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:

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

EXHIBITIONS

• Lichtenstein to Warhol: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, 2019–20
• Print by print, step by step: artists’ prints in series, 9 March – 16 June 1985
• Ken Tyler: printer extraordinary, 6 June – 13 October 1985

NATIONAL GALLERY PUBLICATIONS

• Lichtenstein to Warhol: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, Jane Kinsman, exhibition catalogue, 2019
• Workshop: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, Jane Kinsman (ed.), 2015
• The Art of Collaboration: The Big Americans, Jane Kinsman, exhibition catalogue, 2002
• Ken Tyler Printer Extraordinary, 1985

TYLER GRAPHICS PUBLICATIONS

• Never Before, 1976
• Mitered Squares, 1976
• Four Portfolios, 1974-76
• Gray Instrumentation I, 1975
• Gray Instrumentation II, 1974
• Lithographs Gemini G.E.L., 1968

RELATED LINKS

• Albers Foundation