Josef Albers

Lot Description Josef Albers (1888-1976) Study for Homage to the Square: Hard, Softer, Soft Edge signed with artist's monogram and dated 'A64' (lower right); signed and dated again, and titled 'Study for Homage to the Square: "Hard, Softer, Soft Edge" Albers 1964' (on the reverse) oil on masonite 16 x 16 in. (40.6 x 40.6 cm.) Painted in 1964. Provenance The Pollock Gallery, Ltd., Toronto Acquired from the above by the present owner, circa 1969 View Lot Notes > This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation.

Josef Albers * (Bottrop 1888–1976 New Haven) Homage to the Square: “Spring In”, monogrammed, dated A62, on reverse titled, signed, dated Albers 1962, and with details of the materials used including colours, oil on masonite, 60 x 60 cm, framed, (PP) The work is registered by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation under the no. #1962.1.88 and will be included in the catalogue raisonné of paintings by Josef Albers, currently being compiled by the foundation (letter from Nicholas Fox Weber, dated 25 April 2009, Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, is available). Provenance: Sidney Janis Gallery, New York Private Collection, Italy Exhibition: Josef Albers: The American Years, The Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, October-December 1965 (label on reverse) The present work Homage to the Square: Spring in by Josef Albers is a work from his Homage to the Square series. Josef Albers’’’’s training included studies at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he taught from 1923 onwards. After the Bauhaus was closed by the National Socialists 1933, Albers was offered a position at Black Mountain College in Ashville in North Carolina, prompting his emigration to the USA. This move marked the beginning of a new period in Josef Albers’’’’ work. He began to test the interactions between colour, form, line and surface, whilst taking into account the subjectivity of optical perception. His aim is for each of his works to be created anew in accordance with the individual perception of each viewer. The key player in this performance is colour, with its own means of expression. Josef Albers plays with the ways in which colours interact, and the changes this has on their impact. He wrote the text, Interaction of Color, a notable presentation of his theories of colour. His intention was to show that, depending upon their arrangement, various colours could be perceived as similar, and one and the same colour can vary. He regarded the surface of his paintings for the Homage to the Square series as an area upon which to present colour. A neutral shape, offering no indication of experience in terms of history or location, but rather a stage upon which the colours could speak for themselves. All the paintings consist of three or four nested squares of different colours. With shapes based on precise mathematical calculations, his works simultaneously appear both flat and three-dimensional. A purely concentric order would not evoke the same level of tension. And so the works become icons, animating the viewer to meditation. This idea played an important role for Josef Albers, for he was himself a major collector of icons and an admirer of objects which had the ability to invoke a meditative response. He drew inspiration for the series from the architecture of Central America which he studied on his many travels, documenting his impressions in the form of collages of postcards and photographs. These depict step-like forms, shapes within shapes, retreating and facing us, light and shadow. It was the art of ancient cultures which showed Josef Albers how much there was to discover in simple, regular shapes. Josef Albers’’’’ most notable students include Cy Twombly, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd and Kenneth Noland. (Nicholas Fox Weber, in Rosemarie Schwarzwälder (Ed.): Kulturen, Vienna 1990.)

LOT 171 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DAVID C. COPLEY, LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA JOSEF ALBERS 1888 - 1976 STUDY FOR HOMAGE TO THE SQUARE: LONE DAWN signed with the artist's monogram and dated 62; signed, titled and dated 1962 on the reverse oil on masonite 24 by 24 in. 64 by 64 cm. Executed in 1962.

LOT 215 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN ESTATE JOSEF ALBERS 1888 - 1976 HOMAGE TO THE SQUARE: EDITION KELLER IA-IK (DANILOWITZ 203) The complete portfolio, comprising ten screenprints in colors, 1970, each signed in pencil, dated, inscribed sequentially 'EK Ia' through 'EK Ik", and numbered 121/125, published by Josef Keller Verlag, Starnberg, on Hahnemühle Buttenboard wove paper; together with Josef Albers Honors the Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (D. 224.1), screenprint in colors, 1973, signed in pencil, dated, inscribed 'JHM - I', and numbered 61/144, published by Ives-Sillman, Inc., New Haven, for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., on German Etching paper, each framed (11 prints) each sheet 550 by 550 mm 21 5/8 by 21 5/8 in screenprint sheet 635 by 737 mm 25 by 29 1/8 in

JOSEF ALBERS I-S LXX a; and I-S LXX b, 1970 Two screenprints in colors, on German Etching paper, with full margins, both I. 12 x 12 in (30.5 x 30.5 cm) both S. 21 x 21 in (53.3 x 53.3 cm) both signed with initials, titled, dated ````70' and numbered 42/125 in pencil, published by Ives-Sillman, Inc., New Haven (with their blindstamp), mat staining and occasional nicks along the sheet edges, otherwise both in very good condition, both framed.