JOSEF ALBERS. ANATOMY OF HOMAGE TO THE SQUARE

The volume is based on an unpublished sequence of works by Josef Albers (edited by Carole Haensler and Marco Pierini, September 2019), issued to mark the occasion of the exhibition at the Villa dei Cedri Museum in Bellinzona. The book progresses through a selection of graphic work, gouaches, preparatory drawings and paintings that trace the references and relationship between preparatory outlines and sketches and the completed work, in particular regarding the series Homage to the Square, while investigating the artist’s tendency towards a rigorous ‘sensitivity’ to color. Indeed, almost ritualistic in his approach, Albers chooses the modulation of light and colors with a resolute, spiritual perseverance, applied to an infinite yet invariable range of motifs, forms and processes.

In addition to historical and artistic research by the editors, the catalogue also contains an unpublished text by Max Bill, who between 1927 and 1929 was a student of Albers at the Bauhaus in Dessau.