JOSEF ALBERS – SUNNY SIDE UP
2017-01-02Bringing a touch of that warmth to London’s midwinter climate, Sunny Side Up will present an extensive selection of the artist’s iconic Homage to the Square paintings, begun in 1950 and elaborated on until his death in 1976. Exploring a variety of chromatic and perceptual effects, the Homage to the Square paintings serve as a sustained, serial investigation into rhythm, mood, and spatial movement within a carefully configured nested square format. By employing a variety of yellow tones in different combinations, Albers was able to play with perception and produce illusions of translucency. Naples yellow, goldenrod, mustard, maize, saffron and more encircle and abut one another in these works, seeming at times to combine or overlap, defying the logic of their rational and systematic application directly from the tube in single, unmixed layers. Challenging the geometrical regularity of the compositions, the distinct color fields often appear to the eye to expand, dissolving the boundaries between them. Yellow also serves as a perfect conduit for Albers’s brilliant white grounds, visible at the edge of each work, which shine through and lend a distinct luminosity to these paintings.
Opposite – Study for Homage to the Square: 2 Grays between 2 Yellows, 1961
Exhibition runs through to March 10th, 2017
David Zwirner
24 Grafton Street
London
W1S 4EZ
