The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 24, 2024

Study to Homage to the Square: "Star Blue"

Study to Homage to the Square: "Star Blue"

1957
(American, 1888–1976)
America, 20th century
oil on board
Unframed: 75.9 x 75.9 cm (29 7/8 x 29 7/8 in.)
Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1965.1
© The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: not on view

Description

In the summer of 1949, Albers began his celebrated series Homage to the Square, which would ultimately encompass more than a thousand paintings, drawings, prints, and tapestries before his death in 1976. The entire body of work was based on a mathematically determined format of several squares that appear to overlap or nest inside each other. Within this template of geometric abstraction, Albers endlessly explored the subjective experience of color, such as the effects that adjacent hues have on one another and the illusion of flat planes of color advancing or receding in space.
  • (Sidney Janis Gallery, New York); Philippe Dotremont, Brussels
  • Sherman E. Lee, "Year in Review, " Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 52 (November 1965). mentioned p. 157.
    Edward B. Henning, "Planes, Structure, Color, and Content," Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61 (September 1974). mentioned p. 227; reproduced p. 226.
    "Recent Accessions in the American Field," Art in America 54 (May - June 1966). reproduced p. 48.
    Lowery Stokes Sims, The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Cleveland Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006). mentioned and reproduced, p. 76.
    Edward B. Henning, Fifty Years of Modern Art, 1916-1966, exh. cat. (Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966). mentioned and reproduced, unpaginated [p. 159].
  • The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 95, p. 121, color repr. p. 76.
    Fifty Years of Modern Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 15-July 31, 1966).
    Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Study to Homage to the Square: "Star Blue" |url=false|author=Josef Albers|year=1957|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.1