COLOR

Introduction to Theory

BLUE

Greek Isles – Blue of the Mediterranean Sea influences color or architecture and ornament

Greek Isles: Greek Flag: blue & white

Greek Orthodox Church dome

RED

RED

Pleasant day on Mars

Yellow

Hebrew Tradition During this time a Jewish mysticism and theosophy seems to have suddenly appeared from origins which remain a mystery, and are the subject of some

research. The secret teaching with the appealing name "kabbalah" originates in the Mediaeval Judaism of the Provence and is, to the outsider, unusually

fascinating. The 32 ways of the "kokma", the wisdom of God, point not only to the 22 consonants of the Hebrew alphabet, but also to the sum of the ten so-called

original numbers, the ten "sephiroth". In the kabbalistic diagram shown, both sets of numbers have a chromatic role to play. Ten circles are connected by 22

lines to create seven planes which can be visualised, combined and passed through in various ways

Astrological Connections

The question now is whether the colour-circle and the signs of the zodiac can be linked in some way. The sequence of colours can be portrayed within a circle in two ways: we can either move around its circumference, or across the circle from the centre to the outside.

Islamic tradition In the Islamic tradition, the duality of light and shadow forms the

basis on which colour is seen. In this primarily metaphysical view of the phenomenon of colour, light and shadow represent the latent

possibilities of heavenly archetypes. In light, God is manifest as the source of all being, and the gifts which light brings are beauty,

purity, brilliance, greatness, power and benefit — "rang", the Arabic word for colour, is the equivalent of all these meanings.

Liturgical tradition In both in the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, signify the character of the various seasons and feast days, and thus symbolise the religious year. The colours find their use on the vestments worn during the service. Their application is not always governed by a general rule. Often relating to a late-Mediaeval custom, they can vary from region to region.

Additive Color Subtractive Color

Color Wheel Generally attributed to Itten & Munsell

J. W. von Goethe The problem of colours had occupied Goethe from 1791. His work Theory of Colours appeared in 1810 in Germany.

Color globe

Color: Hue, Chroma, Saturation, Intensity, Value

Munsell 3D Color wheel

One of the most widespread—and nowadays most utilized—colour-systems, this system was developed by the American painter Charles Munsell between 1905 and 1916.

Munsell 3D color wheel - detail

Ostwald Color Wheel 4 Primary Colors: YELLOW, RED, BLUE, GREEN

Richard Waller The system was introduced in 1686 in a Catalogue of Simple and Mix Colours in England.

Basic colors: Yellow, red, blue and green in a Square form. (Related systems: Kircher — Newton — Goethe) Summary: Four basic colours—yellow, red, blue and green—are arranged on the sides of a square, the diagonals of which produce the mixtures.

Isaac Newton The famous circular arrangement of spectral colours appeared in 1704 in his central work: Opticks in England. Basic colours: Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan blue, ultramarine blue,

violet blue. Arranged in a circular application for Physics

Ewald Hering In 1878, the physiologist Ewald Hering published his On the Theory of Sensibility to Light in Vienna, which opposed the purely phenomenal or physical understanding of colours. Hering was more concerned with the introspective aspects of colours. He also spent considerable time investigating the eye's perception of three-dimensional space. His work on colour refers to the problem of yellow in the three-colour-system, for example. According to Helmholtz, yellow was of necessity produced from a mixture of red and green, but this—so Hering realized—was not in line with human experience. The sensation of yellow is elementary, and not traceable to a mixture. Hering states that there are, in addition to black and white, four colours which "can occur without a tinge of another colour" and recommends that "each visual perception" can be seen as a "mixture of the six basic sensations" which oppose each other and thus interact.

Edwin E. Boring This phenomenological colour-solid by the American psychologist Edwin G. Boring dates from 1929. A method based not on experimentation but introspection is nowadays referred to as a "phenomenological analysis", the word "phenomenon" (literally, "appearing") therefore implying that a distinction must be drawn between an appearance and the event which that appearance proclaims. A double pyramid with back and white tips and a square base with psychology’s four "proto" or "original" colours at the corner points places particular emphasis on interconnecting axes which all extend towards the central grey axis.

Ostwald Color Wheel A three dimensional model of color demonstrating tinting and shading with full range of

saturations.

Wilhelm Ostwald, the Nobel-prize winner for chemistry, compiled his Die Farbenfibel (The Colour Primer) in 1916/17 in the hope of developing a better understanding of their

perceived harmonies.

Ostwald Color Wheel Section study:

Each color (hue) in the 3D color wheel

model demonstrates this range of tinting (hue + white) and

shading (hue + black) showing the full

range of values and intensities of the particular hue.

Ostwald Color Wheel in various saturations/intensities

Complimentary Colors

Colors opposite each other on the color wheel (Munsell).

Complimentary Color Scheme – seen in sunset

Afghanistan textile – complimentary color scheme

Neutralizing Color – Mixing Compliments

Sol Lewitt – Wall-drawing, New York Use of complimentary colors to create vibration