Interaction of Color: New Complete Edition [Hardcover]

Josef Albers (Author), Nicholas Fox Weber (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0300146930 | ISBN-13: 978-0300146936 | Edition: New edition

One of the most influential books on color ever published, Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color is a masterwork. Originally issued in 1963 as a limited-edition set of commentary and 150 silkscreened color plates, the book introduced generations of students, artists, designers, and collectors to Albers’s unique approach to complex principles.

 

While the original publication has long been out of print, this beautiful new edition now brings Interaction back into classrooms, studios, and onto bookshelves, where it will find an eager new audience. Lavishly produced as a two volume slipcased set, this book replicates Albers’s revolutionary exercises, explaining concepts such as color relativity and vibrating and vanishing boundaries through the use of color, shape, die-cut forms, and movable flaps that illustrate his astonishing demonstrations of the changing and relative nature of color. Also included for the first time are new studies from the Albers archive, produced by the artist’s students in the early 1960s.

 

A celebration of Albers’s legendary achievements, this beautiful publication is an essential addition to any serious art library.

(20100301)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The magnificent presentation of this edition will continue to make this book indispensable to the next generation of art students and teachers alike.”--Douglas F. Smith, Berkeley Public Library, Library Journal

(Library Journal )

“This lustrous work deserves a place in any ardent modernist’s library.”--Modern magazine

(Modern Magazine )

“Josef Albers'' Interaction of Color stands alone among color theory books: a classic that never fails to surprise with its continued relevance.”—Imprint

(Imprint )

About the Author

Josef Albers, one of the most influential artist-educators of the 20th century, was a member of the Bauhaus group in Germany during the 1920s. In 1933 he came to the United States, where he taught at Black Mountain College for sixteen years. In 1950 he joined the faculty at Yale University as chairman of the Department of Design. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Albers was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1968 and was professor emeritus of art at Yale until his death in 1976. Nicholas Fox Weber is executive director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; New edition edition (December 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300146930
• ISBN-13: 978-0300146936
• Product Dimensions: 16.9 x 12.2 x 2.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Josef Albers, one of the most influential artist-educators of the 20th century, was a member of the Bauhaus group in Germany during the 1920s. In 1933 he came to the United States, where he taught at Black Mountain College for sixteen years. In 1950 he joined the faculty at Yale University as chairman of the Department of Design. The recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Albers was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1968 and was professor emeritus of art at Yale until his death in 1976.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning collectors' edition, December 15, 2009

By 

Art Librarian - See all my reviews

This review is from: Interaction of Color: New Complete Edition (Hardcover)

This is an unbelieveably gorgeous and lavish edition of Josef Albers's original book. Movable flaps within the color plates lift up to show the magic of Albers's legendary exercises: how the same color appearing on two different backgrounds can look so different, and vice versa. A real collectors' item for people who love fine art publications.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, November 2, 2010

By 

Paul P - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Interaction of Color: New Complete Edition (Hardcover)

I make the following random points in respect of this title :

1. The shipping and general processing of my purchase by Amazon was very good, as always.

2. The publication is in two hardcover volumes (one with an azure blue, and the other with an olive green cover), with a brown cloth bound slipcase and a cardboard box for extra protection. One volume focuses on the theory and an explanation of the plates (and how to use them), and the other volume is the colour plates themselves.

3. The physical presentation of the whole package just oozes quality. The cloth used on the covers, the binding, the paper stock are all first class. The proportions of each volume are also well thought out, each being tall and slim, although the volume with colour plates is heavier due to the thicker paper used.

4. The graphic design is so clean and simple - the typeface and graphic layout of each page make the books a treat to look at and read. The new colour plates are produced using stochastic printing.

5. The new edition has been produced with the complete cooperation of the Josef and Anni Albers foundation, who also provided a subsidy to allow the work to proceed. The editor in charge of this new edition, Michelle Komie, worked closely with the Foundation over a number of years.

6. Further reading on the new edition can be found on line as follows :

[...]

[...]

7. I've never seen the original edition, so I can't compare the original with this new edition. The original was published in 1963, as a limited print run, and cost $200 back then. The colour plates were silk screened. These copies are now very rare, and will set you back at least $4000. The new edition would have cost $1000+ if silk screen had been used again. Logically, this means less people would have bought it. As Michlelle Komie stated to me "The goal of this publication was to make the full set of plates available for the first time since 1963 as beautifully and reasonably as possible." It seems crazy to me that Michelle and the Foundation would allow the book to go to press if it could not do justice to the original.

Let's face it, this is one of THE essential 20th Century colour treatises, and the fact that a publication of this quality and educational value is now available at a price that could barely get you a meal for two at a decent restaurant, is really a cause for celebration.

Do yourselves a favour - buy the book - if you have an interest in colour theory, or even if you just admire beautiful design and things well made, you won't regret it.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars beware of bad copies, February 22, 2010

By 

Lazaros Stergiadis "Lazaros" (Thessaloniki, Greece) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Interaction of Color: New Complete Edition (Hardcover)

This review is not about the value of the work-itself of Josef Albers. What I 'm going to say concerns the particular edition. When I first received the package, I was delighted by the good printing quality of the first book with the plates, but unfortunately the second text-book was a bad copy with 8 pages double printed.

I paid half the price of the book to send it back (I live in Greece) for replacement. Now, I have just received a new copy and I have found that while the text-book seems ok, the printing quality of the plates of the first book is not as good as in the one I have returned, in fact it is much inferior with apparent crosscoverings and mudy washes on the edges of colors. I feel frustrated and I don't even khow if I have a poor quality copy or a bad copy, because I don't have a prototype to compare.