The color

1. Color: reflection of light and the color wheel

The color is a visual perception that occurs in the brain and is captured through the photoreceptors that record the different wavelengths that are within the ‘visible spectrum of light’. The brain receives the physical stimulus and then processes the information to generate the perception of color. For example, at the extremes of the red color spectrum, there are infrared rays and at the violet one, ultraviolet rays, which are located outside the human perceptible range.

Color originates from light. When passing through a glass prism, it breaks down into the different ranges of the solar spectrum. A common example in nature is the rainbow.

This information is collected on the color wheel, showing a classification of colors into primary colors and their different tones, in what is commonly known as secondary, tertiary, and quaternary colors. In addition, other perceptive attributions of colors are recorded as subtractive and additive; Those that are based on sensations and human experience are called warm colors -they are on the scale of reds, yellows, oranges- and cold colors — on the scale of blues, greens, violets -; and according to their combinations, in harmonic colors or by contrast, among others. Black and white are identified as neutral.

2. Physical color and pigment color

There is a difference between pigment color and light color. Pigment or physical color is the material color of acrylics, oils, crayons, inks. The light colors are what we see on the screens of computers, televisions, cellphones. This distinction of supports is based on the chromatic range of the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key). An example of the difference between the two is that the first corresponds to digital media, and the second to printing on paper, Plexiglas, aluminum, etc. It is common to find digital artworks in contemporary art, made on the computer and then printed using the CMYK system. This type of tool has opened up new possibilities in the conception of the image.

3. Color: conventions and emotions

There are many studies that have been carried out about the power that color has on emotions and human behavior. Each one reflects a particularity that makes them have a special meaning for human beings. We usually talk about warm and cold colors, harmonic colors, by contrast. In the field of psychology, color is attributed the ability to stimulate states of joy, sadness, serenity, displeasure. Its meaning also varies according to culture, since red in the Western culture is associated with life, passion, security, celebration, in the East it is usually linked to ceremonial situations, while in South Africa it is related to mourning.

Through design and advertising, color has a deep impact on daily life, and on the way that products and services are promoted: large planes of yellow powerfully attract attention, ochres are common in food services, blues reflect trust and security. Thus, readings have been built for each tone that motivate people or potential buyers. In society certain conventions are maintained, let’s say, for example, traffic lights, traffic signals.

4. Color in the History of art

In the Art History, especially since the classical period, color was contained by tectonic forms, that is, by closed and outlined forms. After Romanticism, the expression of color began to have an increasing presence in art. But it was with Impressionism that artists considered a new vision of painting through the ‘impression’ of forms. In this search, the changing quality of light and its impact on color and shapes, was a spearhead, to generate another way of representing reality. The artists exchanged the art workshop space for the execution of rapid brushstrokes outdoors. They highlighted the instability of color according to the hours of the day and the periods of the year.

In the investigations that continued at the beginning of the 20th century with the new isms, both in the figurative and abstract aspects, color had a relevant role. It is seen in the emotional strength of the figures of Fauvism and Expressionism. In gestural or geometric abstractionism, color is separated from nature, and freed from any narration anchored to reality. As an element of visual expression, it began to have its own foundation, associated with music in the case of Vasili Kandinsky, theosophy with Piet Mondrian, or Auguste Herbin’s alphabet of colors, shapes, and music, among many others.

5. The relativity of color and physical color in art

Josef Albers was one of the artists trained at the Bauhaus School, who studied the relativity of color: the dialogue between two tones of blue is different, when they are close to a red or a yellow. In each situation the color ‘feels’ differently. Albers proposed the concept of the relativity of color in painting, which occurs especially in the areas of color contact, in which a new tone arises generated by a physiological effect of the retina. It is an ephemeral perception that remains for a short time in the eye.

Other artists delved into this research. In kinetic art, Jesús Soto (Venezuela, 1923 — France, 2005), dematerialized the support, superimposing planes or using nylon threads, thus generating the vibration of color. Other artists separated themselves from the canvas as a support and conceived their work based on physical color. Among the most emblematic, we could mention Carlos Cruz-Diez (Venezuela, 1923 — France, 2019) and James Turrel (USA, 1943) who have aimed their work at color as a perceptual and sensory phenomenon. Their works are an unstable and ephemeral event, which requires the movement or presence of the person, time and space to be completed.