These works, along with his writings, are considered invaluable contributions to color theory. We could find many examples of this kind telling us how inadequate the language is for the expression of taste, only one example more: try to describe the taste of sweet or sour-impossible to find the right word.”įurthermore color is “the most relative medium in art” (from: Interaction of Color) depending on the light of the surrounding, on the form and quantity of the color, on the other colors, the background, on our own flexible way of looking. Josef Albers was an American-German artist best known for his iconic color square paintings, also know as his Homage to the Square series.

But the psychic reactions are still different. Only the pigment red, the color by itself, is able to get all the different imaginations into the same direction. Even when you explain this red more precisely through other words, dark, light, deep, flat, active, substantial, loose, dense, transparent, opaque-still we will have different reds in our minds. Students who attend art and design universities typically complete these color studies using pigment and brushes or with Color-Aid paper, however formal color studies are demonstrated in the digital environment with the following four exercises where hue, value. In the lecture Abstract Art (August 1935) Josef Albers says: “Take for instance the word red. Albers created a course in color theory that inspired the tutorial in this chapter. Any form can be described, but trying to catch color in words is impossible. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this influential book presents Albers’s singular explanation of complex color theory principles.

Even knowing that visual language is a totally different language than the language of words, each acting on its own level, color is still a very difficult subject to describe. Josef Albers’s classic Interaction of Color is a masterwork in art education.

Albers color theory