Blues Reminding
Print
1966 (printed)
1966 (printed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Josef Albers became one of the most influential figures of the 20th century avant-garde. He worked in a variety of media but has become widely recognised through his later printed work, based on the exploration of colour.
Throughout the 1940s and '50s Albers' black and white prints explored the perception of space through line. In 1949 he wrote a definitive text on colour theory but it was not until the 1960s that he began work on a series of coloured squares and rectangles, which explored the idea of colour as an illusion, depending on context. "We do not see colours as they really are" he wrote "in our perception they alter one another" his experiments in this field depended on the medium of screen-print because its reliably consistent evenness of colour could be produced very easily and with great speed.
Throughout the 1940s and '50s Albers' black and white prints explored the perception of space through line. In 1949 he wrote a definitive text on colour theory but it was not until the 1960s that he began work on a series of coloured squares and rectangles, which explored the idea of colour as an illusion, depending on context. "We do not see colours as they really are" he wrote "in our perception they alter one another" his experiments in this field depended on the medium of screen-print because its reliably consistent evenness of colour could be produced very easily and with great speed.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Blues Reminding (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Colour screenprint |
| Brief description | Colour screenprint by Josef Albers entitled 'Blues Reminding'. USA, 1966. |
| Physical description | square format image, with three different coloured rectangles placed symmetrically, one inside the other. The smallest rectangle is a greyish blue, placed so that the margin above it is roughly double the width of the margins on its two sides and the margins on its two sides roughly double the width of the margin on the fourth, base side. The blue rectangle sits in a rectangle of grey, and the grey rectangle sits in a rectangle of greyish green. The greyish-green margin is wider at its top than at its sides but only slightly narrower at its sides than at its top and only slightly wider than at its base. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Production type | Limited edition |
| Copy number | 186-200 |
| Marks and inscriptions | A '66
Blues Reminding 186-200 (signed with the artist's monogram, and dated, in pencil and inscribed with title and number.) |
| Credit line | Given by the Josef Albers Foundation |
| Production | Blues Reminding was printed by Si Sillmann, of Ives Sillmann, and co-published by Ives Sillmann, Newhaven, and Aldegraver Gesellschaft, for the Kunstverein, Münster, Germany. |
| Summary | Josef Albers became one of the most influential figures of the 20th century avant-garde. He worked in a variety of media but has become widely recognised through his later printed work, based on the exploration of colour. Throughout the 1940s and '50s Albers' black and white prints explored the perception of space through line. In 1949 he wrote a definitive text on colour theory but it was not until the 1960s that he began work on a series of coloured squares and rectangles, which explored the idea of colour as an illusion, depending on context. "We do not see colours as they really are" he wrote "in our perception they alter one another" his experiments in this field depended on the medium of screen-print because its reliably consistent evenness of colour could be produced very easily and with great speed. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.55-1994 |
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| Record created | February 27, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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