Here’s what you need to know about the Homage to the Square Rug, based on Josef Albers’s seminal series.
1. One of the most celebrated voices of American modernism, the German-born Albers came to the States in 1933 following the Nazi closure of the Bauhaus to helm the highly influential Black Mountain College. His contributions to art education have proven as influential as his artworks, which include stained glass and furniture works alongside paintings and prints.
2. Albers is best known for his extensive, idiosyncratic color theory, laid out in his 1963 book The Interaction of Color and extensively explored in his massive and iconic Homage to the Square series, consisting entirely of variations on the basic form seen here.
3. This hand-tufted wool rug is adapted from his 1951 oil on masonite painting from the Homage series and is produced in conjunction with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Artware Editions in a small batch of only 150, making this a highly collectible piece of American art history.
