Josef Albers's Interaction of Color is a masterwork in art education. Conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists, instructors, and students, this influential book presents Albers's singular explanation of complex color theory principles. Originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates, Interaction of Color first appeared in paperback in 1971, featuring ten color studies chosen by Albers, and has remained in print ever since. With over a quarter of a million copies sold in its various editions since 1963, Interaction of Color remains an essential resource on color, as pioneering today as when Albers first created it. Fifty years after Interaction's initial publication, this new edition presents a significantly expanded selection of close to sixty color studies alongside Albers's original text, demonstrating such principles as color relativity, intensity, and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the illusion of transparency and reversed grounds. A celebration of the longevity and unique authority of Albers's contribution, this landmark edition will find new audiences in studios and classrooms around the world.
Color recollection : visual memory -- Color reading and contexture -- Why color paper : instead of pigment and paint -- A color has many faces : the relativity of color -- Lighter and/or darker : light intensity, lightness ; Gradation studies : new presentations ; Color intensity : brightness -- 1 color appears as 2 : looking like the reversed grounds -- 2 different colors look alike : subtraction of color -- Why color deception? : after-image, simultaneous contrast -- Color mixture in paper : illusion of transparence -- Factual mixtures : additive and subtractive -- Transparence and space-illusion ; Color boundaries and plastic action -- Optical mixture : after-image revised -- The Bezold Effect -- Color intervals and transformation -- The middle mixture again : intersecting colors -- Color juxtaposition : harmony : quantity -- Film color and volume color : 2 natural effects -- Free studies : a challenge to imagination ; Stripes : restricted juxtaposition ; Fall leaf studies : an American discovery -- The Masters : color instrumentation -- The Weber-Fechner Law : the measure in mixture -- From color temperature to humidity in color -- Vibrating boundaries : enforced contours -- Equal light intensity : vanishing boundaries -- Color theories : color systems -- On teaching color : some color terms ; Explanation of color terms ; Variants versus variety -- In lieu of a bibliography : my first collaborators -- Plates and commentary.