Color Transforms

The book Interaction of Color by Josef Albers talks about the perception of color. Albers is one of the most influential people of the 20th century. He belonged to the Germany's Bauhaus Group from 1925 until its closing in 1933. He then came to the United States to teach at Black Mountain College until 1950. In 1950, he transfered to Yale to work as a Chairman for the Design department. Albers has won many awards during his lifetime, one of them being the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1968. Albers states, "In visual perception, a color is almost never seen as it really is- as it physically is. This fact makes color the most relative medium in art."

Albers book was published in 1963 for the first time. Albers recorded his experiments in this book and explains the visual illusions of color. This makes color an unstable medium. This book also serves as a teaching guide fo teachers and students. The book provides color plates which make it easier to visualize the instability and visual illusions that color portrays.

Color puts a design into perspective. Since, color is very malleable it becomes very useful in indicating depth, strength, etc. in a design. I believe this is what Albers means when he says that color is decieveing. It potrays illusions that are not physically there. For example, a painting is a physical entity, but the images in a painting are not. They are just representations of physical objects. Color becomes a tool in depicting the images within a painting. Color, if used in the appropriate way, can signify depth and light. This makes color a tool in visual illusions.