Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition Paperback – Illustrated, June 28, 2013

This book was purchased for a friend. I have the edition that was sold 50 years ago. The exercises are not so easy. Though color paper is recommended I learned a lot by mixing paint. Helpful and valuable discoveries through it. .., and a great gift.

This book was a gift. The synopsis made me think the book would help her understand color theory and lead her to experiment more with her paints. She loves it.

Josef Albers was first a student, then an instructor, and finally a professor at the famous Bauhaus school of art and design in pre-war Germany. When the Nazis forced the closure of the Bauhaus in 1933, Albers emigrated to the United States where he was made head of the Black Mountain College School of Art, in North Carolina. He later joined the design faculty at Yale University.All along the way, Albers sought to extend and deepen his understanding of how people perceive color, both to use it in his own work and to teach art students about how color juxtapositions interact with human vision.With this book, he lays it all out with a set of exercises using high-quality reproductions of relatively simple color paper compositions to illustrate the effects of color interaction. The color plates are of sufficiently high quality to work quite well for anyone with normal vision. Even people with colorblindness can probably benefit from most of the illustrations and surely from Albers' lucid descriptions of the effects. What you learn will likely be useful in your work no matter whether you are a painter, printmaker, worker in stained glass, or an interior decorator.Note that this book is NOT about teaching artistic composition or technique. It is laser-focused on its subject matter -- the optical effects of color interaction. You will find no better book for this, although I would also highly recommend "The Elements of Color" by Johannes Itten (who was one of Albers' teachers and colleagues in the Bauhaus) as a fine complement to Albers' book. Get them both!There are more expensive editions of this book available, but this 50th anniversary softbound edition, which should be well within the budgets of most art students, is more than adequate for learning how colors interact.

As good as a new book!

I am currently taking an architecture studio class, and this book is one of the required readings. The content of the book is in correlation with a color project which I will be starting in class. I do find the color studies in this book to be quite interesting, and I gained some insight into how colors can decieve the eyes. I had to read some passages in the book a few times to understand them, but collectively, the book is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in theories on color.

this book is so easy to understand. It helps you know how to use colors.

I've always appreciated the color theory book by Johannes Itten. "Interaction of Color" is exciting in a similar way. Both books examine aspects and interaction of color through discussion, commentary as well as visual examples. Any artist, designer or person working with color will find this book to be of use. A greater understanding of the relationships between colors allows a person to integrate it into their work.The quality of printing is critical in this type of book as colors created by ink and the ensuing relationships must be consistent for the experiments to work. This book achieves this.

Haven’t had time to read but saw an interview with quotes from the book which drew me in