PART II western and other cultures
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83 ALBERS, Josef. Interaction of Color. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1963 albers’s seminal work on colour theory First edition, first printing, of Albers’s seminal work on colour. Interaction of Colour is both a pedagogical tool and a statement of Albers’s methodology, as given in his introduction: “In visual perception a color is almost never seen as it really is – as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art. In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually. To this end, the beginning is not a study of color systems”. Albers developed his method of studying colour based on the understanding that we can only begin to understand colour if we observe it contextually. In place of colour systems, Albers developed an “experimental way of studying color and teaching color”, inaugurated in his course at Black Mountain College. The course presented a series of exercises to his students, challenging them to get colours to do certain things. This was a collaborative and ongoing enquiry into the nature of colour, and the book credits the students’ input: the portfolio of reproductions are largely after those created by Albers’s students, and the dedication acknowledges their help in having “visualised and discovered new problems, new solutions, and new presentations”. The course reached its fullest development at Yale, where this book, the crowning achievement of thirty years of work, was published. 2 volumes, folio. Portfolio: 81 folders, 48 pp. commentary and sample folder housed in a cloth chemise, spine lettered in grey. Text: original brown cloth, spine lettered in grey. All contained in a brown cloth slipcase, spine lettered in grey. 80 folders plus sample folder with original silkscreen prints, die- cuts and collages, loose as issued. Introductory folder toned and one side of slipcase rubbed, otherwise a bright set in excellent condition. £10,000 [158785]
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