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Articulation: Formulation

Josef Albers; Sirocco Screenprinters; Harry N. Abrams, Inc.; Ives - Sillman Inc.

Artwork Details

Articulation: Formulation
1972
Josef Albers; Sirocco Screenprinters; Harry N. Abrams, Inc.; Ives - Sillman Inc.
screenprint on paper
15 1/16 in x 20 1/16 in (38.2 cm x 51 cm)
Gift of the Marvin Felheim Collection
1983/1.336.6

Description

Subject Matter:

Formulation: Articulation is a two-part portfolio totaling 127 screenprints. The prints are divided into folders that contain their own brief introductions, often describing the design process, a print’s relation to an earlier piece by the artist, or various perspectives from which to view the print. Josef Albers spent two years working on the piece towards the end of his lifetime. The series can be viewed as the summation of his life’s work since it draws on concepts that he developed throughout his career. In the introduction to the portfolios he writes, “Our aim is not a retrospective report; the book aims at Art itself, meaning: no retrospective in the usual sense. These are visual realizations here presented outspoken in silkscreen.” Arguably, Albers’s most memorable body of work is his Homage to the Square, which he began in 1950 and continued to add to until his death in 1976. Thirty-eight of the prints in Formulation: Articulation are part of Homages. Another important contribution Albers had to color theory was his analysis Interaction of Color that he published a decade before Formulation: Articulation. The piece is more of a scientific examination of color while Formulation: Articulation is more of an artistic set of portfolios that draws on the theories he explored previously.

Physical Description:

On a long horizontal white piece of paper rest two squares. On the left, the square is yellow with light blue, dark blue and dark green squares embedded within it. On the right is a square with the same colors but yellow is in the middle and the others circumscribe it in reverse order. 

Usage Rights:

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