Welcome to the launch of my blog, realm of color. The realm of color is a commonplaces site wherein are collected notes and pictures on the use of color by artists, past and present; the pedagogy of coloring (as a painter teaches painting or a draughtsman teaches drawing, so I teach coloring); the writing on color by artists, philosophers, poets, etc.; and the thinking about color as it operates in perception, nature, society, and culture. You will find here too a bibliography of books, films, and articles on color, art, visuality, culture, etc., and links to artists and thinkers for whom color is central to their work, as well as a glossary with definitions of color terms and information.
I am taking the color red, as the starting point for this first post, in honor of this year’s World AIDS Day (December 1, 2014): getting to zero. Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths. The red ribbon which represents one’s commitment to working to raise awareness about AIDS was the brain-child of a group of artists in my hometown of New York City. The Visual AIDS Artists Caucus created a visual symbol to demonstrate compassion for people living with AIDS and their caregivers. The color red was chosen for its, “connection to blood and the idea of passion — not only anger, but love, like a valentine.” The “ethical consumerism” project (RED) also uses the color as a logo/brand.
This first excerpt is from Chroma, the last book (also a commonplace book) by the amazing artist and filmmaker, Derek Jarman, who wrote this as he was dying of AIDS in 1994. (Is it a curious coincidence-or not!-that color was also the subject of Goethe’s last book, Theory of Colour, and Wittgenstein’s final book, Remarks on Colour?)
In his chapter ‘On Seeing Red,’ Jarman writes:
“Red is a moment in time. Blue constant. Red is quickly spent. An explosion of intensity. It burns itself. Disappears like fiery sparks into the gathering shadow. To warm ourselves in the long dark winter when the red has departed. We welcome the robin redbreast, and the red berries that sustain life. Dress in the Coca Cola red of Father Christmas, the bringer of gifts. We sit around the table and sing ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘The Holly and the Ivy’. ‘The holly bears a berry as bright as any blood.’ Our winter faces are dyed a cheerful red. We preserve the red like a flame. Life is red.”
So we see what red can mean. We know what red is. Or do we? Josef Albers noted in his textbook, Interaction of Colour:
“If one says red (the name of the colour) and there are fifty people listening it can be expected there will be fifty reds in their minds, and one can be sure that all these reds will be different.”
But more on this in my next post as we look beyond color as a symbol or an idea to how we actually see color.
Meanwhile, please send me interesting links and information about color that you come across!
And wear the red ribbon so we can get to zero!
realm of color 