Josef Albers: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Abstract Art


My natural exuberance for color became a more intense subject of study many years ago when my Mom advised that I read books on color by German-born artist/educator Josef Albers and Swiss painter/theorist Johannes Itten.  As I flipped through page after page of multi-hued squares and fascinating optical illusions, I was soon astounded to learn that the perception of any given color could completely change from one context to another, that there was more to color than merely finding aesthetically-pleasing combinations.  It is no wonder that by the time I had begun to paint, I had grown enamoured with the abstract work of Wassily Kandinsky, and as part of a quest to develop my art, I had started to take in-depth notes on his writings and to find inspiration for color studies in his ideas about color.  Since those early days in 2007, I have often set aside a week here or there to make new color studies to refresh my thoughts and my work.  To some, abstract art may seem daunting, but I find that there is something liberating about the pursuit of pure color and form, expressions of pure ambiance and thought, that is as worthwhile as any other artistic approach.  I began my first two spring color studies during the final week of March and had a series of four by the end of last week.  Terra et Caelum [above, 18X24, $200] is the expression of the otherworldly colors of dusk, our poignant awareness of the universe as the sun sinks beneath the horizon.  Greenway [below, 22X28, $300] is based on colors I observed by walking along my favorite creek recently, abstracted and  reformed into a dreamscape of my imagining. . .

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