wanderlust
Paintings, Drawings, and Prints Oh My!
Josef Albers is quoted to have said that his goal was to open eyes, and after I entered the bright space of the Galerie Berinson where his work is being exhibited in “Paintings, Drawings Prints: Josef Albers (1988-1976)”, it didn’t take long to get swept in by the colors and the shape of the square. At first I saw just plain simple squares, but it took no longer than a minute to want to get closer, explore the color and shape in a more intimate way. In the first room of the exhibit there are a series of painting entitled, “Homage to the Square”, with their year of production, as well as individual titles on certain paintings. Each painting is multi-colored with perfect squares within squares, and most were created in the 1950’s and 60’s.
Standing in the center of the room with the various sizes and colors, I had the feeling that I had somehow a chance to start anew. Looking at the paintings, life seemed clear and clean to me, a mixture of pallets of colors that somehow gave me inspiration when combined with the centered, predictable, safe, square…somehow opening my eyes. I was especially drawn to the centerpiece, which in the well- lit gallery looked electric, tricking my eyes with its brightness. The piece entitled, Expanding 1954, was in itself a thrilling electrifying memory I can now recall. It was pulsating with intensity, tricking my eyes. A subdued brown color serves as the largest framing square, neighboring the two inner borders, which are rich greens. Finally the eye is drawn to a bright electric blue that I literally thought was pumping with high voltage current! I had to take a closer look at the power of the color. After staring at Expanding for quite some time, and giving my eyes a chance to take the homage of the square in to their brim, I made my way to the second portion of the exhibit, where my brain really starting working.
Photo: Josef Albers “Seclusion” 1950er. Courtesy of Galerie Berinson.
- Galerie Berinson Josef Albers – “Paintings, Drawings Prints: Josef Albers (1988-1976)” January 28th – April 14th 2012, Tue- Sat: 11am-6pm
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