Homage to the Square: Guarded 1952

Josef Albers made this "Homage to the Square: Guarded" painting with oil on masonite, and for me, the beauty of the piece is in its simplicity. It's all about process. Albers meticulously layered these squares, and you can see a slight texture, little variations in the paint that give it away. It’s not a slick, machine-made surface. The colors, that deep purple-ish pink and the muted dark brown – it's like he’s guarding a secret in the center. I find myself drawn to that central dark square, a subtle shift in tone, a gentle pull towards the unknown. It's not flat, it’s alive. He's playing with our perception, asking us to really *see*. You could almost see Agnes Martin doing something similar, playing with subtle colour shifts and the way they shift our perception. It’s like a conversation, a question about seeing, feeling, and experiencing color.