Live Auction 1536Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction
JOSEF ALBERS (1888-1976)
Lot 220

JOSEF ALBERS (1888-1976)

Homage to the Square

Closed2 July 2014

Price Realised

GBP 158,500

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JOSEF ALBERS (1888-1976)
Homage to the Square
signed with monogram and dated 'A66' (lower right)
oil on masonite
40 x 40in. (101.6 x 101.6cm.)
Painted in 1966

Estate of Josef Albers.
The Josef Albers Foundation.
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York.
Edward Totah Gallery, London.
Galerie Denise René, Paris.
Elisabeth Franck Gallery, Knokke.
Galerie Hadrien-Thomas, Paris.
Galerie Elke Droscher, Hamburg.
Dany Keller Galerie, Munich.
Private Collection, Germany.
Anon. sale, Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, 13 November 2003, lot 31.
Private Collection, New York.
Anon. sale; Christie’s, New York, 14 May 2008, lot 135.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Specialist note

‘I have not built any theory. I have only tried to build up sensitive eyes, as my book says. And I have tried to achieve that by aiming at very distinct colour relationships again - like how do they influence each other? Change each other in light and in intensity, in transparency, opacity? How do they change each other in all different directions?...And in the end, the study of colour again is a study of ourselves. And to anyone today who tries to predict to me what two colors will do, I will say “Please stop. I do not trust you. Because anyone who predicts the effect of colours proves that he has no experience with colour. Colour is fooling us, cheating us, deceiving us - you can call it if you want - all the time”’
(J. Albers, quoted in S. Fesci, Oral History Interview with Josef Albers, 1968, https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-josef-albers-11847 [accessed 17th April 2014]).