Color And Culture

John Gage considers every conceivable aspect of the subject in a groundbreaking analysis of color in Western culture from the ancient Greeks until the late twentieth century. He describes the first theories of colour, articulated by philosophers from Democritus to Aristotle, and sub sequent attempts by the Romans and their Renaissance disciplines to organize it systematically or endow it with symbolic power. He unfolds its religious significance and its use in heraldry. He explores the experimental analysis of the spectrum undertaken by Newton and continued in the nineteenth century by Artists such as Seurat, traces The influence of Goethe's color theory, and considers the extraordinary theories and practices that attempted to unite color and music, or make color into an entirely abstract language of its own.

The twentieth century is often called the period when color has finally come into its own. This is the first-ever attempt to examine seriously what this claim means, and to suggest answers to many perennial questions about the role of color in Western art and though t .It will be of consuming interest to artists, historians of art and culture, psychologists, linguists, and anyone fascinated by this most inscapable and evocative element of our perceptions.