painting the sun

“I am painting the sun, which is nothing but pure painting.”

—Robert Delaunay, April 1913; quoted in Color in Art, by John Gage, 2006.

early holograms

“The possibility of producing light of a single wavelength (coherent light) by means of the laser, developed in the 1960s, made it possible for the first time to produce on a flat surface images of considerable depth. Coherent light is, of course, monochromatic, and all early holograms were likewise monochromatic, usually recorded and replayed with light of the longer wavelengths, red or yellow. But in 1969 the American holographer Stephen Benton devised a method for recording all the spectral colours in a single hologram, which he called the ‘Rainbow Hologram’, and it is this type, which can only represent a relatively shallow space, that is familiar to us from banknotes or credit cards.”

—John Gage, from Color in Art, 2006.

the pool ablaze

“I came to the shore of a waterway:
Dear God, what brave embellishment!

Embellishing those waters deep,
Banks of pure beryl greet my gaze;
Sweetly the eddies swirl and sweep
With a rest and a rush in murmuring phrase;
Stones in the stream their colors steep,
Gleaming like glass where sunbeam strays,
As stars, while men of the marshlands sleep,
Flash in winter from frosty space;
For every one was a gem to praise,
A sapphire or emerald opulent,
That seemed to set the pool ablaze,
So brilliant their embellishment.’

—the medieval Pearl, translated from the Middle English by Marie Borroff, 1977.

purchase your pearl

“‘I bid you turn from the world insane
And purchase your pearl immaculate.’”

—the medieval Pearl, translated from the Middle English by Marie Borroff, 1977.

Ultramarine

“The blue that is still the most expensive natural pigment is manufactured from the hard semi-precious stone lapis lazuli, until recently mined only in Afghanistan; and it is still generally called by the name given to it in late-medieval France and Italy, ultramarine, because it came to western Europe from ‘beyond the sea’.”

–John Gage, from Color in Art, 2006.

a faded yellow

“Through the woods they could see a long, low-eaved, weather-beaten building. Through the trees it was a faded yellow. Closer the window frames were painted green. The paint was peeling.”

—Ernest Hemingway, from In Our Time, 1925.

heavy yellow shells

“He was sitting on his bed now, cleaning a shotgun. He pushed the magazine full of the heavy yellow shells and pumped them out again. They were scattered on the bed.”

—Ernest Hemingway, from In Our Time, 1925.

agent of the mind

“One must respect black. Nothing prostitutes it. It does not please the eye or awaken another sense. It is the agent of the mind even more than the beautiful colour of the palette or prism.”

—French Symbolist Odilon Redon, (1840–1916); quoted in Color in Art, by John Gage, 2006. Pictured is Louise Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral, 1958.

a ‘distracting embellishment’

“No colors. ‘Color blinds.’ ‘Colors are an aspect of appearance, so only of the surface.’ Colors are barbaric, unstable, suggest life, ‘cannot be completely controlled’ and ‘should be concealed.’ Colors are a ‘distracting embellishment.’’

—Ad Reinhardt, Rule 6 of his Twelve Rules for a New Academy, 1957; quoted in Color in Art, by John Gage, 2006.

[Grey]

“[Grey] makes no statement whatever, it evokes neither feelings nor associations; it is really neither visible nor invisible. . . . To me, grey is the welcome and only possible equivalent for indifference, non-commitment, absence of opinion, absence of shape.”

—Gerhard Richter, 1975; quoted in Color in Art, by John Gage, 2006.