Biography
Waddington Galleries presents an exhibition of works by Josef Albers in two sections; pre-Bauhaus drawings and paintings from his Homage to the Square series. The twelve figurative drawings date from 1917 to 1919. ‘Female Head Glancing Down’, 1918, shows a portrait observed with line and given solidity by flat areas of different tone. ‘In Seated Nude from Behind’, 1919, Albers has captured the female body with a minimal depiction of form, his assured lines of brushed ink achieving a result of economy, weight and balance within the white space of the paper. In the exhibition there are over forty works from 1951 to 1974 of the four different compositions that Albers used for his Homage to the Square paintings. Three compositions consist of three squares and the other of four squares. All are made from units of ten, and the placing of square inside square from bottom – to side – to top always has a ratio equal to 1–2–3. This means the middle square is lower than the painting’s central axis adding an intrinsic aura of gravity and stillness to its structure.
Albers mostly painted on hardboard. Marketed from the 1920s as Masonite in America, it is made from compressed wood pulp that has a homogeneous smooth side and a textured underside, its surface akin to heavy weave canvas. This textured side was primed between five to eight times and lightly sanded before Albers applied his colours, directly from the manufacturer’s tube, using a palette knife in a single, thin even coat. Painting from the centre outwards to ensure he kept his cuffs clean (a tip passed down to him by his housepainter father), Albers worked flat on make-shift tables under both warm and cool artificial light to enable him to see in controlled conditions how colours would interact. He meticulously, listed in most cases, on the back of works details of the specific manufacturer’s colours and varnishes used, as if the colours were catalogued components of an optical experiment. For example ‘Homage to the Square’, 1966, lists: Naples Yellow (Winsor & Newton) Naples Yellow (Permanent Pigment) Cadmium Yellow (Lefevre).
Many of the paintings have associative subtitles such as ‘High Autumn’, 1957, with its vivid orange and burnt red, evoking sensations of the New England autumn; or ‘Thicket’, 1961 with its central square of dense impassable green. Such words were always added after a painting was completed allowing the colour to form subsequent associations rather than the title hold prior influence. The paintings do not contain hard or masked edges; the colours are allowed to meet in a serene freehand boundary expressing a controlled and considered calmness. At a time when many of his contemporaries in America were producing large canvases, in scale Albers was more rooted to European easel-painting. Almost all of the paintings in the exhibition measure between 16 and 24 inches square.
-
Josef Albers, Woman (II), c.1914 pencil on paper 13 x 9 3/4 in / 33 x 25 cm
-
Josef Albers, Two Workhorses, c.1917 pencil on paper 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 in / 22.2 x 16.5 cm
-
Josef Albers, Female Head Glancing Down, c.1918 pencil and ink on paper 15 x 11 3/4 in / 37.9 x 30.1 cm
-
Josef Albers, Woman's Head (IV), c.1918 ink on paper 15 x 11 3/4 in / 38.1 x 29.8 cm
-
Josef Albers, Woman's Head, c.1918 ink and pencil on paper 14 3/4 x 11 1/2 in / 37.5 x 29.5 cm
-
Josef Albers, Standing Nude (X), c.1919 pencil and ink on paper 12 1/2 x 10 in / 31.8 x 25.4 cm
-
Josef Albers, Crouching Figure, c.1919 ink on paper 12 1/2 x 10 in / 31.7 x 25.7 cm
-
Josef Albers, Seated Nude from Behind, c.1919 ink on paper 12 1/4 x 9 1/2 in / 31.4 x 24.1 cm
-
Josef Albers, Reclining Nude, c.1919 ink on paper 12 1/2 x 10 1/4 in / 32 x 26 cm
-
Josef Albers, Squatting Nude from Behind, c.1919 ink on paper 9 3/4 x 12 1/4 in / 24.7 x 31.1 cm
-
Josef Albers, Female Nude - Three Quarters View, c.1919 ink on paper 12 1/2 x 10 in / 32 x 25.7 cm
-
Josef Albers, Crouching Nude, c.1919 ink on paper 10 x 12 1/2 in / 25.7 x 32 cm
-
Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square: 'Signal', 1954 oil on masonite 16 x 16 in / 40.6 x 40.6 cm
-
Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square: 'Calm Hour', 1954 oil on masonite 16 x 16 in / 40.6 x 40.6 cm
-
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1957 oil on masonite 22 x 22 in / 55.9 x 55.9 cm
-
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1962 oil on masonite 18 x 18 in / 45.7 x 45.7 cm
-
Josef Albers, Variation on Homage to the Square, 1961 oil on aluminium 20 x 20 in / 50.8 x 50.8 cm
-
Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square: 'Toscana', 1962 oil on masonite 18 x 18 in / 45.7 x 45.7 cm
-
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1963 oil on masonite 18 x 18 in / 45.7 x 45.7 cm
-
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1963 oil on masonite 18 x 18 in / 45.7 x 45.7 cm
-
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1964 oil on masonite 24 x 24 in / 61 x 61 cm
-
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1965 oil on masonite 16 x 16 in / 40.6 x 40.6 cm
-
Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square (JAAF 1976.1.565), 1966 oil on masonite 24 x 24 in / 61 x 61 cm
-
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1967 oil on masonite 24 x 24 in / 61 x 61 cm
-
Josef Albers, Homage to the Square, 1969 oil on masonite 24 x 24 in / 61 x 61 cm
-
Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square (JAAF 1976.1.239), 1973 oil on masonite 16 x 16 in / 40.6 x 40.6 cm
-
Josef Albers, Study for Homage to the Square (JAAF 1976.1.40), 1974 oil on masonite 16 x 16 in / 40.6 x 40.6 cm