Study for Homage to the Square: Light Rising

1950, altered 1959

Josef Albers

Associated Names
Josef Albers

Artist, American, born Germany, 1888 - 1976

This painting displays a series of nested squares, with each square framing the one within it. Slightly below center is a vibrant yellow square, enclosed by a larger gray square, which is encased by a light blue outer square. Brushstrokes are faintly visible in the painting, creating some slight differences in tone within each of the colors.
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On View

East Building Upper Level, Gallery 403

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on wood fiberboard

  • Credit Line

    Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 81.3 x 81.3 cm (32 x 32 in.)
    framed: 81.6 x 81.9 x 3.5 cm (32 1/8 x 32 1/4 x 1 3/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1992.28.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Mary Callery, New York). (Stephen Mazoh & Co. Inc., New York); sold 1972 to Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, Phoenix, Maryland;[1] gift 1992 to NGA.
[1] Provenance from The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: 1945 to 1995, Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1996: 236.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1973

  • Selections from the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1973.

1996

  • The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: 1945 to 1995, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1996, no. 1, color repro.

2006

  • Albers and Moholy-Nagy: From the Bauhaus to the New World", Tate Modern, London; Kunsthalle Bielefeld; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2006-2007, no. 116, repro.

2009

  • The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: Selected Works, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2009-2010, not in catalogue.

2014

  • Modernism from the National Gallery of Art: The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum, 2014, pl. 16.

Bibliography

1980

  • Sundell, Nina. The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection 1958-1979. Baltimore, 1980: 4, color repro.

1996

  • The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection: 1945 to 1995. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1996: no. 1.

Inscriptions

lower right: A50; upper right reverse, first line underlined: Homage to the Square: / Light Rising / Albers '50; upper right reverse (underneath the title, signature, and date) handwritten on an area of the support painted to provide a smooth writing surface: Ground: 5 coats of Luminall / with ["either" or "little"] linseed oil, varnish, + turpentine / paints used (from center): / Barium Yellow (Permanent Pigment) / ["Illustrators" ?] Gray II (Grumlacher) / Mixture of: / Permalba (Weber) / + Permanent Blue (Pretested) / all applied in one primary coat, / without any painting medium / varnished with Grumlacher Matt Varnish / Sommer 59 all varnish removed / and center scraped down, the [sic] covered with / 2 layers of Barium Yellow (permanent pigment) / after thourough [sic] drying / varnished with Metacrylate resin in Xylene / varnish: P.V.A in Toluene [Tolvene?] - 1970 Charles Tauss

Wikidata ID

Q20194394

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