Artwork
SP IX
SP IX is a print by Josef Albers. It dates from 1967 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Overview
The work consists of three concentric rectangles rendered in muted gray, vivid green, and a pale blue‑green, each edge sharply defined without gradation.
Created in 1967, SP IX is a silkscreen print by Josef Albers that forms part of his long-running *Homage to the Square* series. The work consists of three concentric rectangles rendered in muted gray, vivid green, and a pale blue‑green, each edge sharply defined without gradation. The composition emphasizes the visual relationship among the flat color fields rather than depicting any external scene.
Subject & Meaning
The piece explores how adjacent hues influence perception, a central concern of Albers’ practice. By placing a bright green band between a dark gray border and a light blue‑green center, the print creates a subtle optical tension that alters the viewer’s sense of depth and intensity, illustrating the artist’s investigation of color interaction as a visual phenomenon.
Technique & Style
Executed as a silkscreen on Schoellers Hammer cardboard, the print employs a limited palette and precise registration to achieve clean, uniform planes of color. Each rectangle was applied in a separate screen pass, allowing Albers to control the saturation and edge sharpness that define the work’s geometric rigor and flat pictorial space.
History & Provenance
SP IX belongs to an edition of 125 prints issued by Galerie Der Spiegel in Cologne. Every sheet was hand‑numbered and signed by Albers, and the set was packaged in an unnumbered black portfolio box with white lining, now held by the National Art Library. The box also contains documentation for Albers’ 1964 lithographic series *Midnight and Noon*, produced at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles.
Artist & collection
Artist
Josef Albers ( AL-bərz, US also AHL-, German: ; March 19, 1888 – March 25, 1976) was a German-born American artist and educator who is considered one of the most influential 20th-century art teachers in the United States.
