Interaction of Color on display at Rutgers Art Library. Photo credit: Megan Lotts.
Rutgers Art Library recently unearthed a 1963 copy of a book by Josef Albers, Interaction of Color. The 1963 copy is special, in part, because of its size and format. It was, according to Yale University Press, originally published “as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates.” There were only 2000 original copies made and they sold out quickly. Some copies of this valuable book have made it to auction in recent years.
Following this limited run, Interaction of Color was released in smaller format books (shown in the photo above is art librarian Megan Lotts’ version from the 1990s) and eventually an app from Yale University Press.
The book was on display at the Art Library as part of the launch for the coloring book and will be put to good use in several courses in the spring, according to Lotts.
“I personally feel that this is a spectacular example of the evolution of a book, and will definitely be showing this off to my Byrne seminar in the spring, as well as the Color classes out of Mason Gross Visual Arts. I’ve been fortunate to show this book off to many people from the Zimmerli, MGVA, and arts enthusiasts since we have found it. This book really leaves a lot of mouths dropping.”
For a complete history of Interaction of Color, see this interesting article from The Amherst College Press.
