Homage to the Square: Porta Negra, 1966
Homage to the Square: Black Gate
Oil on canvas
(H x W)101,5 × 101,5 cm
About the workJosef Albers only needed four colours – blue, green, grey-green and black – to paint this picture. He did not mix the colours, but applied them directly from the tube onto the canvas, on the back of which he noted their serial numbers. The work belongs to a series named “Homage to the Square”, which the artist produced between 1950 and the end of his life in 1976. With these paintings, he explored the relationships between colours. Placed side by side, they induce spatial effects and create illusions such as the optical superimposition of transparent, competing surfaces.
AccessionAcquisition 1969
Provenance[...]; acquired in 1969 from the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
Inventory number0.1973.6
