Studies in colour gradation
were an integral component of Josef Albers’ teaching. It was a means of
cultivating among his students a “more discriminating sensitivity” when it came
to distinguishing between deeper and lighter hues.
“We study gradation by producing
so-called grey steps, grey scales, grey ladders”, he writes in Interaction of Colour. “They demonstrate
a gradual stepping up or down between white and black, between lighter and
darker.”
94.75 to 96.66
acrylic on canvas
each 66 x 66 inches
October 2003
The painter James
Howell has transformed this simple exercise in visual discrimination into a
life project. He explores relational colour increments through the colour grey,
which he works up from titanium white, ivory black and raw umber. They are
mixed with the utmost care with a view to attaining the most equal modulations
in shade that he can achieve. This has led Howell to delve deep into colour
chemistry and to rely on computer aided technologies. This has been especially
necessary in order to ensure that the temperature of the grey remains constant,
in spite of the shifts in shade he might wish to apply.
s10, Set 91.14, 7.5.99
acrylic on canvas
40 x 40 inches
In earlier works, he
painted a series of grey tones on separate aluminium sheets. But in his latest
series, Howell paints horizontal bands of grey on a single, square canvas,
always setting the lightest shade at the top, and the darkest at the base. These
works are distinguished by the tonal range they depict. Some are calibrated so
as to expose an almost imperceptibly narrow degree of variation, while in others
the parameters are set further apart.
Set 68.98 12/27/94
Acrylic on .25 honeycomb aluminium
33 x 33 inches
At first glance, these
works look monochromatic and almost blank. It is only gradually and from close
up that the narrow bands become perceptible, and we come to notice the artist’s
delicate, meticulous brushstrokes. Gradually the paintings' underlying order and
rationale reveals itself. But no sooner do we have a sense that we have grasped
the nature of this artistic project, and we start to enjoy the heightened
sensation of knowing that our eyes have become attuned to these infinitely
subtle gradations, then something strange happens.