bowman.james: DSDN 171 Assignment Five

Colour Vision

Experiments have developed the human understanding of colour. Newton’s math driven colour wheel and prism experiment created the first colour theory and laid down the foundation for future artists.

Simultaneous contrasts explained why colours appeared different when put beside other colours. How the eye perceived certain colours became increasingly mysterious. Goethe’s ‘after image’ experiment, showed the interaction between light and shadow. It was an interior response from the eye rather than the influences of external colour and light. Scientists began to investigate the effects of the brain’s perception towards colours when they were exposed to varying conditions of lighting. Runge created the first ever colour sphere which showed all the colours and the different shades branching from them. He attempted to extract meanings from his paintings showing various times of day. He had a symbolic intent and manifested the Christian truths. Turner in his paintings showed the relationship between light and dark expressing a subjective experience.

The impressionist artists painted what they want with no narrative at all, while experimenting with emotions, at the precise moment of seeing. Post-impressionist artist developed this further. By using colour in a different way, they tried to create an inner experience to reach the soul directly. Vincent van Gogh portrayed the state of mind at a certain point of time by optically mixing colours.

Using these experiments with colour enhanced the knowledge of human understanding towards colour vision and theory. Impressionist and Post-impressionist artists experimented with the process of perception and how things felt not how they looked.

Gage, John. (1993). Colour and Culture- Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction. London: Thames and Hudson.

Petty, Margaret Maile. (10 August, 2011). Lecture 5: DSDN 171. Retrieved from School of Design.