Josef Albers

White Line Square VI
1966

A minimalist artwork featuring a series of concentric squares in shades of orange, with the squares getting progressively darker as they approach the center against a white background.

Not on view

Date
1966

Classification
Prints

Medium
Lithograph

Dimensions
Sheet: 20 3/4 × 20 3/4in. (52.7 × 52.7 cm) Image: 15 11/16 × 15 11/16in. (39.9 × 39.9 cm)

Accession number
67.14.6

Edition
41/125

Publication
Printed by Kenneth E. Tyler; printed by Jim Webb; printed by Bernard Bletha; published by Gemini G.E.L.

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the artist

Rights and reproductions
©The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

API
artworks/3463

Part of a series:

White Line Squares (Series I)

8 works

A minimalist artwork featuring a series of three concentric squares in shades of yellow, with each square bordering a lighter shade as they progress inwards, set against a white background.

A minimalist artwork featuring a series of three concentric squares, each progressively lighter in shade, creating a sense of depth on a plain background. The squares are centered and precisely aligned, with a wide border around the composition.

A minimalist artwork featuring a series of three concentric squares with a white border; the outermost square is green, followed by a lighter green, and the innermost square is blue.

A minimalist artwork featuring a series of concentric squares with colors transitioning from a bright red center to darker shades of brown, all set against a cream-colored background.

A minimalist artwork featuring a series of concentric squares in shades of yellow and green, with each square bordering the next to create a sense of depth. The image is presented with a white border around the squares.

A minimalist artwork featuring a series of nested squares in shades of black, blue, and white, creating an effect of depth on a flat surface.

Audio

Josef Albers, White Line Square VI, 1966

In Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018

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Josef Albers, White Line Square VI, 1966

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Christiane Paul: Josef Albers, in his Variant and Homage to the Square series, essentially explores color theory and the way we perceive color.
Narrator: Christiane Paul is Adjunct Curator of Digital Art at the Whitney Museum.
Christiane Paul: So he is nesting squares or geometric forms in different ways that actually make us question what the foreground or background is, what kind of color we are looking at. And we think of Albers mostly in terms of color and perception, but what we are highlighting in this exhibition is that he's also using a rule-based system of actually creating those nested squares and nested forms. So you are also looking at instruction-based art.
What is important here is that ultimately he emphasizes the potential for variation, for generating all different kinds of variations. While we are looking at static images, there is this potential for the generation of more and more images and forms.
Josef Albers, White Line Square VI, 1966

In Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018 (Spanish)

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Josef Albers, White Line Square VI, 1966

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Christiane Paul: Josef Albers, en sus series Variante y Homenaje al cuadrado, explora fundamentalmente la teoría del color y la forma en que percibimos el color.
Narrador: Christiane Paul es curadora adjunta de arte digital en el Whitney Museum.
Christiane Paul: El artista inserta cuadrados o formas geométricas de maneras distintas que nos hacen cuestionarnos qué es el primer plano y qué es el fondo, qué tipo de color estamos viendo. Y cuando pensamos en Albers lo hacemos sobre todo en términos de color y percepción, pero lo que queremos poner de relieve en esta exposición es que también utiliza un sistema basado en reglas para crear esos cuadrados y esas formas insertadas las unas en las otras. Por lo tanto, lo que estamos viendo es arte basado en instrucciones.
Lo importante aquí es que, en última instancia, el artista resalta el potencial de variación, el potencial de generar todo tipo de variaciones. Si bien nos encontramos frente imágenes estáticas, existe un potencial de generar más y más imágenes y formas.