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Colour
In any type of art form either being painting, graphics or photography, the most important factor is colour, ‘what colour should you use?’, ‘what colours should we mix together to make this colour?’, ‘what impact will a certain colour have on the rest of the artwork?’ Us as artists, these questions will often pop up into our heads.
I’ve looked at two artists Josef Albers and Henri Matisse, who both use exploit the colour in very different but unique ways.
Josef Albers is most famous for his ‘Homage’s to the squares.’ He did a series of these similar paintings experimenting on the idea of the psychological effects colour can create on the human eye. Albers used different colour combinations so that each colour could react with each other, this way the different colour combinations could cause different psychological effects, creating optical illusions because of the ways the different colours react with each other.

''Homage to the Square'' (1954)

“Homage to the Square” (1959)

“The square was the ideal shape for Albers’ "Homage’s," series. Squares were mathematically related to each other in size, perfect for superimposition, shapes that never occur in nature--thus assuring its man-made quality. Albers intended that the colours in his "Homage’s" series react with each other when processed by the human eye, causing optical illusions due to the eye's ability to continually change the colours in ways that echo, support, and oppose one another. He executed these paintings with a deliberate, careful technique using a minimum of tools and paint. He hated chaos and was adamantly opposed to the freedoms of Abstract Expressionism. When working, he applied one base or primary coat to Masonite, a ground he found most durable, and then squeezed unmixed paints directly from the tubes and spread the paint evenly and as thinly as possible with a palette knife.”
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