Josef Albers: Relativity of Color

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Albers: Relativity of Color

Josef Albers: Relativity of Color

What is Simultaneous Contrast?

Successive Contrast

Stare at the two top circles for 30 seconds, then look at the two identical yellow circles below. Do they look different? Why?

For more information on this phenomenon see The Eye and Successive Contrast.

Simultaneous Contrast

The same phenomenon - when it happens concurrently is called Simultaneous Contrast. Colors are affected (perceptually changed) by colors around them. Since we rarely experience any color in isolation, Simultaneous Contrast is always a factor in our perception of color.

In this example the two squares in the center are factually the same. As seen in the proof below, the color agent is identical. But the color effect is changed by context. Each background color has the effect of subtracting its own hue from the square in its center. The result is that we perceive a more yellow-orange on the left side and a more red-orange on the right side.

To try it out yourself see Same Same or Different.

For more information see Color Interaction: Simultaneous Contrast.

Josef Albers and INTERACTION OF COLOR

Interaction of Color written by Josef Albers.
In this audio interview from Design Matters, Debbie Millman talks to Brenda Danilowitz, Chief Curator at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and Philip Tiongson, a principal at Potion, a design and technology firm specialzing in interactive expereinces, about Josef Alber's book Interaction of Color. To mark the 50th anniversary of this groundbreaking book, Yale University is realeasing an iPad app of the book.
A short article on Josef Albers and Color Contrast from Brown University.
New York Times (July 26, 2012) review of the exhibition, Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper.
Morgan Library & Museum exhibition and catalog for the show, Josef Albers in America: Painting on Paper.
The Bauhaus

Josef Albers: Works

To view paintings and other works by Albers visit Artsy’s Josef Albers page. The Artsy page also includes articles, up-to-date Albers exhibition listings and related artists including suggested contemporary artists.

Marcel Duchamp: Coeurs Volants

In 1936, artist Marcel Duchamp created a work titled Coeurs Volants (Flying Hearts) for the cover of a magazine, Cahiers d'Art. In 1968 Something Else Press reprinted Coeurs Volants which produces the optical illusion that the heart is beating using the phenomenon of vibrating edges which our class has been studying. In this video Alison Knowles discusses the process of choosing colors for the reprint (which had to be just right in order to create the illusion).