20th Century and Contemporary, Design

Year-end accolades for “Interaction of Color: New Complete Edition”

Albers As the year—and the decade—draw to a close, the critical desire to sort out the era’s best and worst appears near-impossible to resist. While the Press has certainly enjoyed its share of cheers and jeers throughout its history, one pleasant surprise this year has been the resurgence in interest in a book that Yale originally published in 1963. Though the paperback edition of Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color has been a perennial in-house favorite, we were quite flattered to read Felix Salmon’s recent declaration that the New Complete Edition is, in his opinion, “the art book of the decade.”

At $200, this deluxe edition is one of the more expensive art books YUP has produced in recent years; however, as Salmon notes, the original edition cost $200 when it was released in the early 1960s. Furthermore, we feel the book’s high production value—complete with an elegant slipcase, die-cut forms, and movable flaps—more than merits its price. If you find yourself strolling through a museum or bookshop this holiday season, we hope you happen upon a copy of Interaction of Color, have the opportunity to experience Albers’s masterpiece as it was originally intended, and, of course, take a copy home for yourself.

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