Homage to the Square: Sentinel

About the Art

Albers is considered one of the most influential teachers of the twentieth century because of his theories about color and color relations. In the last 25 years of his life, he made more than one thousand paintings and prints entitled Homage to the Square. In this iconic body of work, Albers explored his interest in the mysterious, luminous quality of color. He investigated how pigments interact and how our perception changes when colors are placed adjacent to and surrounded by other colors.

Albers subtitled this work Sentinel, which suggests these nesting forms have meaning beyond their color relationships. A sentinel, like a sentry or guard, keeps watch, maintaining a sense of symbolic order.

FEATURED IMAGE
Josef Albers (American, born in Germany, 1888–1976), Homage to the Square: Sentinel, 1968, oil on canvas mounted on Masonite, 48 x 48 inches (121.9 x 121.9 cm). Gift of Society Bank, 1986.15