Colour Literacy Forum #9 Colour Through Time: Histories, Meanings, Practices

The Colour Literacy Forum is an international, collaborative effort to align university-level colour education with current design needs in the culture. The goal of the Forum is to connect faculty, students, and administrators with interdisciplinary professionals to provide cutting-edge research, curricula, tools, and resources.

The Colour Literacy Forum is a virtual gathering featuring presentations and discussions related to updating and expanding colour education in art and design programs at the university level. The forum convenes for three events per year to share information and offer dynamic networking opportunities for participants.

Register using the button at left.

For complete details visit Colour Literacy Project.

Colour Through Time: Histories, Meanings, Practices

Colour in Context Series - Part 3

Talk 1: WERNER’S NOMENCLATURE OF COLOURS

First published in 1814 and expanded in 1821, Patrick Syme’s edition of Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours attempted to establish a universal colour reference system to help identify, classify and represent species from the natural world. Werner’s set of 54 colour standards was enhanced by Syme with the addition of colour swatches and further references from nature, taking the total number of hues classified to 110. The resulting resource proved invaluable not only to artists but also to zoologists, botanists, mineralogists and anatomists. In his talk, Patrick Baty will explain how Abraham Werner developed his original system and the Hauptfarben – the eight principal colours – which were modified by a descriptive word and further divided into hues of different depths. This ‘language’ to describe colour was employed by many subsequent authors. Until the recent publication of a facsimile copy of Werner’s Nomenclature it was a work known to very few. However, in spite of its small size and scope, it is important for being the first of a series of colour reference systems that led to much bigger things. It progressed via a convoluted route that included sets of colours designed for French chrysanthemum growers and British horticulturalists; and that included three British Standard colour ranges, whilst taking in more specialised collections for camouflage purposes and primary schools. Baty will also focus on the earlier uses to which this small volume was put and recount how Charles Darwin found it invaluable on his two voyages on HMS Beagle.

Patrick Baty has an artistic background. Two great grandparents were the artists Robert Bevan and Stanisława de Karłowska. Since leaving the Army he has pursued a career in the decoration of historic buildings. His work covers research, paint analysis, colour & technical advice. Projects have ranged from King Henry VIII’s heraldic Beasts and London social housing estates to major structures such as Tower Bridge. He lectures on a variety of subjects and has written numerous articles and two books - ‘The Anatomy of Colour’ and ‘Nature’s Palette’, both published by Thames & Hudson. He has co-curated several exhibitions and is currently researching the artist members of that extraordinary regiment - The Artists Rifles. He and his wife run the family business Papers and Paints, in Chelsea.

Talk 2: LAPIS LAZULI AND SOME MEANINGS OF A BLUE

The modern approach to colours has created abstract colour spaces that provide order and facilitate the exploitation of numerous colours. This talk suggests that the modern ordering of many colours has been achieved by impoverishing each individual colour, by disregarding each colour’s unique biography. The talk uses one colour - ultramarine blue - to illustrate the biography of a colour and to indicate how that biography impacted on the use and meaning of a colour. It will interpret a medieval pigment recipe in the light of pre-modern science to explain the traditional uses of this rich blue colour, both inside and outside the artists’ studio. Such a material- based approach to colour is consistent with current anthropological approaches to cultural artefacts. It is easily applicable to pre-modern European cultures and global Indigenous cultures, where high degrees of material literacy can be assumed. It can also, however, be applied as a critical tool to the use of colour in the modern West, where neither material nor colour literacy can be assumed.

Until 2022, Spike Bucklow was Professor of Material Culture at the University of Cambridge. He was originally trained as a chemist but has always had an interest in the arts and has since spent twenty years working on the oldest paintings in Britain. His in-depth examination of great paintings has resulted in ground-breaking research into the science and craft of artists from the late 13th century to the early 20th century. He is now a maker and writer. His books on artists and their methods include; The Alchemy of Paint (2009), The Riddle of the Image (2014), Red (2016), The Anatomy of Riches (2018), Children of Mercury (2020) and The Art Beneath (2024).

Talk 3: WHY HISTORY MATTERS IN COLOUR EDUCATION AND PRACTICE IN POST-COMPULSORY HE

In some parts of the world, particularly in UK and some other western environments, there has been a shift in the way higher education is conceived for creative disciplines like art and design over the past 40 years. The focus on instruction and skills teaching that might have been common in the mid-20th century, and in the minds of general populace, has shifted to more student-centred learning that downplays the idea of a universal meta-narratives or a canon of knowledge being central to a discipline. This is despite the development of theories about the conditions for creativity that recognise the vital role of knowledge and deliberate practice for advances and innovation in fields of artistic endeavour. Where does this leave what we know about colour in historical contexts? What do we need to know
to practice well? What is expected of creative practitioners in respect of their colour knowledge by the broader public? After setting the scene in relation to knowledge frameworks for qualifications, Judith Mottram will explore the case for the utility of knowledge of the historical context of colour for contemporary learning and practice across creative fields. This will draw on a review of the global field that has informed the shaping of a volume on colour for the Blackwell Companions to Art History series.

Judith Mottram is Professor of Visual Arts at Lancaster University in the UK. Originally trained as a painter, she completed a PhD in 1988 about influences on the work of contemporary painters while they were undertaking studio degrees at Masters level. Her career included working in London art galleries before roles in academia. After leading an undergraduate degree in Painting at Loughborough University, and being Director of Research for the School of Art & Design, she went on to be Professor and Dean of Art & Design at Nottingham Trent University, Dean of the School of Material at the Royal College of Art, and then Director of the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts. In 2014 she was on the UK Research Excellence Framework Panel for Art and Design: History, Theory & Practice, and in 2021 as deputy chair, and on the Hong Kong panel for their Research Assessment Exercise in 2020. She is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Visual Arts Practice, the Journal of the International Colour Association, and the Journal for Textiles Design Research and Practice. She is currently working on the Blackwell Companion to Color, which she is co- editing with Professor Paul Smith of Warwick University.