Josef Albers
Midnight and Noon
The complete portfolio of eight zinc and aluminium plate lithographs on Arches Nacre paper with the accompanying portfolio box, title and colophon pages
Paper: 47.9 x 52.0 cm / Image: 40.0 x 40.0 cm (each)
Paper: 18 7/8 x 20 1/2 inches / Image: 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (each)
Each signed and numbered in pencil by the artist
Edition 12 of 20
Published by Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles
Catalogue raisonné reference: Hudson Hills 158
Provenance: The artist, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, CT
Albers was a notorious perfectionist and had previously been sceptical about the ability of lithography to deliver the density and colour he wanted, preferring the saturation of oil-based silkscreen inks. However with this new suite, he wanted a technique that could not only echo the intensity of colour he was able to achieve in painting, but also the subtle transparency and luminosity.
Tyler had an innate understanding of Albers wishes combined with the knowledge and desire to push lithography to new limits. He developed a new method of thinning the concentration of the lithographic inks to create transparent colours of varying densities which, when two were overlapped, would produce a third colour.
Once printed, Tyler experimented further by placing some of the prints onto a porous paper and running the impression through the press again (a process he called ’blotting’) before printing the final colour. The four Midnight prints were made using mixtures of black inks and Noon the same in yellows, all eight painstakingly inked, registered and printed by hand.
Worksheet for production of portfolio Midnight and Noon by Josef Albers, 1964
Ink and typewriter on paper
11 x 8 1/2 in. (28 x 21.6 cm)
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Josef Albers Papers 42.17
Examples of Midnight and Noon are held in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; MoMA, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art; and Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth. Produced in only an edition of 20 copies, examples of complete portfolios are therefore incredibly rare to come to market.
Midnight and Noon is currently exhibited at Cristea Roberts Gallery in Counterpoint, a survey of abstract art spanning over 70 years, open until 2 March 2024.
For more information or to purchase this portfolio please get in touch
Images. Top image: Installation view of Midnight and Noon, 1964 in Counterpoint at Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, 2024. Courtesy Cristea Roberts Gallery, London Photo: Sam Roberts Photography.
Josef Albers with Ken Tyler and Irwin Hollander printing Midnight and Noon at Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, 1964. Photographer unknown. The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, 1976.28.363. Photo courtesy Ken Tyler.
Worksheet for production of portfolio Midnight and Noon by Josef Albers, 1964, Ink and typewriter on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 in. (28 x 21.6 cm). The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Josef Albers.
