Variant IV
1967
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
color screenprint on wove paper
Dimensions
image: 27.78 × 30 cm (10 15/16 × 11 13/16 in.) sheet: 43.18 × 43.18 cm (17 × 17 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Murray Lebwohl)
Accession Number
2015.19.2516
Art Historical Context
Josef Albers' *Variant IV* (1967) is a captivating color screenprint that exemplifies the artist's lifelong fascination with color perception. A pioneering Bauhaus master who later taught at Black Mountain College and Yale, Albers created this work late in his career, drawing his iconic *Homage to the Square series. Here, nested geometric forms interact to demonstrate how adjacent colors can alter each other's appearance—a core principle of his color theory teachings. Printed on wove paper, the screenprint medium allowed Albers to achieve vibrant, flat color fields with precise registration, ...
About the Artist
Josef Albers
Josef Albers, born on March 19, 1888, in Bottrop, Westphalia, into a Roman Catholic family of craftsmen, received early practical training from his father, Lorenzo Albers, a housepainter and carpenter, mastering skills in engraving glass, plumbing, wiring, and printmaking. After working as a schoolteacher in Bottrop from 1908 to 1913, he trained as an art teacher at the Königliche Kunstschule in B...