Homage to the Square: Wondering
- Artist
- Josef Albers, American (born Germany), 1888–1976
- Date
- 1964
- Material
- Oil on Masonite
- Classification
- Paintings
- Current Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm)
- Credit Line
- Bequest of John M. and Eleanor S. Shoenberg
- Rights
- © 2013 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Object Number
- 29:1997
NOTES
On this square-shaped canvas, Josef Albers painted four overlapping squares of increasing size in corresponding yellow hues. From 1950 until his death in 1976, Albers made over 1,000 paintings in his "Homage to the Square" series. Each painting is a variation on the format seen here, produced in an array of color combinations chosen to provide particular visual sensations. Albers began his repetitive and rigorous experimentation with geometric abstraction well before the development of Minimalism. He influenced countless artists not only through his art, but through his theories and teachings at the Bauhaus school in Germany as well as Black Mountain College and Yale University in the United States.
Provenance
1964 - still in 1966
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, NY, USA [1]
by 1969 - 1997
John M. Shoenberg (d.1974) and Eleanor S. Shoenberg (d.1996), St. Louis, MO, purchased from Sidney Janis Gallery [2]
1997 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, bequest of John M. and Eleanor S. Shoenberg [3]
Notes:
[1] A Museum of Modern Art, New York loan label on the back of the painting indicates that the painting was lent by Janis Gallery in 1964. It was included in a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art which ran from February 1965 through January 1966 [Seitz, William C. "The Responsive Eye." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1965, cat. 11; email dated August 8, 2006 from Allyson Wolfe, Registrar at The Museum of Modern Art, SLAM document files].
[2] According to Museum notes, the Shoenberg's purchased the painting from Sidney Janis Gallery [SLAM document files]. They lent this painting to a 1969 exhibition at the Museum [letter from John M. Shoenberg dated September 16, 1969; loan agreement for "American Art in St. Louis: Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings Privately Owned," City Art Museum of St. Louis, October 24 - November 30, 1969, SLAM document files].
[3] Per deed of gift from the Estate of Eleanor S. Shoenberg dated April 16, 1997 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, April 16, 1997.
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, NY, USA [1]
by 1969 - 1997
John M. Shoenberg (d.1974) and Eleanor S. Shoenberg (d.1996), St. Louis, MO, purchased from Sidney Janis Gallery [2]
1997 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, bequest of John M. and Eleanor S. Shoenberg [3]
Notes:
[1] A Museum of Modern Art, New York loan label on the back of the painting indicates that the painting was lent by Janis Gallery in 1964. It was included in a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art which ran from February 1965 through January 1966 [Seitz, William C. "The Responsive Eye." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1965, cat. 11; email dated August 8, 2006 from Allyson Wolfe, Registrar at The Museum of Modern Art, SLAM document files].
[2] According to Museum notes, the Shoenberg's purchased the painting from Sidney Janis Gallery [SLAM document files]. They lent this painting to a 1969 exhibition at the Museum [letter from John M. Shoenberg dated September 16, 1969; loan agreement for "American Art in St. Louis: Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings Privately Owned," City Art Museum of St. Louis, October 24 - November 30, 1969, SLAM document files].
[3] Per deed of gift from the Estate of Eleanor S. Shoenberg dated April 16, 1997 [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, April 16, 1997.