Maw Books

Maw Books – book reviews, book recommendations, book lists, author interviews and more!

I took a color theory class when I was in college and it’s one of the most memorable of all my coursework.  I recently was cleaning out my basement and came across all my projects for the class. Basically, these projects involved a lot of cutting and pasting of colored squares as we experimented with how colors interacted with each other.  Take two identical colored squares but place them on separate colors and the perceived hue will change.  Colors are not always what they appear to be.  There is enough to learn about color that we spent an entire semester doing so.

It’s for this reason that I was interested in taking a look at An Eye for Color: The Story of Josef Albers by Natasha Wing and illustrated by Julia Breckenreid.   This picture book would have been so much fun to read the first day of my color theory class! As a young child, author Natasha Wing, was a neighbor to Josef Albers.  When her mother framed the Christmas card he sent, she knew that he must be somebody important but it wasn’t until she was grown and moved away that she began to realize the significance of Josef Albers.

This short biography of the artist describes how it wasn’t until he was in his sixties that he chose the most geometrically perfect shape of a square and used it as his pallet to experiment with color.  He proved that colors don’t stand alone.  They interact with each other.  When one changes a color, the entire mood of it can change. For twenty-seven years he painted thousands of squares and was the first person to be given a living artist one-man show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The book is very simple to read and has a entertaining narrative with a lot of great color examples.  At the end of the book there is an authors note detailing the authors childhood relationship with Albers.  There is also an extended biography to learn more about Albers life and career as well as a glossary and selected bibliography.  It’s these details that turn a book into a true teaching tool.  A fantastic book for a glimpse into the awesome world of color and a man who dedicated his life in exploring it.

Links of interest:  Natasha Wing website, Julia Breckenreid website.
Genre:  Picture book, approx ages 9-12.
Publisher: Henry Holt.  September 1, 2009.
Hardcover, 40 pages. ISBN 0805080724
Source:  Review copy
An Eye for Color is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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