Op Art That Pops!
Around the time he became a professor at Yale in 1950, Josef Albers began a study he titled Homage to the Square. He continued it until he died in 1976, creating more than a thousand pieces in the series. Albers, a graduate and former teacher at the Bauhaus, focused his study on the contrasting effects of form, texture, and color. This perception was a major influence on what became known as the Op Art Movement.
Two things about this artistic style intrigued Albers. First, the way that adjacent colors affect each other. And second, the ability of flat planes and shapes to appear to either recede or advance on a canvas. Homage to the Square is a series of studies of a single geometric shape—the square—nestled inside itself repeatedly in varying families of color.
Your students can explore these two artistic phenomena with our Op Art screen printing lesson! This free art lesson plan includes images, step-by-step directions, and a materials list. We walk you through the set-up and execution process of creating colorful screen prints in the Homage to the Square style.
Students explore the effects of adjacent colors and experiment with optical illusion. They will use the same style that intrigued Albers and inspired Andy Warhol. Their finished pieces are perfect for class critiques and conversation.
View the Homage to the Square art lesson plan! Suitable for grades 6-12.
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