Bauhaus · 1962
Homage to the Square: Yellow Signal
Still in copyright: the image isn't shown, only the colors measured from it.
Homage to the Square: Yellow Signal (1962) by Josef Albers. Its palette is led by pale golden yellow (#eed05d, 63%) and pale golden yellow (#fde52d, 37%). 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
- #eed05d MG 040 pale golden yellow 62.9% of canvas
- #fde52d MG 040 pale golden yellow 37.1% of canvas
Color families
Yellow 100%
Measurements
Composition
50% of the visual weight is in the left half, 53% 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.