I’m a big fan of designer Josef Albers and his colour theories, which I often refer to when choosing colour palettes for my quilts. Albers, from the Bauhaus School, was also fascinated with shapes, particularly the square. Homage to the Square was composed of four superimposed squares of oil colour applied with a palette knife on a white Masonite panel. As a series, Homage to the Square fascinated Albers for decades starting in 1950. The series including squares in many, many colours, sometimes seemingly to recede, sometimes to advance.

I wanted to re-create Homage to the Square in fabric, with my gold and green version representing the glory of spring, including the golds of warmer days and the exhilarating greens of an awakening forest.

The quilting lines of Homage to the Square radiate out from the bright yellow innermost square to the outer edges.

Marilyn Smulders, Homage to the Square, 2021, 44’ x 50”, thread-dyed fabrics (Alison Glass Fabrics), wool batting.

Photographed by Nicola Davison, Snickerdoodle Photography.