Homage to Albers – Aaron Leitz

"We do not always create 'works of art,' but rather experiments; it is not our ambition to fill museums: we are gathering experience."

- Josef Albers

From 1949 until his death in 1976, Josef Albers painted over 1,000 of his "Homage to the Square" color studies. Each piece followed a strict set of guidelines dictating shape and form that Albers set in place, allowing him to explore the interaction of colors within.

My "Homage to Albers" series of color studies began as a way for me to strip down my photographic studio practice to its essentials. Adopting Albers' guidelines for the form of the works gave me a starting point from which to experiment with interactions of color and light.

Each "Homage to Albers" color study is a photograph of a layered arrangement of shapes each hand cut from sheets of cellophane, tissue and paper. The resulting collages are lit from both front and back. Varying the direction and intensity of the light sources changes the reflectivity and transparency of the pieces; adding another dimension for exploration.