ABSTRACT
Josef Albers has been distinguished even among his coevals, so many of whom took up academic positions here, in retaining a cast of mind primarily pedagogic in its preoccupations. In his exhibition at the Janis Gallery, Albers is showing two series of works: the "Homage to the Square" series and the "Variant" series. The paintings in both series are primarily statements of color brought to a climax of impersonal intensity. The precise forms which function as containers for Albers's color differ in the two series, and sometimes they differ slightly from work to work within a series; but purely as formal inventions they do not command any special interest. His color always generates a hard, cold light which is unlike anything else in modern art. Seen in a direct light, the frigid luminosity of an Albers sears the vision, and even in a half-light it may stubbornly retain an elemental force.
