(Bottrop 1888–1976 New Haven)
Study for Homage to the Square: Earthen I, 1955
signed and dated A.55 and inscribed on the edges; titled, signed and dated Albers 1955 on the reverse, oil on masonite, 60.9 x 60.9 cm, with stainless steel frame

We are grateful to the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany (Connecticut) for its kind assistance with cataloguing this work

The work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue raisonné of the works of Josef Albers being prepared by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and is accompanied by a certificate issued by the Foundation to the current owner

Provenance:
Christie’s London, 3 December 1974, lot 117
Galerie Louis Carré & Cie, Paris (label on the reverse)
Sotheby’s London, 26 June 1986
Edward Totah Gallery, London (label on the reverse)
Galleria Biasutti & Biasutti, Turin
Galleria Orler, Favaro Veneto
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Amsterdam, Albers, Stedelijk Museum, 10 March - 10 April 1961;
London, Albers, Gimpel Fils, Ltd., July - August 1961, exh cat. no. 15;
Milan, Albers,Toninelli Arte Moderna, October - November 1961, exh. cat. no. 12;
Essen, Josef Albers,Museum Folkwang Essen, 6 February - 3 March 1963, exh. cat. no. 57
Stockholm, Josef Albers, Galerie Burén, January - February 1964, exh. cat. no. 17
Bern, Josef Albers, Kunsthalle Bern, 23 October - 29 November 1964, exh. cat. no. 132
Turin, Novecento, Biasutti and Biasutti: Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, 18 - 24 December 2004, exh. cat. no. 30

Literature:
G. Alviani, Josef Albers, L’arcaedizioni, Milan 1988, p.145, no. 212 with ill.

Note:
Ground: 5 coats of Luminall (casein) with addition of Linseed Oil, Damar Vanish, Turpentine
Painting: paints used from center Cadmium Green(Windsor+Newton) Permanent Green Light (Pretested) Raw Sienna (Rhenish) Mars Orange (Winsor+Newton) All in one primary coat, all directly from the tube, no additional painting mixing, no additional painting medium
Varnish: Damar Varnish sprayed on

When he wrote, in 1916, that he loved ‘the square and hard,’ he had no idea, of course, how prescient this was of the extraordinary body of art he would create on the other side of the ocean and after yet another world war. But the value system – the idea that ‘firm and wild’ is valuable, but that it has to grow from ‘warmth and softness’ are the essence of the spirit in which he painted the Homages. Albers believed that art work, while it should be done well and done carefully, fails if it lacks tenderness.
Weber 2009, p. 4.