Joseph Albers

Galerie Beyeler, Basilea
Collezione privata, Milano
Galleria Medea, Milano
Ivi acquistato dall'attuale proprietario negli anni Settanta

This work appears to be in very good overall conditions. The grey tonalities are more saturated compared to the catalogue illustration. There is a minor and unobtrusive dot of dirt towards the lower left corner. No traces of retouching appear to be visible under UV light.
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“[…] considera ogni quadro finito come una variante, piuttosto che una soluzione finale, lasciando la strada aperta all’infinita sperimentazione. E l’esperimento infinito che ha preceduto l’Homage to the Square […] pervade ostinatamente l’essenza di quest’opera in cui i tre quadrati, ribaltando le proprie funzioni e assumendo diverse profondità e differenti dimensioni, sembrano non interrompere il flusso che ha portato alla loro creazione. Dalle linee dritte che, alla fine, sono così particolarmente morbide ed esitanti, fino ai colori opachi stesi gli uni accanto agli altri in una delicata atmosfera traslucida, una inconfessata sensibilità segna ogni aspetto della sua arte, contraddicendo l’originario desiderio di impersonalità a tal punto che nessun altro, se non lo stesso Josef Albers, avrebbe potuto realizzare i suoi silenziosi dipinti” (Elaine de Kooning, Albers dipinge un quadro, in Josef Albers, a cura di Marco Pierini, Silvana Editoriale Spa, Milano 2011)

 

He considers each finished painting a variant rather than a final solution, leaving the way open for endless experiment. And the endless experiment that went before Homage to the Square […] stubbornly haunts this picture as three squares, reversing their offices and assuming different depths and sizes, seem to continue the flux that led to their creation. From the ruled lines which are, at last, peculiarly gentle and tentative, to the opaque colours lying next to one another in a delicate translucent atmosphere, an unadmitted sensibility stamps each aspect of this art, denying its first impersonal impact and maintaining, finally that no one of his quiet pictures could have been painted by any one but Josef Albers.