The brilliant history of color in art

Victoria Finlay

Book - 2014

"Journey from the Ice Age to the Digital Age with a surprising cast of characters on this worldwide tour of color in art. Students will discover the strange, intriguing, and humorous stories of their favorite colors, the science behind them, and how they forever changed the courses of art and history. Big questions will pique your students' curiosity: Why is the sky blue? Why are there seven colors in the rainbow? What is art, anyway? The Brilliant History of Color in Art is also a treasure trove of world art, from cave paintings to Roman treasures and Chinese dragon scrolls; to works by Titian and Michelangelo, Monet and Kandinsky, Rothko and Hockney; to contemporary sculpture and graffiti art. Many of the book's 166 spectac...ular images are from the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum."--Publisher's description.

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Subjects
Published
Los Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum 2014.
©2014
Language
English
Main Author
Victoria Finlay (author)
Physical Description
120 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 26 cm
Bibliography
Includes index
ISBN
9781606064290
  • 1. Earth and fire : Manganese black: art in the Ice Age
  • Red ocher: the sacred and dangerous in Australia
  • Egyptian blue: King Tut's infrared transmitter
  • Greek white: the myth of the white city
  • Yellow ocher: Apelles and slime
  • 2. Rocks, minerals, twigs, and bugs : Tyrian purple: Cleopatra's royal color
  • Cinnabar, vermilion, and minium: beautiful but deadly
  • Black ink: who needs color anyway?
  • Gold: medieval radiance
  • Green earth: unearthly undertones
  • The age of canvas: painting on sails
  • Ultramarine: from the Valley of the Stone
  • Cochineal: a new world color in art (and your lunch)
  • Logwood black: Puritans and pirates
  • Cobalt: blue at the scene of the crime
  • Lead white: the enchantress
  • Indigo: girl power in South Carolina
  • Gainsborough blue: never use blue in the center
  • Rose: Madame Pompadour's luxurious pink
  • Light: and the Age of Enlightenment
  • Titian blue: simply unbelievable
  • Indian yellow: Turner, cows, and mangoes
  • Madder red: inventing the color wheel
  • Graphite: pencil lead is not lead
  • Mummy brown: funeral for pharaohs
  • 3. Modern colors : Mauve: chemistry project gone wrong
  • Prussian blue: the blue that was supposed to be red
  • Emerald green: the mystery of the poisonous wallpaper
  • Black and white and sepia: what you can't see in photographs
  • Manganese violet: Monet goes outside
  • Chrome yellow: color from Siberia
  • Patent blue, tartrazine, and rose Bengal: mix with potatos for delicious color
  • Cadmium yellow: listening to colors with Kandinsky
  • Lithol red: endless journey of the eye
  • International Klein blue: this is not your blue
  • Orange 36 and violet 19: Lichtenstein and the rise of the superheroes
  • Painting with light: pixels as pigment.
Review by Library Journal Review

Finlay, a former arts editor for South China Morning Post and author (Color: A Natural History of the Palette; Jewels: A Secret History) presents a deceptively simple and accessible text that never pretends to be more than a conversational overview of the development and use of color in art. Yet, beginning with cave paintings and progressing casually through the centuries up to the present, the book provides a wealth of information, including brief forays into the science of color, that will leave a reader well informed and hungry for more. VERDICT Beautifully illustrated with examples, mostly drawn from the collections of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and rich with lesser-known anecdotes from art history, the book succeeds perfectly in walking a fine line between the educational and the entertaining to deliver a wholly satisfying and stimulating perspective. It will please new and veteran artists, those interested in historical tidbits, and newcomers to the field.-Mark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up-Who knew that colors have such fascinating stories to tell? Finlay does a wonderful job of describing, in clear, accessible, witty language, how artists around the world, from prehistoric times to the present, have used natural materials, including charcoal, soot, plants, insects, shells, and gems and minerals, to produce magnificent paint and ink colors that continue to dazzle. Today, though, synthetic paints and even computers produce an astonishing range of hues. Browsers and cover-to-cover readers will find some tantalizing information here. For example, Vincent van Gogh once ate his toxic chromium yellow paint; Santa Claus wasn't always clothed in red; thanks to Isaac Newton, there are seven colors in the rainbow; human and animal body wastes were once essential ingredients in color production; and some commonplace colors were created by sheer accident. The handsomely designed book includes 166 excellent reproductions of artworks, many from the collections of Los Angeles's J. Paul Getty Museum. It is filled with illuminating captions and sidebars; reproductions have been perfectly chosen and placed to illustrate the author's narratives; and a "brilliant history of color" is a compelling, readable account of humankind's yearning to express itself beautifully since the beginning of time. An illustration list and lengthy index are included. Recommended for large public library collections and for school libraries; useful in art classes, particularly in units on art history/appreciation, drawing, and painting.-Carol Goldman, Queens Library, NY (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.