The Passion of Colour

Shannon Soran
ARTH 102.01

  Henri Matisse, Dance (II), 1910

      Color is a visual element that is important, but not essential in art. Many paintings and drawings are done in black and white. Even though color might not be mandatory in art, it adds more depth to an emotional experience and physical sensation that black and white cannot do by itself.

       The color wheel has primary, secondary, and tertiary colors in it. Complementary colors sit across from each other on the color wheel. Green and red, yellow-orange and blue-violet, and blue and orange are complementary colors.

Complementary colors make hues more vivid and intense (Getlein 93). Henri Matisse's Dance (II) has complementary colors of blue and orange. In Dance (II) the figures are dancing, and with the complementary colors the viewer gets a feeling it is an intense dance.

       Monochromatic is a single color in different values. Claude Monet's Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect painting is monochromatic in blue-violet. Monet used lighter value in the background and darker value for the fore and mid-ground to create a sense of depth. Color can convey emotion. The color red can convey anger or

Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect, 1903

passion. The color blue can convey sadness or calmness. Pablo Picasso's The Old Blind Guitarist is painted in cool colors and expresses sadness, if the painting did not have a blue hue to it the viewer would not get the same emotion experience.

       Color is an important tool, even though it is not the most essential visual element like shape and mass. Color conveys an emotional response to the viewer that black and white cannot achieve like color.

Pablo Picasso, The Old Blind Guitarist, 1903

Citations

Getlein, Mark. Living With Art. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2013. 93. Print.