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Label Text Albers emigrated with his wife and artist, Anni Albers, from Germany to North Carolina in 1933 to teach at Black Mountain College, an experimental school where visual art was central to its mission. Albers left Black Mountain in 1949 to teach at Yale University, and one year later, began his Homage to the Square series that would occupy him for more than twenty-five years. Like others in the series, this painting’s composition seems to speak to geometry, but it is actually concerned with perception. The illusion of receding and advancing planes are at the core of the work, asking the viewer to contemplate the meditative qualities of visual reception. October, 2020
Exhibition History"The Abstract Tradition in American Art," Des Moines Art Center, Dec. 7, 1991 - Feb. 23, 1992
Published ReferencesDES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ill. p.19, pl. 2

AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.44, color ill. p.45
DimensionsFrame: 32 7/16 × 32 7/16 × 1 1/4 in. (82.4 × 82.4 × 3.2 cm)
Canvas: 31 1/2 × 31 1/2 in. (80 × 80 cm)
Accession Number 1984.9
Classificationspainting
CopyrightARS
SignedA '67 (l,r oil paint)
InscriptionsStudy for Homage to the Square: (verso u,r) verso u,r extensive inscription documenting colors used 32 x 32" (verso u,l) H2 (verso u,c upside down)
ProvenanceArtist; The Joseph Albers Foundation, Orange, CT; Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1984]
Study for Homage to the Square
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Josef Albers
1966
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Philip Campbell Curtis
1960
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
William Charles Palmer
1931
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Gunther Gerzso
1966
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Sewell Sillman
date unknown
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Max Weber
1944