Color Explorations Notes

JULY 13 - AUGUST 17; Every Monday

COURSE NOTES

Jump to:

CLASS 1: Where did color come from?

Color as material from the earth.

CLASS 2:  Can color imitate nature?
The Renaissance search for realism

CLASS 3: Can darkness be beautiful?
Baroque color and the drama of light

CLASS 4:What if color is light itself?
Romanticism, Japanese prints, Impressionism

CLASS 5: What if color expresses emotion instead of reality?
Van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch, Fauves

CLASS 6: CLASS 6: What if color becomes the subject?
Abstraction to pop art/ pop culture

CLASS 5: What if Color Expresses Emotion Instead of Reality?
Van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch, Fauves, Frida Kahlo

Part 1: Beyond Impressionism

Color as Perception and Science

Key Concepts

  • Pointillism

  • Divisionism

  • Optical Mixing

  • Simultaneous Contrast

  • Scientific Color Theory

  • Visual Perception

  • Harmony

Georges Seurat

Works

  • A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

  • Bathers at Asnières

  • The Circus

Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Georges Seurat, Bathers at Asnières

Part 2: Color as Emotion

Can color express the inner life of the artist?

Vincent Van Gogh

Works

  • The Night Café

  • The Bedroom

  • Starry Night

  • Self Portrati

  • Sunflowers

Vincent Van Gogh, The Bedroom, 1888

Vincent Van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1827

Concepts

  • Expressive Color

  • Complementary Contrast

  • Visible Brushwork

  • Impasto

  • Movement

  • Rhythm

  • Emotional Intensity

  • Color Temperature

Part 3: Color as Symbol and Memory

Gauguin and the Nabis

Can color represent ideas rather than appearances?

Paul Gauguin

Works

  • Vision After the Sermon

  • The Yellow Christ

  • Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

The Nabis

Principle Artists

  • Pierre Bonnard

  • Édouard Vuillard

  • Maurice Denis

  • Félix Vallotton

Key Concepts

  • Symbolic Color

  • Color as Memory

  • Interior Life

  • Pattern

  • Flatness

  • Japanese Prints

  • Psychological Atmosphere

  • Decorative Composition

Paul Gauguin, The Vision after the Sermon, 1888

Edouard Vuillard, The Green Interior, 1891

Felix Vallotton, Sunset, 1918

Part 4: Pablo Picasso

Blue Period

  • Monochromatic Palette

  • Blue-Green Harmony

  • Poverty

  • Melancholy

  • Limited Palette

Rose Period

  • Warm Palette

  • Muted Earth Colors

  • Human Tenderness

  • Circus Performers

  • Transition

Cubism

  • form

  • structure

  • space

  • multiple viewpoints

Guernica

  • Black/WhiteGray

  • Newspaper

  • Violence

  • Universal Symbolism

Pablo Picasso, La Vie, 1903

Pablo Picasso, Acrobat and Young Harlequin, 1905

Pablo Picasso, Woman with a Guitar, 1911

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

Part 5: Color as Psychological Experience

Edvard Munch

Key Works

  • The Scream

  • Madonna

  • The Dance of Life

  • Anxiety

  • The Sick Child

Key Concepts

  • Distortion

  • Emotional Landscape

  • Psychological Color

  • Anxiety

  • Isolation

  • Symbolism

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893

Edvard Munch, Madonna, 1894

Part 6: Color as Sensory Experience

Georgia O’Keeffe

Key Works

  • The Sunset

  • Blue and Green Music

  • Lake George

Key Concepts

  • Color as sensory experience

  • Magnification as immersion

  • Simplification & concentration

  • Observation into abstraction

  • Color transforms perception

Georgia O’Keeffe, The Sunset, 1916

Georgia O’Keeffe, Lake George Reflection, 1921

Part 7: Color as Liberation

The Fauves

Artists

  • Henri Matisse

  • André Derain

  • Maurice de Vlaminck

  • Raoul Dufy

Key Concepts

  • Pure Color

  • High Saturation

  • Arbitrary Color

  • Simplification

  • Decorative Space

  • Complementary Contrast

Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life, 1906

André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, 1906

Raoul Dufy, Paris, 1937

Part 8: Color as Identity

Frida Kahlo (Mexico)

Works

The Two Fridas

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace

The Broken Column

Roots

Key Concepts

  • Pure Color

  • High Saturation

  • Arbitrary Color

  • Simplification

  • Decorative Space

  • Complementary Contrast

Amrita Sher-Gil (India)

Works

  • Three Girls

  • Bride's Toilet

  • South Indian Villagers Going to Market

Frida Khalo, The Two Fridas, 1939

Amrita Sher-Gil, Three Girls, 1935

Exercises: Subjective/Emotional Color studies of Apple and Sunset