Chapter 5 Color in abstract painting
Volume 1 von \AZimuth\, North-Holland, (1998)DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1387-6783(98)80008-1
Zusammenfassung
Publisher Summary The subject of this chapter is the development of the use of color as a means of expression in abstract painting. The expressive use of color in painting is divided into two broad categories—the aesthetic and the semantic. Aesthetic color expression refers to the meaning derived from the use of color intrinsic to the structuring of the image and to its visual experience. Semantic color expression refers to the meaning derived from all the possible relationships colors or groups of colors might have to ideas external to the painting either through association, or metaphor, or convention. This chapter attempts to analyze only the aesthetic category of color expression in abstract painting. The chapter presents a selective history of color theory, prior to the beginnings of abstraction but relevant to its development to understand the state of color ideas available to painters in the early twentieth century. The importance of the ideas about color expression relative to the aesthetics of painting today is discussed. The aim of this chapter is to offer not only the specifics of the complexity of color ideas developed in abstract painting, but also some perspective on the importance of these developments in art.