Lot 110
  • 110

Josef Albers

Estimate
300,000 - 400,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Josef Albers
  • Study for Homage to the Square: Apparition
  • signed with the artist's monogram and dated 59; signed, titled and dated 1959 on the reverse
  • oil on Masonite
  • 24 by 24 in. 61 by 61 cm.

Provenance

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
Collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (bequeathed from the above)
Christie's, New York, 8 November 1989, Lot 278 (incorrectly illustrated as lot 290)
Private Collection (acquired from the above sale)
Christie's, London, 29 June 2000, Lot 407
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Exhibited

Caracas, Galería Mendoza; Montevideo, Centro de Artes y Letras El País; Buenos Aires, Instituto Torcuato di Tella; Lima, Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo; Rio de Janeiro, Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos; Sao Paulo, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo; Guayaquil, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana; Quito, Ecuadorian American Ayazamana Cultural Center; Bogotá, Centro Colombo Americano; Santiago, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo; Mexico City, Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte; Mexico City, Museo de Arte Moderno; Knoxville, Dulin Gallery of Art; Huntington, West Virginia, Huntington Galleries; The Rochester Memorial Art Gallery; Oswego, State University College; Atlanta Art Association Museum; San Antonio, Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute; Chattanooga, George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art; Minneapolis, Walker Art Museum; Madison Art Center; Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Kansas, Wichita Art Museum, Josef Albers: Homage to the Square, March 1964 - January 1967
Philadelphia, The Makler Gallery, Josef Albers, March 1969

Catalogue Note

"It so happens that I've always had a preference – as everyone has prejudices and preferences – for the square as a shape in preference to the circle as a shape. And I have known for a long time that a circle always fools me by not telling me whether it's standing still or not. And if a circle circulates you don't see it. The outer curve looks the same whether it moves or does not move. So the square is much more honest and tells me that it is sitting on one line of the four, usually a horizontal one, as a basis. And I have also come to the conclusion that the square is a human invention, which makes it sympathetic to me."
Josef Albers

This work will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings by Josef Albers currently being prepared by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and is registered under 1959.1.84.