Color Visionand

Pointillism

Color

• Visible spectrum of light, as seen through a prism. (Newton’s experiment, 1671.)

Visible Light: Frequency and Wavelength

The Human EyeRod and cone cells in the retina.

Photoreceptors: Rods & Cones

• Rods: scotopic vision (in low light)• Cones: color vision

The Subtractive Color Model• Colors made by mixing

different pigments on the palette.

• Primary colors: red, yellow, blue

• Secondary colors: orange, green, violet

• Red + yellow + blue gives black.

Different cones respond to different wavelengths of light

The Additive Color Model

• Colors are made by combining different colors of light.

• Primary colors: red, green blue

• Secondary colors: cyan, magenta, yellow

• Red + green + blue gives white.

Example of Additive Color:

red + blue = magenta

Early Color Photography

James Clerk Maxwell, physicist (1831-1879)

Photograph below by Thomas Sutton, (1861)

Maxwell and Color Photography

• Ribbon was photographed three times, with different filters over the lens.

• Images were then projected simultaneously onto a screen.

19th c. Writings on Optics

Hermann von Helmholtz, Handbook of Physiological Optics

James Clerk Maxwell, Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873)

Interpretations Specifically for Artists:Michel Eugène Chevreul, The Principles of Harmony and Contrast

of Colours, and Their Applications to the Arts (1855)

Ogden Rood, Modern Chromatics, with Applications to Art and Industry (1879)

Charles Blanc, The Grammar of Painting and Engraving (1889)

Pointillism (Divisionism)

• Small dots of color produce a 2-d image.

• Optical mixing: at a distance, two colors fuse into a third.

• Neo-Impressionism: late 19th century. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

• First exhibit: 1884, at the Société des Artistes Indépendants, in Paris.

Georges Seurat, Boats, Low Tide, Grandcamp,1885. Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 32 1/8 in.

Georges Seurat, Circus Sideshow, 1887-1888,

Oil on canvas, 39 1/4 x 59 in.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,

Georges Seurat, 1884–1886Oil on canvas, 81.7 × 121.25 in.

Detail in Grande Jatte

On display, at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Paul Signac, Port of St. Tropez (1901)

Other Neo-Impressionists

Italian Divisionists

• Group of painters in Milan, 1891-1910.

• Inspired by French pointillism.

• Main contributors: Vittore Grubicy de Dragon,

Giovanni Segantini,

Gaetano Previati.

Giovanni Segantini, Return from the Woods, 1890

Dutch Luminists

• Group of painters in The Hague, 1880’s - 90’s.

• Also inspired by French pointillism.

• Main contributors: J. Thorn Prikker,

Piet Mondrian, Jan Toorop

Theo van Rijsselberghe.

Theo van Rijsselberghe, Family in an Orchard, 1890.

Oil on canvas, 115.5 x 163.5 cm.

Piet Mondrian, Windmill in

Sunlight, 1908.

Oil on canvas.

114 x 87 cm.

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone, 1888

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889. Oil on canvas, 73 × 92 cm.

A More Modern Takeon Pointillism

Sigmar Polke, Freundinnen, 1965-1966.

Photo Mosaics

• A photo mosaic is a photograph made of many smaller photographs.

• Requires mathematical algorithms to match not only color, but shape.

• Freeware available online: e.g. MacOSaiX, AndreaMosaic (windows)

Lewis Lavoie, ADAM - One Blood, Many Nations,

London, Royal Albert Hall (puzzle)