This late work continues and extends Albers's lifelong, and remarkably consistent, pedagogical focus on 'opening eyes' through the repetition of forms and subtle color juxtapositions that generate internal friction, movement, and instability. In Soft Spoken, Albers has added a fourth square, and narrowed the range of color, while retaining the calculated asymmetry of the other works in the series. An application of a quasi-scientific method to art-making, the Homage works demonstrate the capacity of a strictly limited formal strategy to produce inexhaustible permutations and continually generate new visual and aesthetic experiences. This work in the Homage to the Square series was executed almost 20 years into what may be the most sustained exploration of the relational character of color in 20 th-century art.

Oil on Masonite - Los Angeles County Museum of Art As in his earlier monochromatic and linear studies, this series explores the potential of static two-dimensional media to invoke dynamic three-dimensional space. Albers chose a single, repeated geometric shape, which he insisted was devoid of symbolism, to systematically experiment with the 'relativity' of color, how it changes through juxtaposition, placement, and interaction with other colors, generating the illusion of attraction, resistance, weight, and movement. Such sustained attention to a single aspect of painting reflects his conviction that insight is only attained through 'continued trying and critical repetition.' This early work exemplifies his basic approach to exploring the mutability of human perception and the range of optical and psychological effects that colors alone can produce depending on their position and proximity. Homage to the Square is the signature series of over 1000 related works, which Albers began in 1949 and continued to develop until his death in 1976.

Albers color theory