Plate, Interaction of Color, Plate VIIII-I, 1963

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives as part of Making Design.

Josef Albers, born in Germany, studied art in Berlin, Essen, and Munich. He then enrolled as a student at Bauhaus, in 1920, where he began an in-depth study of color theory. With the closure of Bauhaus in 1933, Albers immigrated to the United States where he taught at Black Mountain College. He joined the faculty of Yale in 1950 as Chairman of the Department of Design.
While at Yale, Albers developed revolutionary exercises designed to explain the concepts of color. Using flat geometric planes of solid color, Albers demonstrated how colors interact through comparison and contrast to one another establishing the fact that all color is seen in relation to the colors it is surrounded by. His work illustrated how optical sensations can be created using particular color combinations, and changing their arrangement and proportion. Albers also showed how the illusion of depth and space can be established through the arrangement of color.
His book, Interaction of Color, has become one of the most influential books on color theory. Albers is best remembered for his work as an abstract painter and theorist.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design.