Homage to the Square: Joy

Artist Josef Albers (1888 - 1976)

Date1964

MediumOil on board

Dimensions48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
Framed: 57 5/8 in. × 57 1/2 in. × 2 in.

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LinePromised Gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

On View

Not on view

Label TextIn 1950, Albers began a now famous series entitled Homage to the Square. He would ultimately make over a thousand of these works. Each image utilized the same regular and strict format: colored squares within squares. Liberated from concocting new compositions and conceiving new themes, Albers could focus on the complexities of color and our shifting perceptions of it.

Homage to the Square: Joy is a testament to Albers’s dictum: “Do less in order to get more.” While the artist’s method had a scientific component to it, he worked intuitively, seeking to convey deeply felt emotion through his use of color.

Inscribedrecto, on canvas, l.r.: A64
verso, on canvas: Homage to the Square: / "Joy" / [description of material used for ground layer] / [list of paints used ] / [decription of varnish materials] / [signed] 1964

Markingsverso, u.l.: [Sidney Janis Gallery label]
verso, u.l.: [Fort Worth Art Center label]
verso, u.l., torn label: UAM #305 - EXCELLENCE / J. Albers: Hommage to the Squ / (Mrs. W Henderson, Hillsborou
verso, u.l.: [University of Texas, University Art Museum label]
versl, u.l.: [San Francisco Museum of Art label]
verso, u.l.: [San Francisco Museum of Art label]
verso, l.r.: [barcode label]
verso, l.r., label: NOP 1 / Josef Albers Homage to the Square: Joy
verso, l.r.: [barcode label]