Rutgers University Libraries Announce Access to Interaction of Color Complete Digital Edition

Rutgers University Libraries are pleased to offer access to Interaction of Color Complete Digital Edition, an interactive version of one of the most influential books on color ever published.

About Interaction of Color

Josef Albers’ Interaction of Color (1963) is the quintessential text on the study of color. This masterpiece includes a collection of saturated silkscreen color plates that Albers helped screen-print while teaching at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rutgers Art Library is proud to house one of the original 2,000 copies of Interaction of Color, which weighs a hefty 18 pounds. Most individuals who own a copy of this book have the smaller 1975 trade edition that is printed in black and white and tips the scales at only eight ounces.

About the Digital Edition

Yale University Press and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation recently transformed Interaction of Color into an interactive website. The Interaction of Color Complete Digital Edition expands upon Albers’ classic art education work and offers a new and exciting way to experience it. At the heart of the site is the complete text of the 50th-anniversary edition and its color plates. When examining this resource, it is interesting to reflect on how the physical object has evolved over time and has now been made available as a website.

In the physical book, the plates served as exercises that reproduced the illusions and perceptions of color interactions described in the text. The digital edition includes interactive versions of those plates plus 60 more, bringing the total to 122. The website also allows readers to zoom in on the plates and rearrange the colored shapes, add highlights and notes to the texts, access in-text glossary terms, watch plate video commentaries, view videos of Albers and his students, and create and share their own plates.

“One of the most important books on color ever written.” — Michael Hession, Gizmodo

How to Access the Database

Interaction of Color Complete Digital Edition is accessible: (1) on campus via RUWireless, Ethernet, and computers connected to the Rutgers network and (2) off campus for current students, staff, faculty, and faculty emeriti.

To access the database, please click the Connect to Database link on the Rutgers Interaction of Color Complete Digital Edition page. Off-campus users will be prompted to log in via NetID. All users must create (or sign in to) personal accounts on the Interaction of Color website to access the content.

For More Information

To learn more about our visual arts resources, please visit the Art Library. To view an original copy of Interaction of Color, contact Art Librarian Megan Lotts. For more information about Josef and Anni Albers, explore the Albers Foundation.