Interaction of color

UNSW Library Special Collections holds a 1963 edition of Josef Albers, Interaction of color. The bound volume comprises a portfolio with 80 individually silkscreened colour plates, accompanied by commentary. Albers used the portfolio as a teaching aid to demonstrate how colours interact and change when placed alongside one another, revealing their inherent relativity.

Josef Albers, a pivotal figure in 20th-century art and design, revolutionised the way we understand and perceive colour. Albers was initially a student, then teacher and professor at the pioneering Bauhaus School of art, design and architecture in Weimar, Germany, taught at the experimental Black Mountain Art College in North Carolina, and was later appointed Head of the Department of Design at the Yale School of Art.

Albers dedicated much of his career to exploring the relativity and perception of colour. His seminal work, Interaction of color (1963), is both a theoretical and practical guide that challenges the notion of colour as a fixed entity. His studies show how our perception of colour is fluid and contingent upon context.

Interaction of color remains a foundational text in art education, design, and visual studies, emphasising experiential learning and the subjective nature of colour perception. Albers demonstrates that colour is inherently unstable and greatly influenced by its context.

Through a series of visual exercises, Albers reveals how colours can appear to change depending on their surrounding hues and how they interact in ways that defy expectation. His approach was not about prescribing rules but about training the eye to see more sensitively and accurately.

Use Interaction of color as a practical framework for experimentation and studio-based learning, drawing on Joseph Albers’s teaching methods, colour exercises, and students' direct observation.

• Explore how these hands-on studies can inform design decisions and reveal the role of perceptual illusion in shaping individual visual experience.

Research the impact of Albers and the Bauhaus movement on modern art and design. Discuss how Albers’s theories influenced other artists and designers and how they continue to shape contemporary practice.

• How does the approach in Interaction of color differ from traditional colour theory?
• Consider the similarities and differences between Albers’s methods and other approaches to researching and investigating the properties and behaviour of colour.

Examine diverse cultural uses and perceptions of colour, and how these align or diverge from Albers's theories.

• Reflect on how cultural context influences the meaning, symbolism, and interpretation of colour, and how this may challenge or reinforce Albers’s emphasis on direct perception and experiential learning.