UTC Community,

With the generous support of UTC alumni Tom and Marion Griscom  
family, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Tennessee for  
Tomorrow Fund, the Department of Art is pleased to announce the  
acquisition of Joseph Albers' canonical book, "Interaction of Color".

As noted by the publisher, Albers began his teaching career in 1923  
at the Weimar Bauhaus in Germany where he taught furniture design,  
drawing, and calligraphy. There, he helped guide the Bauhaus away  
from expressionism and towards a constructivist art in the service of  
architecture. His working philosophy was to build carefully and  
meticulously with sturdy materials from a base of simple, fundamental  
forms too increasingly complex shapes. In 1933, Albers and his  
associates dissolved the Bauhaus because of Nazi pressure. He and his  
wife Annie moved to America, where he spent the next sixteen years as  
head of the art department at the newly established, Black Mountain  
College, North Carolina, an experimental school operating with the  
principle that fine art integrated all learning. Albers completed his  
teaching career at Yale where he taught from 1950-1960.

Conceived as a teaching aid for his students, "Interaction of Color"  
describes in great detail Albers' unique theories regarding color and  
color relationships through interaction. Many consider the text to be  
his seminal work. Now widely available in paperback, "Interaction of  
Color" was originally published by Yale University Press in 1963 as a  
limited silkscreen edition with 150 colour plates. There are only a  
few hundred of these in existence, one of which is now a permanent  
addition to the Lupton Library's Special Collection.

On first viewing, UTC Painting Professor Ron Buffington described the  
book as follows:

The screenprints themselves are stunning. Numerous of them are  
interactive (with tabs to lift or windows to overlay). And there are  
some useful extras, including an index listing the "author" of each  
solution (most of whom were Albers' students, including Eva Hesse,  
Rackstraw Downes, William Bailey, etc.) and an additional pamphlet  
describing the significance of each example (usually having to do  
with the lesson to be learned from it, sometimes with delightful  
commentary by Albers like "a very unusual effect..."). There is a  
remarkable group of tiny Homage to the Square studies in folio  
XVI-4...worth the "price of admission" by themselves. But the show  
stopper is by Jay Maisel (the photographer), an elaborate, sublimely  
beautiful study (see folio XII-2).

We expect to use the text regularly and often as a part of the Art  
Department's Color Theory course, a requirement of all studio majors  
in the department. In that context and in light of the departmental  
curriculum as a whole, the Albers text will surely prove to be an  
invaluable resource for our students and faculty alike. Beyond our  
department, we hope you will agree that this volume is relevant to a  
number of related fields including (but not limited to!) physics,  
psychology, philosophy, and interior design.

On the behalf of the Lupton Library and the Department of Art, I  
should like to take this opportunity to invite the UTC community to  
come to the Special Collections Library and view this most  
extraordinary text. While you're there, please take a moment to thank  
Special Collections Librarian Steve Cox and Library Dean Theresa  
Liedtke for their invaluable logistical support and expertise in  
making this purchase.

Warm Regards,

············

Matt Greenwell
Head, Department of Art
UT Chattanooga

www.utc.edu/art
423.425.4178 ph
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