Josef Albers, the Color Czar (for some folks anyway)
“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.”
–Josef Albers
“If you don’t do it my way, I suggest you commit suicide.”
–Josef Albers
How humans perceive color is not dissimilar to how humans raise a child: Even though we have been at it for thousands of years, we still don’t agree on how to do it.
Josef Albers is the artist most often associated with color theory as well as color dogmatism. The battle between the Albers method and other color systems continues in art pedagogy, a discussion I typically watch from the sidelines since I am a dogged nonreligionist on this topic. For me it has and always will be an element of art that is subjective, furtive and unexpected.
But even though I do not subscribe to any one system of thought on color, I love to read about it. I probably have over 20 books in my library on the topic. And recently I found a website that approaches color theory in a refreshingly non-doctrinaire but well informed manner. Color System is based on the research of two professors, Narciso Silvestrini and Ernst Peter Fischer, and brings together illustrated overviews of 59 different color order systems from both art and science. The list starts with theorists from antiquity (Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato) cuts through to Goethe and current approaches. The site also includes a few overviews of the significance of color in a number of cultural systems—astrological, Islamic, Liturgical, Symbolism and Heraldry among others. For anyone interested in color, this is fascinating stuff.
Extra bonus: If you enjoy playing with color and color perception, here’s a great site for you: Color is Relative
Goethe’s color wheel
Thanks Deborah- as always you give me sooo much food for thought and research- time well spent you did it again!!
Blessings,
marcia
Thanks Marcia. And don’t you love that Albers quote–my way or no way? Ha!
Many years ago I had a perfect illustration of the subjectivity of color: my roommate and I painted the same corner of a room, which contained a small dresser. To me the dresser was close to brown, with a little burnt siena; to my roommate it was orange.
(I’m glad I didn’t study with Albers)
Altoon, I am so glad to read those words–“I’m glad I didn’t study with Albers.” That has been my thought since I first read about him and his theories. Felt like straightjacketing, not art making. Love your story too.
I have always been intrigued by the mental dividing line between colors. For example, I know in my bones the exact hemi-semi-demi shade when a color moves (for me) from being a very bluish Green to a a very greenish Blue. And I feel strongly about it! Yet, I am aware, that for other people that division is often quite different, and sometimes indistinct. I am also fascinated by color memory. Do you remember colors well? Can you see a color, make mental note of it, and then a week later, pick up that exact shade at the hardware store so you can paint the hallway? This is very easy for me, (perhaps because I have so many other deficits!) but I know difficult or impossible for many.
Sally, I do not have your color mental memory. I am in awe of that quality. But I have very intense attachments. Certain colors set of vibrations in my body. Hard to describe but it is a very somatic response.
Love the Color Is Relative site!
So did I Maureen. Very slick and fun.
Is a color czar a highbrow version of the Seinfeld soup nazi?
Does your library of twenty color books include by any chance “The Primary Colors: Three Essays,” by Alexander Theroux? or his follow up book “The Secondary Colors: Three Essays”? These are literary in slant and so not directly on point, perhaps, but sensuous treatments of the experience of color, nonetheless, I think.
Father Piano, it does. And I believe you are the one who first introduced me to Theroux’s books. I love them!
On Being Blue, a book of essays by William Gass is fascinating, too.
Sally, I recently read Gass’ book. It didn’t grab me quite as much as the Theroux books. Which did you prefer more?