, highly uncommon in his practice. "The series of records made by Command Records over half a century ago still resonate with audiophiles today, and are much sought-after by connoisseurs of mid-century modern design for their striking covers. This was all due to the collaboration between two individuals, Josef Albers and Enoch Light. Both men — one an influential teacher and artist, the other a stereo-recording pioneer — driven by strong convictions and passion for their respective crafts." [ citation needed] Works [ edit ] Homage to the Square [ edit ] Interaction of Color, the landmark 1963 book by Josef Albers, . . . isn’t just for aspiring artists. Its mesmerizing illustrations are a revelation for anyone interested in color theory and human perception.”—Pilar Viladas, New York TimesWhat I don't like about it: This book is not suitable for self-study, especially for people who don't have a basic (but comprehensive) understanding of color theory. Most exercises and practices in the book are given in the form of group assignments and discussions and indeed only work well in that way. Moreover, the writing of the book can be sometimes opaque, too concise and coded, as if it is written as instructions for the teachers, not the students.

ALBERS - The most curious and unique of the minds I have witnessed through text. A man with the very tight, intense, highly disciplined brain of a laboratory scientist, a careful, systematic and procedural method to his teaching (learning about colour is *not about self-expression!*). And yet, with the least scientific aim and probably the greatest scepticism towards the systemising, totalising goal of science. Weber, Nicholas Fox (1988). Josef Albers: A Retrospective (exh. cat.). New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications. ISBN 978-0-8109-1876-4. One of the more important points brought to light in Interaction of Color is transparency. This aspect involves the best of one’s imagination. When two colors are brought together in a transparency mix, the third color becomes a new color, not a mix of the two. This third color, whatever it may be, speaks to uniqueness and specificity. Albers also emphasizes that color should be considered for its value, inasmuch as for its saturation. This helps to give color its meaning within the specificity of a place. Outside of this, it is group perception that can activate colors and give them purpose within a space. Achim Borchardt-Hume, “Two Bauhaus Histories,” in Albers and Moholy- Nagy: From the Bauhaus to the New World, ed. Achim Borchardt-Hume (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 71. Josef Albers findings are not related to psychology or cultural values of colors, but they are about techniques and how human eye perceives color. Grasping all there is in this book without help of an instructor is going to be hell of difficult. I have the Fourth printing, 1972 version, which you can find in archive.orgAlbers is known for his paintings, but one of his most enduring legacies is the book Interaction of Color which was published in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates. In the text, he expanded on color theory, stating that color is “almost never seen as it really is” and that “color deceives continually.” (Anyone who has ever worked with hues, in a creative sense, likely knows this firsthand.) Robert Ayers (March 29, 2006). "Susan Weil". Art+Auction. Archived from the original on March 8, 2008 . Retrieved April 22, 2008.