How has the experience and experimentation of artists influenced our understanding of colour and the development of a theory of ‘colour vision’?
The search for the true meaning of colour has gone on for centuries but the first person who was interested in colour as optics, was none other than the great philosopher Isaac Newton. He approached the aspect of colour in a scientific view, and believed that using light as a key was a better way to understand colour. Creating a spectrum of colour by dividing light using a glass prism, he tried to find a formula or/and measure for colour through the use of light. After Newton’s theory, Goethe came with a different view of colour in 1810 through his book ‘Theory of Colours’ (Gage, 1993,). Unlike Newton, Goethe’s idea and experimentation were based on shading of colour with light and shadow. He found the After Image Theory through experimentation. He bagan experimenting after an experience with a girl with black hair and a scarlet bodice. The girl came to the room, and as she presently turned away he saw on the white wall where she had been, a black face with a bright light (Gage, 1993,). These experimentation and experience influenced impressionism and post-impressionism. The concept of Impressionism was based on understanding one’s own time, so impressionists drew what they experienced and the moment the eye saw, and this created a style called optical mixing. On the other hand post- impressionism was based on what happened in the mind of viewer so, post-impressionists drew what they felt from the object or scenery rather than what they saw.
<Reference>
Gage, J. (1993). Colours of the Mind in Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (pp.191-212). New York: Thames and Hudson.
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