Homage to the Square: Soft Edge-Hard Edge
Artist: Josef Albers (American, 1888-1976)
Publisher: Ives-Sillman, New Haven, CT
Date: 1965
Dimensions:
slipcase: 17 3/4 x 18 1/8 x 1 1/8 in. (451 x 460 x 28mm)
portfolio: 17 3/4 x 17 1/2 x 1 in. (451 x 445 x 25mm)
page: 17 x 17 in. (432 x 432mm)
Medium: Original prints: 10 color screenprint
Text: letterpress
Paper: white wove paper
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Object number: 1979.114A-K
Label Text:Josef Albers, who is internationally recognized for his career-long investigation into color and visual perception, created Soft Edge-Hard Edge as the graphic equivalent to his famous painting series, Homage to the Square. Albers’ Homage series, begun in 1949, used a single geometric shape to demonstrate the ‘relativity’ of color—how a color changes in intensity and tone through its interaction with adjacent colors. His systematic analysis of the function and perception of color led him to propose that color rather than form is the primary medium of pictorial language.
With the Soft-Edge-Hard Edge series, Albers was presented with a new set of technical challenges that tested his knowledge of the unpredictable nature of color. Instead of painting with unmixed colors and a palette knife, he superimposed colors upon one another with mixed inks to achieve the matching brilliance found in the color relationships in his paintings. He then provided each square with a descriptive title that connects the square’s color to an emotion, place, or object. Reveling in the mechanical nature of screenprints, Albers noted that its exactness and flatness was ideal for his version of abstract art.
With the Soft-Edge-Hard Edge series, Albers was presented with a new set of technical challenges that tested his knowledge of the unpredictable nature of color. Instead of painting with unmixed colors and a palette knife, he superimposed colors upon one another with mixed inks to achieve the matching brilliance found in the color relationships in his paintings. He then provided each square with a descriptive title that connects the square’s color to an emotion, place, or object. Reveling in the mechanical nature of screenprints, Albers noted that its exactness and flatness was ideal for his version of abstract art.
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