Homage to the Square: Yellow Signal

Josef Albers's Homage to the Square: Yellow Signal (1962) is an oil on board painting from the celebrated series that occupied Albers for the final decades of his career. Albers (1888-1976) was a German-born American artist and teacher who was one of the most influential figures in modern art education. His Homage to the Square series, begun in 1950, explored the optical and perceptual effects of color through a single, invariant format: a series of nested squares. In Yellow Signal, the squares are arranged in a composition dominated by yellow, the colors interacting to create effects of advancing, receding, and vibrating that challenge the viewer's perception. The oil on board technique is smooth and precise, the colors applied in flat, unmodulated areas. Albers's work was deeply influenced by his studies at the Bauhaus and his teaching at Black Mountain College and Yale, and the Homage to the Square series represents the culmination of his lifelong investigation of color perception.

Albers's Homage to the Square series is one of the most systematic investigations of color perception in the history of art, influencing the development of Op Art, Minimalism, and Color Field painting.

This yellow-dominated Homage to the Square explores the perceptual interactions of color through the simplest possible format, the nested squares creating effects of depth, vibration, and optical energy.