assignment 5

Colour—abstraction, perception and modernity

1. Considering this week’s lecture and reading, "Colours of the Mind” by

John Gage, respond to the following question (approximately 150 - 250 words, as needed):

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

The understanding we have obtained through the experimentation and experiences of artists has greatly influenced the understanding of colour in our world today. Artists, utilizing many different techniques over the years have helped create the development of ‘colour vision’. Pushing the boundaries, the methods of experimentation the artists used came from the factor that art was no longer been seen as a way of storing images and become a more expressive form. Artists were then beginning to paint whatever and in any style they deem fit.

The knowledge the artists gained themselves mostly came from the research done by individuals such as Goethe. Goethe was investigating the affects of light/shade and colour. Looking into colour vision, expanded the different techniques artists used, and what they were painting, with paintings becoming more abstract and passionate. Colour helped play a vital role in allowing the artists to express themselves more freely. Some of these techniques involved simply just “try to forget what objects you have before you[1]” “merely think, here is a little square of blue”[2]. Ogden Rood then took this idea further, utilizing only dots to produce beautiful works of art, which appear simple from up close, but show tremendous beauty when admired from a distance, shown in the image bellow.

The experimentation of these different techniques is what I believe to be one of the main factors that have influenced the world of painting, and design today.

[3]

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[1] John Gage; colour and culture, practice and meaning from antiquity to abstraction. Page; 209

[2] John Gage; colour and culture, practice and meaning from antiquity to abstraction. Page; 209

[3] Ogden Rood; (1888) painting;  Georges Seurat, The Seine at Le Grande Jatte, 1888; found in Victoria university DSDN 171; lecture 5; Colour: abstraction, perception and modernity