Chromophobia

Download or read book Chromophobia written by David Batchelor and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2000-09 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Batchelor coins the term "chromophobia"--A fear of corruption or contamination through color--in a meditation on color in western culture. Batchelor analyzes the history of, and the motivations behind, chromophobia, from its beginnings through examples of nineteenth-century literature, twentieth-century architecture and film to Pop art, minimalism and the art and architecture of the present day. He argues that there is a tradition of resistance to colour in the West, exemplified by many attempts to purge color from art, literature and architecture. Batchelor seeks to analyze the motivations behind chromophobia, considering the work of writers and philosophers who have used color as a significant motif, and offering new interpretations of familiar texts and works of art.

Download or read book The Luminous and the Grey written by David Batchelor and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2014-02-15 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Color surrounds us: the lush green hues of trees and grasses, the variant blues of water and the sky, the bright pops of yellow and red from flowers. But at the same time, color lies at the limits of language and understanding. In this absorbing sequel to Chromophobia—which addresses the extremes of love and loathing provoked by color since antiquity—David Batchelor charts color’s more ambiguous terrain. The Luminous and the Grey explores the places where color comes into being and where it fades away, probing when it begins and when it ends both in the imagination and in the material world. Batchelor draws on neuroscience, philosophy, novels, films, and artists’ writings—as well as his own experience as an artist working with color—to understand how we see and use colors. He considers the role of color in creation myths, industrial chemistry, and optics, and examines the particular forms of luminosity that saturate the modern city. Following this inquiry into the hues that we face every day, he turns to one that is both color and noncolor: grey itself, which he reveals is as much a mood, feeling, and existential condition as a shade that we experience with our eyes. Deftly argued, always thought-provoking, and ever entertaining, The Luminous and the Grey is a beautiful study of how we see and feel our multicolored world.

Download or read book What Color Is the Sacred? written by Michael Taussig and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past thirty years, visionary anthropologist Michael Taussig has crafted a highly distinctive body of work. Playful, enthralling, and whip-smart, his writing makes ingenious connections between ideas, thinkers, and things. An extended meditation on the mysteries of color and the fascination they provoke, What Color Is the Sacred? is the next step on Taussig’s remarkable intellectual path. Following his interest in magic and surrealism, his earlier work on mimesis, and his recent discussion of heat, gold, and cocaine in My Cocaine Museum,this book uses color to explore further dimensions of what Taussig calls “the bodily unconscious” in an age of global warming. Drawing on classic ethnography as well as the work of Benjamin, Burroughs, and Proust, he takes up the notion that color invites the viewer into images and into the world. Yet, as Taussig makes clear, color has a history—a manifestly colonial history rooted in the West’s discomfort with color, especially bright color, and its associations with the so-called primitive. He begins by noting Goethe’s belief that Europeans are physically averse to vivid color while the uncivilized revel in it, which prompts Taussig to reconsider colonialism as a tension between chromophobes and chromophiliacs. And he ends with the strange story of coal, which, he argues, displaced colonial color by giving birth to synthetic colors, organic chemistry, and IG Farben, the giant chemical corporation behind the Third Reich. Nietzsche once wrote, “So far, all that has given colour to existence still lacks a history.” With What Color Is the Sacred? Taussig has taken up that challenge with all the radiant intelligence and inspiration we’ve come to expect from him.

Download or read book Colour written by David Batchelor and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 2008 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writings on color from modernism to the present, with contributions writers from Baudelaire to Baudrillard, surveying art from Paul Gauguin to Rachel Whiteread.

Download or read book Color Theory written by Aaron Fine and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-12 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Giving an overview of the history of color theory from ancient and classical cultures to contemporary contexts, this book explores important critical principles and provides practical guidance on the use of color in art and design. Going beyond a simple recitation of what has historically been said about color, artist and educator Aaron Fine provides an intellectual history, critiquing prevailing Western ideas on the subject and challenging assumptions. He analyses colonialist and gendered attitudes, materialist and romanticist perspectives, spiritualist approaches to color, color in the age of reproduction, and modernist and post-modernist color strategies. Highlighted throughout are examples of the ways in which attitudes towards color have been impacted by the legacy of colonialism and are tied up with race, gender, and class. Topics covered include color models, wheels and charts, color interaction and theories of perception, with over 150 images throughout. By placing under-examined tenets of color theory such as the color wheel and color primaries within the Western industrial context that generated them, Fine helps you to connect color choices to color meanings and apply theory to practice.

Download or read book Sam Gilliam written by Jonathan P. Binstock and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2005-12-05 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fresh, intelligent, and insightful assessment of Sam Gilliam's lifetime achievements as an artist. Binstock accomplishes this through his penetrating critical examination of Gilliam's artistic development, innovations, and the complexities of his contribution both as an abstract and African-American artist.”—Valerie J. Mercer, author of Explorations in the 'City of Light' "Sam Gilliam: A Retrospective, which gives focus and definition to an artist critical to our understanding of how contemporary painting has evolved in this country, is a highly welcome publication."—Leslie King-Hammond, Dean of Graduate Studies, Maryland Institute College of Art "Sam Gilliam: A Retrospective is a thorough and serious assessment of a magisterial career. Meticulously examining Gilliam's ideas, aesthetics, influences, artistic process, and impact on other artists, it illuminates his brilliance and the important role played by his work in the recent history of American painting."—Maurice Berger, Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, The New School "Finally a comprehensive study of one of our most significant artists! Jonathan Binstock's erudite account of Sam Gilliam's innovations in the world of art fills a considerable void in our understanding of painterly abstraction. The art works themselves-cerebral, sentient, and fascinating-consummate the inquiry and make this book a visual delight."—Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History, Duke University "Binstock's writings on Sam Gilliam's art over the past four decades have placed the artist in the forefront of contemporary American art. In this new book, he recounts Gilliam's rise to an artist of international prominence and offers a concise history of contemporary art in Washington. A must read."—David D. Driskell, author of Two Centuries of Black American Art "This comprehensive text celebrates one of America's hidden national treasures. Gilliam's steadfast and unswerving commitment as an artist shines through his works, as in this account of them by Jonathan Binstock. What emerges here is a full-on profile of an artist and a black American."—Lowery Stokes Sims, President, The Studio Museum in Harlem

Download or read book Color written by Angela Dalle Vacche and published by In Focus: Routledge Film Readers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With case studies on such figures as Hitchcock, Godard and Almovodar, this anthology is devoted to the subject of colour in film and its history, production and technology. It is suitable for students starting a film studies course.