Not Goethe Triangle

I was looking through my copy of Josef Albers’ complete, Interaction of Color in 2011 getting ready to speak to some kids about color theory. I don’t know how many people have noticed that the Goethe Triangle (one example from internet above) appears in some of the small paperback editions of Interaction of Color but not all of them. The triangle is one of the silkscreens in the reissued version of the complete original. Per Albers' request, the now famous silk screen was prepared by Rackstraw Downes and another Yale student for the original, handmade Interaction of Color, published by Yale in 1963. Albers first saw the triangle in a small german book on color theory written by Carry van Biema. There are notes at the Albers Foundation that document Albers' search for Biema’s book as he was preparing the final copy of Interaction of Color. Curiously, it turns out that Biema "made up" the Goethe triangle and if I remember correctly how the late Fred Horowitz explained this to me, Albers knew about the mistake before he died, but only well after his book had legitimized Biema’s creation and furthered awareness of the "triangle". I only bring this up because the triangle is all over the internet and in college art classrooms – even at Brown University, gaining momentum still. 
I didn't create this post to simply set the record straight. The best part of this little tale is that if the "Goethe triangle" helps people learn, then it doesn’t really matter who created the first version and I think Albers would agree that its legitimacy is irrelevant. The error somehow drives home Albers' own point about how complex and problematic it is to teach color theory; how personal the experience of color can be for anyone who takes its study seriously. Albers was a big advocate of practice and experience before theory. This was in opposition to Itten who was determined to develop a science for establishing a color course,  “facts” and theory as a prerequisite to the playful hands-on learning. (You can observe Itten's stance by noting the flow of the layout of "The Art of Colour.") The triangle, legitimate or not, begs to be reproduced by hand which invites a conversation about whether colors really mix and behave as described by theory or "fact". (you'll have to decide the answer for yourself.) Some people might be surprised to learn that for all of those fellow artists Albers embraced: Klee, Monet, Cezanne, Kandinsky, Goethe, Albers was not supportive of either Itten or Hans Hofmann.