Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition

Description

“One of the most important books on color ever written.”—Michael Hession, Gizmodo   “Interaction of Color with its illuminating visual exercises and mind-bending optical illusions, remains an indispensable blueprint to the art of seeing. . . . An essential piece of visual literacy.“—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings   Josef Albers’s classic Interaction of Color is a masterwork in art education. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this influential book presents Albers’s singular explanation of complex color theory principles.   Originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates, Interaction of Color first appeared in paperback in 1971, featuring ten color studies chosen by Albers, and has remained in print ever since. With over a quarter of a million copies sold in its various editions since 1963, Interaction of Color  remains an essential resource on color, as pioneering today as when Albers first created it.   Fifty years after Interaction’s initial publication, this anniversary edition presents a significantly expanded selection of close to sixty color studies alongside Albers’s original text, demonstrating such principles as color relativity, intensity, and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the illusion of transparency and reversed grounds. A celebration of the longevity and unique authority of Albers’s contribution, this landmark edition will find new audiences in studios and classrooms around the world. Contents I Color recollection-visual memory II Color reading and contexture III Why color paper-instead of pigment and paint IV A color has many faces-the relativity of color v Lighter and/ or darker-light intensity, lightness VI 1 color appears as 2-looking like the reversed grounds VII 2 different colors look alike-subtraction of color VIII Why color deception?-after-image, simultaneous contrast IX Color mixture in paper-illusion of transparence x Factual mixtures-additive and subtractive XI Transparence and space-illusion XII Optical mixture-after-image revised XIII The Bezold Effect XIV Color intervals and transformation XV The middle mixture again-intersecting colors XVI Color juxtaposition-harmony-quantity XVII Film color and volume color-2 natural effects XVIII Free studies-a challenge to imagination XIX The Masters-color instrumentation xx The Weber-Fechner Law-the measure in mixture XXI From color temperature to humidity in color XXII Vibrating boundaries xxiii Equal light intensity-vanishing boundaries XXIV Color theories-color systems xxv On teaching color-some color terms XXVI In lieu of a bibliography-my first collaborators Plates and commentary