*WING, Natasha. An Eye for Color: The Story of Josef Albers. illus. by Julia Breckenreid. unpaged. bibliog. glossary. CIP. Holt. Sept. 2009. RTE $16.99. ISBN 978-0-8050-8072-8. LC 2008038214.
Gr 3-6–Spare, engaging text paired with striking gouache illustrations make this book a perfect choice for aspiring young artists. Born in Germany in the late 19th century, Albers “watched his father paint doors as if they were artists’ canvases.” He came to America in 1933 to head the art department at an experimental college in North Carolina, but his numerous trips to Mexico were the true inspiration for his famed series of paintings known as “Homage to the Square.” “The buildings! The pottery! The way colors looked different under the Mexican sun…. Over and over again, Josef painted nothing but rectangles. Long rectangles. Tall rectangles. Rectangles within rectangles–all in different combinations of colors.” The accompanying spread, worthy of any museum gallery, shows a diminutive Albers climbing a mountain of multicolored, different-sized rectangles, walking stick in hand. He became fascinated with color and with the way it affected the mood of a piece, and set out to study it as carefully as a scientist. Notes on Albers and “See-for-Yourself Activities” augment this beautifully designed offering.–Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public Schools
