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

CLASS 6: What if Color Becomes the Subject?Cézanne, Matisse, Kandinsky, Malevich, Mondrian, Itten, Rothko, Pop Art

Part 1: From Representation to Abstraction

Color as Perception and Science

Key Concepts

  • Color as Structure

  • Modulation

  • Planes of Color

  • Geometry

  • Perception

  • Observation

  • Form

  • Modernism

Works

  • Mont Sainte-Victoire

  • The Card Players

Henri Matisse

How far can color move away from what we see?

Works

  • The Red Studio

Key Concepts

  • Pure Color

  • Arbitrary Color

  • Simplification

  • Flatness

  • Pattern

  • Decorative Space

  • Color as Structure

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire

Henri Matisse, The Red Studio, 1911

Part 2: Color as an Independent Language

Can color communicate without depicting?

Wassily Kandinsky

Works

  • Composition VII

  • Composition VIII

  • Several Circles

  • Yellow-Red-Blue

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923

Concepts

    • Abstract Color

    • Color as Language

    • Music

    • Rhythm

    • Harmony

    • Dissonance

    • Movement

    • Synesthesia

    • Non-Objective Art

    Color and Music

    Kandinsky increasingly thought about painting through ideas analogous to music:

    Rhythm

    Harmony

    Dissonance

    Movement

    Resonance

Part 3: When the Subject Disappears

What if there is no subject?

Kazimir Malevich

Works

  • Works

    • Black Square

    • White on White

    • Suprematist Composition

    Key Concepts

    • Suprematism

    • Geometric Abstraction

    • Non-Objective Art

    • Reduction

    • Pure Form

    • Pure Feeling

    • Absence of Representation

    • Painting as Object

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915

Part 4: Color as Relationship

What if color becomes a relationship between shapes, spaces and proportions?

Piet Mondrian

Works

  • Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow

  • Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow

  • Broadway Boogie Woogie

Key Concepts

  • Geometric Abstraction

  • Primary Colors

  • Black and White

  • Balance

  • Proportion

  • Rhythm

  • Grid

  • Spatial Relationships

  • Dynamic Equilibrium

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942–43

Part 5: Color as Interaction

Johannes Itten

Can color be studied, tested and experienced?

Bauhaus, 1919–1923

Itten approached color as something that could be explored through observation and experimentation.

Key Concepts

  • Color Relativity

  • Contrast

  • Harmony

  • Interaction

  • Color Relationships

  • Perception

  • Experimentation

Seven Color Contrasts

  • Hue

  • Light–Dark

  • Warm–Cool

  • Complementary

  • Simultaneous

  • Saturation

  • Quantity

Johannes Itten, Color Star

Johannes Itten, Color Sphere

Part 6: Color as Experience

Mark Rothko

What if color itself becomes the subject?

Works

  • No. 14

  • Orange and Yellow

  • No. 61 (Rust and Blue)

  • Untitled

Key Concepts

  • Color Field

  • Scale

  • Atmosphere

  • Immersion

  • Emotion

  • Silence

  • Spirituality

  • Color as Experience

Mark Rothko, No. 14, 1960

Part 7: Simplifying color

Pop Art

Color returns to recognizable images

Pop Art

Principle Artists

  • Andy Warhol

  • Roy Lichtenstein

  • Jasper Johns

  • Yayoi Kusama

Key Concepts

  • Repetition

  • Mass Production

  • Popular Culture

  • Celebrity

  • Advertising

  • Seriality

  • Flat Color

  • Mechanical Reproduction

  • Color as Commodity

  • Ben-Day Dots

  • Primary Colors

  • Comic Books

  • Mechanical Reproduction

  • Commercial Imagery

  • Appropriation

  • Symbol

  • Recognition

  • Representation

  • Repetition

  • Pattern

  • Dots

  • Infinity

  • Immersion

  • Optical Experience

  • Obsessive Mark-Making

  • Color as Environment

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, 1962

Jasper Johns, Flag, 1969

Yayoi Kusama, I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers (2023)

Part 8: From Light to Stylization

Principle Artists

  • Joaquín Sorolla ·

  • Maxfield Parrish ·

  • Coles Phillips ·

  • Eyvind Earle

Key Concepts

  • Light and Luminosity

  • Saturated Color

  • Optical Color

  • Layering

  • Limited Palette

  • Flat Color

  • Silhouette

  • Simplification

  • Stylization

  • Color as Atmosphere

Joaquin Sorolla, Beaching the Boat (Afternoon Light), 1903

  • Eyvind Earle, Silent Meadow, 1990

Part 8: From Image to Experience

Cinema · Psychedelic Posters · Advertising

Works

The Two Fridas

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace

The Broken Column

Roots

Key Concepts

  • High Saturation

    • Complementary Contrast

    • Optical Vibration

    • Flat Color

    • Color Grading

    • Mood

    • Symbolism

    • Brand Identity

    • Color as Communication

    • Color as Experience

Exercises: Subjective/Emotional Color studies of Apple and Sunset