Bauhaus · 1956
Homage to the Square: Light Passage
Still in copyright: the image isn't shown, only the colors measured from it.
Homage to the Square: Light Passage (1956) by Josef Albers. Its palette is led by putty (#9a9a8c, 39%) and light gold (#b48e3f, 29%). Overall the canvas is light, vivid and warm.
Color note
Albers spent decades showing that a color changes with its neighbours; his book Interaction of Color (1963) is still taught in art schools. The Homage to the Square series, begun in 1950, nests three or four squares of flat color to test exactly that.
Palette
- #9a9a8c MG 173 putty 39.1% of canvas
- #b48e3f MG 038 light gold 29.3% of canvas
- #9d801f MG 039 gold 19.4% of canvas
- #cb6a06 MG 026 scarlet orange 10.8% of canvas
- #b3afa0 MG 172 oatmeal 1.4% of canvas
Color families
Yellow 49%, Brown 40%, Orange 11%, Gray 0%
Measurements
Composition
50% of the visual weight is in the left half, 60% in the lower half. Symmetry 0.95 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 100% of the canvas is calm space. There is almost no detail anywhere. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.