Interaction of Color: Revised and Expanded Edition [Paperback]

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

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2006

Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color is a masterwork in twentieth-century art education. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this timeless book presents Albers’s unique ideas of color experimentation in a way that is valuable to specialists as well as to a larger audience.

Originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates, Interaction of Color first appeared in paperback in 1971, featuring ten representative color studies chosen by Albers. The paperback has remained in print ever since and is one of the most influential resources on color for countless readers.

This new paperback edition presents a significantly expanded selection of more than thirty color studies alongside Albers’s original unabridged text, demonstrating such principles as color relativity, intensity, and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the illusions of transparency and reversed grounds. Now available in a larger format and with enhanced production values, this expanded edition celebrates the unique authority of Albers’s contribution to color theory and brings the artist’s iconic study to an eager new generation of readers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; Rev Exp edition (May 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300115954
• ISBN-13: 978-0300115956
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Techniques > Use of Color
  • #54 in Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Commercial > Illustration

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'The Interaction of Colour... has proven key to understanding color relationships and human perception... Anyone who works with color should read Albers' findings, period.' Pamela Pfiffner, MacUser"

About the Author

Josef Albers, one of the most influential artist-educators of the twentieth 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 the first living artist ever to be given a solo retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Nicholas Fox Weber is Executive Director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; Rev Exp edition (May 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300115954
• ISBN-13: 978-0300115956
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Techniques > Use of Color
  • #54 in Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Commercial > Illustration

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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars For more color plates....... May 3, 2007

By N. R. Evans VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Previous reviews have bemoaned a lack of color plates. I just wanted to clarify that the 2006 Revised & Expanded edition has many more than the 8 or 10 mentioned by other reviewers. In the version I purchased (2006), the back half, approx., of the book is devoted to color plates that refer back to the chapters where particular principles are discussed. The color plates are on the right leaf, and an explanation of said plate is on the left. In the margin of the left, a reference back to the chapter/section in the book is made so that further reading on each principle is easy to locate. This is perhaps a little more awkward than having the plates sprinkled within the chapter/sections themselves, but for the cost of the book, this is an entirely acceptable method of sharing both written information and visual reinforcement. I counted more than 35 plates in the book.

70 of 75 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best source to learn about and understand color August 7, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Misc. Supplies

As an art student at Idaho State University in 1970, we used this resource as a basis for our studies. To this date, I feel it is the one book from which I learned the real meaning of color and how we perceive it and how to make it do what we want it to do in the things we create. I have never seen an approach like this, and the color studies were the ultimate learning experience for me. There's nothing like it!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars interaction of color by josef albers August 31, 2006

By sharpie marker

Format:Paperback

excellent revised/expanded edition of the classic albers theory/anti-theory of color. the classic that most art schools continue to base their color courses on, this edition has more reproductions from the original collectors hand silkscreened edition and is nearly twice the number of pages.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide to practical color application February 23, 2010

By Candace Vianna

Format:Paperback

Josef Albers revolutionized how we approach the application of color in everything from fine art to architecture. In this book he walks you through lessons in theory and practical exercises he used to train students when he was teaching at Yale University. He gives well thought out examples and outlines exercises that can be used to fine tune your ability to see the more subtle nuances within the color spectrum and how important context affects our perceptions of color.

Most of the exercises use in the book require various shades and tints of colored paper. I found using the larger paint swatches found at the local hardware store worked quite well and best of all they're free.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for exploration October 8, 2008

By Andrew A. Gill

Format:Paperback

Albers provides a series of explorations and experiments for the reader to follow. If you have the resources to perform the experiments as directed, this will probably be a wonderful book. I did not, so I cannot evaluate that aspect.

While not as comprehensive as some other books on color theory, Albers scores points by covering several subjects that are not as well represented in those other books.

Definitely recommended for anyone looking to build a comprehensive library on color theory.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book! August 18, 2008

By J. Hopper

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is an incredible resource for people really serious about learning the dynamics of color. You will get the most out of it by actually doing the exercises - it won't help nearly as much if you just read it and look at the examples. I highly recommend it!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply a classic September 2, 2011

By Douglas McMillin

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

There's not much to add to my title above, except to reassure the potential buyer that the paperback edition has all of the graphics, without which the book would be rather pointless, and that the quality of reproduction is good.
I would also suggest that this book should be purchased along with a more contemporary one detailing the way in which we see and process luminosity and colour, biologically. Margaret Livingstone's 'Vision and Art' (2002) is a good choice, for example.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for everybody who want's to understand color February 24, 2013

By Elisa Gatzka

Format:Paperback

The book is written as an instruction on teaching about colors, including theory and practical excercises. Josef Albers' writing style reads very well and is easy to understand (even for a not native speaker like me). The reproduction of the color plates is not perfect, but by far good enough to understand the excercises -- especially considering the book's moderate price.

"Interaction of Color" is not about rules, color systems, pigments or physical qualities but rather about color perception. Because we hardly ever see a single color, the book deals with the dependency and interaction of colors. "Just as the knowledge of acoustics does not make one musical -- neither on the productive nor on the appreciative side -- so no color system by itself can develop one's sensitivity for color". Because only experience and training will develop an eye for color and an the sense for relations between colors, the book encourages the reader not only to read, but to experiment actively with colors.
To introduce the reader to the theme, Albers compares the relativity of colors with a simple but convincing experiment: You need 3 pots, each filled with warm, lukewarm and cold water. After dipping the left hand in the cold and the right hand in the warm water, put both hands simultaneously into the lukewarm water. It appears to be warm for the left, cold for the right hand, though its neither of this temperatures. Similar to this haptic illusion our color perception is always relative.
The book explains subjects relating to color properties like intensity and brightness, color mixture, transparency and space illusion, harmony ... it really boils down the fundamentals of color theory in a simple and comprehensible way, illustrated with the clear color plates....

I can highly recommend this book to everybody who want's to understand color. It really changed my understanding of the subject and opened up new possibilities for my work as a designer.

There are more design-, animation-, art- and sustainability-related book revisions on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for my blog's link.
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