Homage to the Square (La Tehuana) 1951

Josef Albers made 'Homage to the Square (La Tehuana)' with oil on board as a visual study of color relationships. He repeats the same square structure, using color as the only variable to show us how it tricks the eye. It's not about what the squares represent, but about how the colors bounce off each other, how they change our perception. Albers was super interested in process, and how just by changing one thing – the color – we could see something totally new. Look closely, and you can see thin layers of paint, almost transparent, built up to create depth. It feels precise, controlled, yet the colors vibrate, like a visual hum. The way these colors glow reminds me a little of Rothko's color field paintings, but with a hard edge. Albers invites us to forget about meaning and just experience color as a sensation, a feeling, a pure visual event.