ABSTRACT
The work of Josef Albers is a didactica magna of color, a relative vehicle, “the most relative” of all, facing which or in relation to which the only suitable reaction is perplexity. The work of Albers provides an answer: a registration of effects that originate beyond the reality of the painting. The declarative value of color is abolished; and its agency is to be found beyond declaration. In Albers’s theory this could be phrased as follows: “1 color appears as 2,” or “2 different colors look alike”. The ambivalent forms of Albers’s works seemingly lead the viewer to a moment of perceptive confusion: a perceptive collapse. Albers’s teaching includes the following pair of key terms at its core: physical reality—psychic impact. His teaching method aims for a rigorous scientism: the intuitive approach is replaced by relevant new techniques such as “selection and error.”.
