io Josef Albers
Study for "Bent Black A" ca.
(detail).
1940
and
Pencil
Collection
oil
on paper, 24 x 19"
The Josef Albers
Foundation
from the main elements of the composition while being centered by
it
and dependent on
and inward occurs ning-like
at once,
it.
and
felt
quantity in these works.
answers; there was no right or
And
in
mask
and black
alike the contrast of white
is
as
everything depends
they
saw
in greatest
He was pleased to get different
Movement outward there are both light-
bands and large central masses.
and painting
asked people what color they
upon
wrong
response, for
individual perception.
One
person sees more black, another more white. The point
strong and deliberate as the play of mass against void
is
and edge against bulk.
properties of the white or black themselves give the
that although there are equal quantities of each, the
viewer an erroneous impression. This was what Albers
Three variations on a theme-Bent Black
Dark Gray, 1943
1940, and Bent
— represent
A and B, both nos. 135-137)
(cat.
called "the discrepancy
between physical
fact
psychic effect," the demonstration of which
and
was an
the earliest instance of Albers's deliber-
imperative of his
art.
ate use of equal quantities of different colors in a single
composition. This intent notation on an 10).
oil
apparent
is
on paper study
for
in the pencil
A
Bent Black
strictly (fig.
Here Albers has carefully worked out the compos-
ition so that there are precisely forty
and one-half
square-centimeters of each color: the black, the dark gray, the white
and the
light
gray border. This
system serves a number of purposes. For one, forth restrictions of the sort Albers enjoyed
on
himself.
He
felt
strict it
sets
imposing
that tough rules, like the poet's
sonnet and the composer's sonata, by their very nature imparted harmony to the end
results.
He did not expect
viewers to read the system precisely, but, rather, to gain a sense of order and regularity through the use of equal
amounts of
different
it.
Additionally,
pigments dem-
54
a central
for
apportioned color. The notations
Movement
in
Gray, 1939
(cat.
in the studies
no. 133),
show
the
premium he placed on schemata, and how important it
was
for
him
to be the master of the destiny of the
picture. For Penetrating B,
both a in
full-size
which he
hand-drawn
its
grid
and smaller drawings
tested different widths
determining the in all of
1943 (cat.no. 165), he made
final
and angles before
measurements. Control-perhaps
negative as well as positive associations— is
at the root of all Albers's art.
Despite his careful forethought, Albers did not eschew a degree of spontaneity.
Having charted
would occasionally succumb
his course,
he
to an on-the-spot intrigue
would
with paint and surface, which might produce unusual
theme of his Variant paintings. Albers
textures that could never have been planned in ad-
onstrates an important point about color, which
become
Albers used a grid for these compositions in which he