Josef Albers

In 1950, at the age of 62, Josef Albers began what would become his signature series, the Homage to the Square. Albers continued to work on these geometric artworks until his death in 1976. In 1955 he wrote of the series, ‘They all are of different palettes, and, therefore, so to speak, of different climates.’ In this piece a series of three squares gradually shrink at the base of the image and move from a deep green to a pale blue. The blocks of colour have been painted on thinly, so you can still see remnants of the canvas behind the paint.

• Artist Josef Albers
• Artwork Study for Homage to the Square
• Date of work 1964
• Credit Original: Presented by Mrs Anni Albers, the artist's widow and the Josef Albers Foundation 1978© DACS 2015

Josef Albers (1888 –1976) was an artist and educator, working across printmaking, glass, murals and design, and best known for his Homage to the Square series of paintings, lithographs and screen prints. Born in Germany into a family of craftspeople, Albers worked as a school teacher before entering the Weimar Bauhaus as a student in 1920. By 1922, Albers was admitted to the Bauhaus faculty as a teacher, and promoted to professor in 1925, the same year he married textile artist and Bauhaus student Anni Albers. When the Bauhaus was forced to close under Nazi pressure in 1933, Albers moved to America, where he taught at Black Mountain College and Yale University. He is widely considered one of the most influential teachers of the 20th century, with an emphasis on colour interactions, diverse materials and design. Tate holds several of his artworks as part of the permanent collection.

• Product Code S20504