Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition

As good as a new book!

Josef Albers was first a student, then an instructor, and finally a professor at the famous Bauhaus school of art and design in pre-war Germany. When the Nazis forced the closure of the Bauhaus in 1933, Albers emigrated to the United States where he was made head of the Black Mountain College School of Art, in North Carolina. He later joined the design faculty at Yale University.All along the way, Albers sought to extend and deepen his understanding of how people perceive color, both to use it in his own work and to teach art students about how color juxtapositions interact with human vision.With this book, he lays it all out with a set of exercises using high-quality reproductions of relatively simple color paper compositions to illustrate the effects of color interaction. The color plates are of sufficiently high quality to work quite well for anyone with normal vision. Even people with colorblindness can probably benefit from most of the illustrations and surely from Albers' lucid descriptions of the effects. What you learn will likely be useful in your work no matter whether you are a painter, printmaker, worker in stained glass, or an interior decorator.Note that this book is NOT about teaching artistic composition or technique. It is laser-focused on its subject matter -- the optical effects of color interaction. You will find no better book for this, although I would also highly recommend "The Elements of Color" by Johannes Itten (who was one of Albers' teachers and colleagues in the Bauhaus) as a fine complement to Albers' book. Get them both!There are more expensive editions of this book available, but this 50th anniversary softbound edition, which should be well within the budgets of most art students, is more than adequate for learning how colors interact.

This book was a gift. The synopsis made me think the book would help her understand color theory and lead her to experiment more with her paints. She loves it.

This book was purchased for a friend. I have the edition that was sold 50 years ago. The exercises are not so easy. Though color paper is recommended I learned a lot by mixing paint. Helpful and valuable discoveries through it. .., and a great gift.

This book is something I would like if trained as an artist or practicing art professionally.It reads somewhat like a text book, although an enjoyable and thoughtful text.

Haven’t had time to read but saw an interview with quotes from the book which drew me in

Well, this edition is approx. 6 "x 9 1/4", sturdy built paperback has one of those soapy feel matte covers... you know the one makes you want to run your finger nails over it, and approx. 200 pages on heavy glossy paper and for that reason I would recommend getting an used copy not only saving but just so someone was already been in between its legs so you won't have to work of breaking it in order to see in full-ratio double sided page composition of text on left, left centered small texts just as poems, and color plate on the right.

Great bookk with lots of visual insights.