Homage to the Square: Soft Edge, Hard Edge [Complete Set of 10 Prints]

New Haven: Ives-Sillman, 1965.

Ten color silkscreen plates (screen prints) laid into printed folio leaves. 18 x 18 x 2 inches (prints a bit smaller than slipcase). Black brushed cloth cloth folio in black slipcase. All original issue. 

Fine to near fine folio in a very good slipcase; all prints present and in fine condition with tissue guards, some tissue guards are lightly toned or worn (see photos). The first grouping of loose leaves comprises title page and Alber's poem is in about near fine(-) condition showing some minor handling. All other prints and folios are fresh and bright; like they were printed yesterday. Cloth folio has light rubbing to corners and sunning to spine; slipcase is in very good to very good(-) condition, showing some sun-fading to spine, a small partial crack at open corner fold, and minor chafes and scrapes to exterior. Please see photos for more detail. Hardcover.

A complete set of ten stunning color-studies printed on Rives BFK paper; each print is contained within paper folios with printed titles. Text by Albers, title page, and justification, housed in the original black cloth-covered portfolio and smooth black card slipcase. Hand-numbered exemplar 183 of an edition of 250 copies. | Josef Albers (1888-1976) was an influential educator and artist whose approach to the experiential and relational aspects of color influenced many schools and generations of artists, from minimalism to graphic design, to art education as a whole. He taught at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and Yale and was a proponent of practical skills and thoughtful production. He shaped the likes of such diverse creators as Ruth Asawa, Robert Rauschenberg, and Eva Hesse with his hands-on, embodied attitude toward the creation, experimentation and context. Albers started the 'Homage to the Square' in 1949, and eventually produced over 1,000 pieces. Each piece used the same size and orientation of nested squares with different color combinations. The resulting prints are mesmerizing: their uniform composition amplifies the unique energy created by different color schemes, and the influence of titles on works of art. Some are somber and bottomless, others fizz like a glass of lemonade, or crackle like a dying fire in a cozy room. This set contains ten reproductions of these painstaking explorations of chromatic interdependence. | Free in-person delivery within greater San Francisco Bay Area. Otherwise ships according to buyer's preference; by Fed Ex or a specialized art delivery service at cost.