In this late ‘60s clip, abstract painter Josef Albers talks about colors and the process of mixing colors. He also describes how he implements color in his paintings to bring about certain effects, using one of his red-square paintings as an example, and he further explains why he even paints in the first place: to get people to open their eyes to see color in a new light. 

The clip begins with Albers speaking about the traditional understanding of color mixing: color A mixed with color B leads to the existence of a new color, i.e. color C.

Albers points out that sometimes the resulting color, C, can be like A and B in equal measure, or can be more like color B than color A, or can be more like color A than color B. Albers uses the analogy of the mother and father, giving rise to a child that has traits of both the mother and father, though as is often the case, to varying degrees.

Albers uses his clasped hands to represent color C and the individual hands, i.e. the right hand and the left hand, to represent the individual colors, either color A or color B.

Albers clarifies the color scheme of his red-square painting, which he is sitting beside. The painting’s outer, dark-brown color frames the painting's inner, light-red square. Albers then partly layers each color — i.e., the dark-brown of the outer band and the light-red of the inner square — with a translucent color, giving rise to 4 colors total. 

Albers says that he’s explaining his color strategy not to sell you his painting but rather to get you to see his painting from a new perspective, inviting you to see his 4-color painting as a 3-color painting instead. Albers seems to be suggesting that the painting's dark brown and light red are covered by the same translucent color, giving rise to 4 colors total because of its translucent nature. 

Albers says that viewers should notice that the resulting colors in his red-square painting are opaque, not transparent. Yet, he’d like viewers to be "creative" in how they view his piece -- that the translucent layer is partly a result of the dark brown and partly a result of the light red. And when Albers gets viewers to do this, to see his colors in this "creative" manner, he will have accomplished what he set out to do, which was not to create paintings but to get others to view color in a new light.