Josef Albers

Initially, Albers had been sceptical about using lithography; he believed the process could not match the luminosity that he achieved in his painting series Homage to the Square, which he had begun in 1950. Albers termed this series of paintings (which includes On an early sky of 1964) 'platters to serve color' - where colour combinations interact to effect different 'readings'. To achieve these effects with White Line Squares, a perfect fine white line was created by leaving the white paper exposed without any bleeding of the inks. The series became the visual expression of Albers' thesis:

A white line within a color area instead of as a contour may present a newly discovered effect—when the line is placed within a so-called 'Middle' color, even when the color is very evenly applied, it will make the one color look like two different shades or tints of that color.

When Albers was in his mid 80s, he produced with Tyler the series of colour screenprints, Gray Instrumentation - in which all the inks were printed directly onto the white of the paper, without overlap, to achieve subtle hues and luminosity. Such an exercise required a perfect system of registration in screenprinting, as well as perfect colour matching.

Jane Kinsman

Works in the Kenneth E Tyler Collection

Browse all works by Josef Albers

Works in the Kenneth E Tyler Collection

Josef Albers Never before e 1976

Josef Albers Mitered squares c 1976

Josef Albers, Gemini G.E.L. White embossing on gray IV 1971

Josef Albers White line square VIII 1966

Josef Albers, Gemini G.E.L. White line square III 1966

Further Reading

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Art & Artists

Imogen Dixon-Smith on Anni Albers

Unknown artist 'Shield' pre 1940

Artist Archives with Simon Underschultz

Unknown artist 'Jawun shield' 19th–20th Century

Artists' Artists: Julie Rrap

Masami Teraoka & ukiyo-e printmaking

Page turners: artists’ books

Artists' Artists: Danie Mellor

This Place: Artist Series – Mabel Juli

Josef Albers
Never before e
1976

Josef Albers
Mitered squares c
1976

Josef Albers, Gemini G.E.L.
White embossing on gray IV
1971

Josef Albers
White line square VIII
1966

Josef Albers, Gemini G.E.L.
White line square III
1966