Albers was born on March 19th 1889 in Germany. He was an artist, poet and printmaker; as well as being an educator known for his colossal presence in the classroom and iconic abstract paintings. His work formed the basis in both Europe and the United States of the most influential as well as far-reaching art education programmes known to the twentieth century. He published his book 'Interaction of Colour' in 1963, a book offering his theory that colours were 'governed by an internal and deceptive logic'. The original print run was 2000 and therefore a first edition of this book is very rare. He produced a series 'Homage to the Square' from 1949 until his death in 1976. It used a single geometric shape to systematically explore the vast range of visual effects that could be achieved through colour and spatial relationships alone.
From his chapter 'A colour has many faces - the relativity of colour' he effectively explains that colours are relative to what they appear next to, for example if you place a square of the same colour paper on top of 2 different shades no normal human eye can see the small squares the same colour.
Albers also talks about the after effect of an image, caused by interdependence of colour. If you stare at the left square, then shift quickly to the right you see the square manifest as yellow diamond shapes where you usually see a colour-based afterimage that would compliment the yellow circles with blue.
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