American, b. Germany, 1888–1976
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Study for Homage to the Square: With a Veil
oil on canvas, 1962
30 x 30 inches
Signed and dated at lower right,“A 62”
Bequest of Mary Mallery Davis, 1990.13
oil on canvas, 1962
30 x 30 inches
Signed and dated at lower right,“A 62”
Bequest of Mary Mallery Davis, 1990.13
artist info
Born in Germany, Albers had a rigorous education, studying at Berlin's Royal Art School, the School of Applied Art in Essen, and the Art Academy in Munich. From 1920 to 1923, Albers attended the Bauhaus in Weimar. In 1925, the Bauhaus was moved from Weimar to Dessau, where it was closed in 1933 by the new Nazi regime. Albers emigrated to the United States, bringing both his own theoretical and art background and the aesthetics of his former colleagues at the Bauhaus.
By 1949, Joseph Albers had become an established artist and teacher. He began to create works that focused on the interaction of colors within a painting field that would captivate him for the rest of his life. Study for Homage to the Square: With a Veil is part of this series. Albers believed that the careful analysis of these color relationships was sufficient as the subject of a painting, and he explored it in depth in his Homage to the Square series. Experimenting with a broad palette, he used oil colors straight from the tube, applied in a single layer on a panel on a ground of "the whitest white". Paintings from this series consist of colored squares, often of similar or related tones, nestled together in sizes that ascend or descend by hue. While the compositions of his Homage to the Square paintings appear straightforward, the process was extremely complex, and one that Albers took extreme care to document; on the back of Homage to the Square: With a Veil, Albers included a detailed list of the colors and paint varieties used in production of the work.
By 1949, Joseph Albers had become an established artist and teacher. He began to create works that focused on the interaction of colors within a painting field that would captivate him for the rest of his life. Study for Homage to the Square: With a Veil is part of this series. Albers believed that the careful analysis of these color relationships was sufficient as the subject of a painting, and he explored it in depth in his Homage to the Square series. Experimenting with a broad palette, he used oil colors straight from the tube, applied in a single layer on a panel on a ground of "the whitest white". Paintings from this series consist of colored squares, often of similar or related tones, nestled together in sizes that ascend or descend by hue. While the compositions of his Homage to the Square paintings appear straightforward, the process was extremely complex, and one that Albers took extreme care to document; on the back of Homage to the Square: With a Veil, Albers included a detailed list of the colors and paint varieties used in production of the work.
