Red Wall 1956

Josef Albers made "Red Wall" with oil paint, likely sometime mid-century, and it's a painting that truly understands color as a process. Albers builds up these rectangles within rectangles in layers, right? Each color sits next to another, influencing its neighbor. It's like they're having a conversation. I love the almost matte quality of the paint; it's so flat, so there's no real brushwork to see. It’s like he’s trying to erase the hand of the artist, and focus on the pure, unadulterated color. Look at where the red meets that deep purple – the way they vibrate against each other. And those vertical purple bars within the red square. They’re not quite centered, are they? That little bit of asymmetry keeps the whole thing alive. Albers reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin, in that dedication to simplicity. But where Martin is all about the delicate and ethereal, Albers is grounded, solid, and a bit stubborn. Both of them teach us how to see, and how to think.