Planes and Frames: Spatial Layering in Josef Albers' Homage to the Square Paintings
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Reference
James Mai: Planes and Frames: Spatial Layering in Josef Albers' Homage to the Square Paintings. In: Bridges 2016, Pages 233–240.
DOI
Abstract
The later paintings and prints of Josef Albers, known collectively as the Homage to the Square series, are the culmination of the artist’s investigations of the power of color to create illusions of depth in abstract painting. The compositional framework of the Homage series is comprised of only four nested squares of diminishing size, yet this simple arrangement yields a multitude of possible interpretations of space. The author makes a systematic examination of this compositional framework and introduces a system for classifying (1) composition types, (2) plane and frame combinations, (3) near-to-far layering orders, and (4) opaque and translucent orders. The range of combinatorial possibilities is reduced by perceptual “limiting rules,” yielding a total of 171 distinct illusory spaces and showing the considerable compositional potential in this simple arrangement of four nested squares.
Extended Abstract
Bibtex
@inproceedings{bridges2016:233,
author = {James Mai},
title = {Planes and Frames: Spatial Layering in Josef Albers' \emph{Homage to the Square} Paintings},
pages = {233--240},
booktitle = {Proceedings of Bridges 2016: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Education, Culture},
year = {2016},
editor = {Eve Torrence, Bruce Torrence, Carlo S\'equin, Douglas McKenna, Krist\'of Fenyvesi and Reza Sarhangi},
isbn = {978-1-938664-19-9},
issn = {1099-6702},
publisher = {Tessellations Publishing},
address = {Phoenix, Arizona},
url = {http://de.evo-art.org/index.php?title=Planes_and_Frames:_Spatial_Layering_in_Josef_Albers'_Homage_to_the_Square_Paintings },
note = {Available online at \url{http://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2016/bridges2016-233.html}}
}
Used References
[1] W. Gomringer, Josef Albers: His Work as Contribution to Visual Articulation in the Twentieth Century. New York: George Wittenborn Inc., 1968.
[2] N. F. Weber, Josef Albers: A Retrospective. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1988.
[3] S. Palmer, Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1999.
Links
Full Text
http://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2016/bridges2016-233.pdf
