Homage to the Square: New Light

Josef Albers's Homage to the Square: New Light (1967) is an acrylic on board painting from the late phase of the Homage to the Square series. The title New Light suggests a fresh perspective or a new way of seeing, perhaps reflected in the specific color relationships of this work. Albers continued to explore the possibilities of the nested square format throughout the 1960s, finding endless variation within the strict limitations of his chosen format. The acrylic medium, which Albers adopted in his later years, gives the colors a different quality than the oil paints he used earlier. The colors are clean and clear, the edges precise. Albers's late Homage to the Square paintings show no diminution of his powers; if anything, they achieve a new purity and intensity. The series as a whole represents one of the most remarkable sustained investigations in the history of art, a lifetime of looking and thinking condensed into a single, endlessly varied format.

Albers's late Homage to the Square paintings represent the culmination of his lifelong investigation of color, achieving a purity and intensity that influenced generations of artists.

This late Homage to the Square offers a new light on the possibilities of color, the acrylic medium and precise handling creating a work of luminous clarity and perceptual sophistication.