Josef Albers at the Morgan Library

The Morgan Library is presenting Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper featuring about 60 of the artist's small scale optical studies.

Albers emigrated to the United States in 1933 and taught at Black Mountain College and Yale University. During this time he developed his Adobe series, inspired by Mexican architecture, as well as numerous sketches for Homage to the Square.

I've always thought of Albers as a somewhat rigid artist with his unwavering reliance on the square as a compositional device. This show, however, revealed his hidden range and restless, experimental nature. The artist liked to juxtapose pure, unmixed oil pigment from different manufacturers and observe their effects on each other.

These private works, which Albers never exhibited in his lifetime, are full of scribbled marginalia and lush paint application - a nice departure from the clean, formal aesthetic of his seminal pieces.

This dazzling show will leave you with a fresh awareness of color, not just in art but in everyday life. It's definitely worth a trip to the Morgan. The exhibit will be on view until October 14, 2012.

Color Study for White Line Square, not dated 

Oil on blotting paper (with gouache, pencil, and varnish) 29.53 x 29.66 cm

Study for a Kinetic, ca. 1945 

Oil and graphite on blotting paper 48.5 x 61.1 cm

Color Study for Homage to the Square, not dated 

Oil and graphite on blotting paper with varnish 30.5 x 30.5 cm

Variant / Adobe, ca. 1947 

Oil on blotting paper 48.2 x 61.4 cm

Color Study for Mitered Square [Homage to the Square], not dated

Oil on blotting paper 28.1 x 28.4 cm

Two Color Studies for Homage to the Square, not dated

Oil on blotting paper 24.7 x 14.6 cm

Variant / Adobe, Study for Four Central Warm Colors, Surrounded by 2 Blues, ca. 1948

Oil on blotting paper 48.2 x 60.6 cm

Color Study of Grays, not dated 

Oil on cardstock with varnish 17.9 x 25.7 cm

Study for Homage to the Square with Color Study, not dated
Oil on blotting paper 44.3 x 30.2 cm

Three Color Studies for Homage to the Square, not dated
Oil on blotting paper 20.9 x 47.6 cm

Color Study for Homage to the Square, ca. 1950
Oil on blotting paper 61 x 48.3 cm

(Images courtesy of GalleristNY)