Arthur Bliss
“Without the actual use of color or light, the English composer Arthur Bliss wrote ‘A Colour Symphony’ having four movements. Here Bliss sought to convey the musical and emotional impression of four colors.
‘I. Purple: The Colour of Amethysts, Pageantry, Royalty and Death.
II. Red: The Colour of Rubies, Wine, Revelry, Furnaces, Courage and Magic.
III. Blue: The Colour of Sapphires, Deep Water, Skies, Loyalty, and Melancholy.
IV. Green: The Colour of Emeralds, Hope, Youth, Joy, Spring and Victory.’
The symphony was written in 1922, first presented in Gloucester Cathedral, and revised by the composer in 1932.”
—Tom Douglas Jones, from The Art of Light and Color, 1972.
“I want it all azure”
“Among musicians, Liszt is credited with a number of pet phrases: ‘More pink here, if you please.’ ‘That is too black.’ ‘I want it all azure.’ Beethoven is said to have called B minor the black key. Schubert likened E minor ‘unto a maiden robed in white with a rose-red bow on her breast.’. . . ‘Debussy wrote: ‘I realize that music is very delicate, and it takes, therefore, the soul at its softest fluttering to catch these violet rays of emotion.’”
—Tom Douglas Jones, from The Art of Light and Color, 1972.
a psycho-physiological creative process
“The beauty of the visual world around us exists only in ourselves! Translation of the given visual information, at a distance, as nerve impulses, into a richness of color and form, is a psycho-physiological creative process.”
—Franz Gerritsen, from his Theory and Practice of Color: A Color Theory Based on Laws of Perception, 1974, translation by Ruth de Vriendt.
the sight organ as we know it
“Very primitive forms of life have been able to orient themselves to sunlight, through the development of light sensitive spots on their skin-surface, such as the light sensitive cells of worms. The sea star also has light sensitive spots on the ends of its star arms. Molluscs and ringworms have a more protected beaker-eye, whereby the light sensitive cells lie in an indentation in the skin. Inkfish even have two convex beaker eyes which are filled with sea-water. The beaker opening can be made larger or smaller through a circular muscle. Other kinds of eyes in primitive life forms are sealed over with mucus.
Higher life forms have transparent tissue over the opening, which is somewhat convex in order to collect the light waves on the back of the indentation (the retina); this is what is found in more highly developed sorts of inkfish and snails. The embyological development of vertebrate animals shows that the eye is formed by a bulge, the inside of a part of the central nervous system, pushed out, instead of the surface indentation pushed in of more primitive life forms. The sight organ has evolved, via primitive life forms, through the qualities of sunlight into the sight organ as we know it. Therefore, when we want to judge a color, we use light which has the qualities of sunlight, as we experience it after it passes through the atmosphere.”
—Franz Gerritsen, from his Theory and Practice of Color: A Color Theory Based on Laws of Perception, 1974, translation by Ruth de Vriendt.
line spectra
“A line spectrum has emission only in certain, sometimes very narrow, wavelength areas, in contrast to a continuous spectrum. Sodium and mercury vapor gas discharge lamps, among others, have this kind of line spectrum. . . .
Neon tubes, as used for illuminated advertising and traffic lights, also have line spectra.
Neon gas is used for red light, and mercury gas for blue light, within transparent glass tubes. Subtractive mixing occurs in the colored transparent tubes, part of the spectrum of the light source is absorbed by the colored glass. Yellow glass absorbs so much of the “blue” mercury lines that mostly “green” can pass through and become visible. “Neon” light adverstising (the name “neon” is used for neon and for mercury tubes) was shown at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1937, when for the first time fluorescent powders were coated on the insides of the tubes. A large assortment of colors was produced by making use of different fluorescent powders. This invention was the start of the development which led to our fluorescent tubes, for lighting purposes.”
—Franz Gerritsen, from his Theory and Practice of Color: A Color Theory Based on Laws of Perception, 1974, translation by Ruth de Vriendt.
the world of color
“We can only conquer the world of color if we are actively and intensively occupied with color. A more accurate insight can give us some support, but can do no more than show us the way.”
—Franz Gerritsen, from Theory and Practice of Color: A Color Theory Based on Laws of Perception, 1974, translation by Ruth de Vriendt.
“I offer protection to your furniture”
“Built in Chicago in 1923, the Reebie storage and removals firm not only reveals the impact that the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb had on architecture and decorative arts in the United States, but it also introduces the subject of the use of hieroglyphs within Egyptomania. Contructed by Charles S. Kinglsey, it was decorated by Fritz Albert with a vast display of polychrome terracottas. Decorative motifs included several full-length statues of Ramesses II, representations of the goddess Hathor, winged beetles and hieroglyphic friezes. The colours—pink, coral, fawn, indigo and light green—and golden disks with blue wings and green snakes, appear to shine as brightly today as when they were first created. . . . Hieroglyphs overtly proclaim the function of the building: ‘I offer protection to your furniture.’”
—Clifford Price and Jean-Marcel Humbert, from their Introduction: An Architecture Between Dream and Meaning, from Imhotep Today: Egyptianizing Architecture, edited by Jean-Marcel Humbert and Clifford Price, 2003.
colourful magnificence
“All of this splendour has been planned for her [the customer’s] delight, and with a luxuriance that she had imagined was enjoyed only in Cleopatra’s court, oriental harems. . . . She strolls voluptuously through lobbies and foyers . . . her feet sink in soft rugs, she is surrounded by heavy Renaissance tables, oil paintings, and statues of nudes. . . . When she takes her seat, she is further flattered by the same colourful magnificence on the stage as in the lobby. . . . The royal favour of democracy it is: for in the “deluxe house” every man is a king and every woman a queen.”
—L. Lloyd, 1929, describing the Louxor Palais du Cin’ma in Paris. From the essay Egypt in Paris: 19th Century Monuments and Motifs by Cathie Bryan. As published in Imhotep Today: Egyptianizing Architecture, edited by Jean-Marcel Humbert and Clifford Price, 2003.
the flowing of both an earthly and heavenly Nile
“The escalator is themed as a “stairway to heaven” which has Nut decorations upon its underside, with the goddess Hathor’s disk crown acting as ambient lighting in a moodily lit hall. The goddess’ body conjoins with its mirror image along the entire length of the escalator at the winged limbs. The handrail is painted green, to evoke imagery of the flowing of both an earthly and heavenly Nile.”
—Chris Elliott, Kathrine Griffis-Greenberg and Richard Lunn, describing the Egyptian Hall and Escalator of the retail store Harrods in London, designed in 1995. From the essay Egypt in London—Entertainment and Commerce in the 20th Century Metropolis. As published in Imhotep Today: Egyptianizing Architecture, edited by Jean-Marcel Humbert and Clifford Price, 2003.
Egypt
“‘O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green plants, between a pulverized mountain and a red sand. . . . When the annual dispensation of Providence unlocks the springs and fountains that nourish the earth, the Nile rolls his swelling and sounding waters through the realm of Egypt: the fields are overspread by the salutary flood; and the villages communicate with each other in their painted barks. The retreat of the inundation deposits a fertilizing mud for the reception of the various seeds: the crowds of husbandmen who blacken the land may be compared to a swarm of industrious ants; and their native indolence is quickened by the lash of the task-master, and the promise of the flowers and fruits of a plentiful increase. Their hope is seldom deceived; but the riches which they extract from the wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the fruit-trees, and the cattle, are unequally shared between those who labor and those who possess. According to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the country is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest.’”
—the caliph Omar, as quoted by Edward Gibson in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume 5 of 6, published in 1856.