drawing
- Museum number
- 2018,7024.1
- Description
-
Colour study for the 'Homage to the Square' series; half of three nested squares in two shades of yellow and grey, bisected vertically. 1969
Oil and pencil on blotting paper
- Production date
- 1969
- Dimensions
-
Height: 333 millimetres
-
Width: 124 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This drawing is a colour study for a 'Homage to the Square' painting. The inscription and the colour notes in the lower margin relate the study to a finished painting: 'Homage to the Square: Calmness', 1970, oil on masonite, 1012 x 1012 cm (JAAF 1976.1.1800), current location unknown. This was one of two paintings that Albers sent to an exhibition honouring Albrecht Dürer in Nürnberg: Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft / Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, Albrecht Dürer zu Ehren, opened 23 May 1971, cat. 1. The inscription refers to this exhibition and also to the oil paint colours used: Optical Gray 0 warm (Marabu company), Scheveningen Yellow Light (Old Holland) and Ultramarine Yellow (Lucien Lefebvre-Foinet). Although Albers sometimes produced colour studies in half squares, the inscription indicates that this drawing has been cut in two. The arrow and note 'Given to Si' in the lower margin suggests that the left half of the study was given to Sewell 'Si' Sillman, a former student of Albers and one half of Ives-Sillman, the printers in New Haven, Connecticut, with whom Albers worked. This indicates that the study may also have been used for a print, perhaps the screenprint 'I-S e' (1970), edition of 125 (Danilowitz 194). (Information from the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, via email, 30 April 2018.)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2018
- Acquisition notes
- From the Estate of Josef Albers, which was absorbed by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation (JAAF 1976.2.1438); bought by Karsten Schubert from the Alan Cristea Gallery, London in 2010.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2018,7024.1