Albers, Josef (1963) 2013. Interaction of Color. New Haven:Yale University Press

First published in 1963 as the sum total of a great artist’s experience of teaching art and, in particular, colour at Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and Yale University (and many places around the world). Paperback edition in 1971, revised in 1975, revised and expanded paperback in 2006, 50th anniversary edition in 2013.

The first edition was limited to 2000 copies. Its artistic illustration came as separate silk screen prints, in a box with the text volume and commentary. (see more)

In his foreword to the 50th anniversary edition of 2013, Nicholas Fox Weber (director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation) says: “It is now fifty years since Interaction of Color was published and, almost immediately, began to change the way people all over the world thought about seeing.” The book is luxuriously illustrated by Albers’ experimental materials for coloring experiments. It is a revelation in crisp, clear texts that encourage artistic experiment and setting of personal expression in color. Albers does not propagate a color system, he fully orients toward the experience of making.

Fox Weber again in the 2013 foreword: “Albers’s approach was revolutionary, putting experimentation at the fore.” (p. XI)