Josef Albers

Painting by Claude Monet: Impression, Sunrise (1872)

 

Josef Albers was born in 1888 and died in 1976 at the age of 88 years old. He was a German-born American artist and wrote books such as “The Interaction of Color.” He was a very accomplished designer and excelled in multiple areas ranging from photographer to poet. But, he is best known for his work as a painter. He also worked as a theorist, coming up with new ideas about color theory. In his book “The Interaction of Color,” Josef observed many different ideas and interactions of color, one of which was optical mixing.  He described this as the “pulling” or “pushing” of colors into different appearances. Two colors which are juxtaposed and perceived simultaneously are seen by the human eye as one new color; the two original colors were annulled and replaced by a substitute called optical mixing. The findings that our perceptions change when our eye mixes the colors led to a new painting technique. This technique is one of the best representations of optical mixing and is called impressionism. Impressionist artists, such as Claude Monet used small dots, or sometimes "globs" of different colors and place them close together so when viewed from afar they mix and not only become a new color (optical mixing!) but also add movement and drama to a piece. 

[Photos from: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/72/13572-004-595D9C39.jpg, http://23.media.tumblr.com/aHyNHMV3lechplzahjxsS0sko1_400.jpg, http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.brown.edu/Courses/CG11/2005/Group161/signacHarborofSaint-Tropez.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.brown.edu/Courses/CG11/2005/Group161/History.htm&usg=__3b865F3mkVALSVGQwXivjT9geKc=&h=600&w=473&sz=135&hl=en&start=13&um=1&tbnid=nIWoi1HIe0QfgM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=106&prev=/images%3Fq%3Doptical%2Bmixing%2Bimpressionist%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1]