Blog Assignment 5

“Colours of the mind”

How has the experience and experimentation of artist influenced our understanding of colour and the development of a theory of ‘colour vision’?

I believe that experimentation with colour by artists has definitely influenced the modern design world though centuries of experience and scientific theory with ‘colour vision’. The first stages of understanding colour came through Newton’s discovery of the ‘colour spectrum’ in 1704 (Petty,M.M, 2011). From this came the ‘colour wheel’ from opticks also developed in 1704. Newton’s theory lasted over 200 years and is still largely present in todays art theories.

However there was an opposition to Newton’s theory, this was made by Johann Geothe, a German scientist who was interested by ‘after image’ the theory that images are internally imprinted in the mind. Alongside Geothe’s theory, was the idea of simultaneous contrast. Developed by Michel Chevreui, this was when two identical colours placed on different coloured backgrounds would appear as dissimilar as possible. It was around this time that art would change and the way the world viewed art completely reformed. Traditional art was starting to be broken apart as abstraction of objects took over. Artists such as Kandinsky and British painter J.W.M Turner turned true paintings and representations into abstracted work and displayed the emotions within what the artist felt. This is shown in Turners paintings ‘shade and darkness- the evening of the deluge’ 1843, and ‘light and colour- the morning after the deluge’ 1843, (slide 17 in lecture) where there are no clear objects in these paintings, instead colour is the main focus in showing emotion and movement in these paintings. 

The theories that came from these artists above are connected with todays art and design, in the way colour is used to evoke emotion and as a result of these artists, future art has no boundaries or restrictions.

Petty, M, M.( 2011), Lecture 5 Colour, perception, and Abstraction, Victoria University ,Te aro Campus.