Contemporary Color: Theory and Use

As an expanded 2nd edition, Contemporary Color: Theory and Use continues to serve as an important foundational survey for current undergraduate curriculum. Written in an easily understood manner, Bleicher avoids the pitfalls of covering fundamental topics like a dry textbook.

Fine artists will find a chapter on pigments, colorants and paints—graphic designers will be satisfied with a section on color and design. Other sections included in the book review theory, harmonies, and cultural influences. A chapter titled Color Psychology makes good use of contemporary and historical illustrations to reinforce the content.

Bleicher does however fall a little short in the art history section. Even though art movements are mentioned (Impressionism to New Media in 14 pages), they are all too disappointingly brief.

What Bleicher does include (missing from most texts), is a chapter titled The Future of Color. This section explores recent up-and-coming technologies presently making their way into mainstream new media and consumer venues.

The publisher also hosts a companion website for educators that dovetails nicely with the book. Offerings include sample syllabi, quizzes and exercises.

Contemporary Color: Theory & Use

by Steven Bleicher

Munsell’s Crusade to Instruct the Masses

We often take for granted the past work done by pioneers such as Albert H. Munsell. Painter, teacher, and inventor, Munsell created the most influential color-modeling system for its time. His efforts devised a “rational way to describe color” through the of use clear decimal notation; using hue, value, and chroma into uniform yet independent dimensions within a three-dimensional space. This idea broke with the traditional approach of identifying colors through a naming scheme, which Munsell thought was “foolish” and “misleading”. Munsell Color System, Atlas of Color Charts. The color system Munsell built back in the 1900 ’ s continues to serve educators, visual artists, and the industries who depend on color matching technologies to produce their products and services. The Munsell Color Company website has a historical overview of Munsell’s legacy as well as examples of company projects that continue to advance the process of achieving accurate color. To peer inside the

Colors: What They Mean and How To Make Them

It would appear on first glance at this book’s title, that it is a “how-to” text for the hobbyist or textile artist on dye recipes. Some information is given on where pigments are derived from; how to use sources on where to find and create pigments for dying fabric. The real value of the book is not in the recipes but in the cultural history of the pigment sources and the meanings of color, all packaged in a beautifully designed book. Each thought-out chapter highlights a color and is illustrated with photos and fine art reproductions to reinforce the text. Not book for color theorists–but offers a good general survey of color and it's uses throughout the centuries. Written and (visually) presented to hold the reader's attention with interesting facts without overwhelming. Colors: What They Mean and How to Make Them by Anne Varichon

A Perfect Red

A tour-de-force text that succeeds in weaving an illustrious red path through time. With an impressive mountain of scholarship, Greenfield provides little known facts that take us through the political and colonial upheavals in the West Indies and in Spain. Both locales were central to the intrigue the cultivation, importation and trade of cochineal (insect) red dye. The text also demonstrates how the color red has influenced and been integrated into fashion, culture, and mythology throughout the centuries. A few color plates are included which illustrate the progression of how the color was applied as a pigment while being used as an important compositional symbol. A great book that balances history, science and art found within a non-fiction format. A Perfect Red By Amy Butler Greenfield

All Color Matters

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