In this brief, Mary Virginia Orna details the history of color from the chemical point of view. Beginning with the first recorded uses of color and ending in the development of our modern chemical industry, this rich, yet concise exposition shows us how color pervades every aspect of our lives. Our consciousness, our perceptions, our useful appliances and tools, our playthings, our entertainment, our health, and our diagnostic apparatus – all involve color and are based in no small part on chemistry.

Updated to 2020, BOOKS ON COLOUR 1495-2015 offers quick and easy reference to 2,500 authors and editors and over 3,000 titles published by them. Following a concise historical survey of colour literature, authors are listed in an A-Z directory, together with titles, dates and places of publication, and translations for non-English titles. Biographical references are included where known. Chronological indexes of authors precede the bibliographical listing and alphabetical indexes of authors follow it. Publications are categorised under 27 general headings: Architecture, Chemistry, Classification, Colorants, Computing & Television, Decoration, Design, Dress & Cosmetics, Dyeing, Flora & Fauna, Food, Glass, History, Lighting, Metrology, Music, Optics, Painting, Perception, Philosophy, Photography & Cinema, Printing, Psychology, Symbolism, Terminology, Therapy, and Vision.

Take a colorful walk through human ingenuity. Humans have been unpacking the earth to use pigments since cavemen times. Starting out from surface pigments for cave paintings, we’ve dug deep for minerals, mined oceans for colors and exploited the world of plants and animals. Our accidental fumbles have given birth to a whole family of brilliant blues that grace our museums, mansions and motorcars. We’ve turned waste materials into a whole rainbow of tints and hues to color our clothes, our food and ourselves. With the snip of a genetic scissor, we’ve harnessed bacteria to gift us with “greener” blue jeans and dazzling dashikis. As the pigments march on into the future, who knows what new and exciting inventions will emerge? Mary Virginia Orna, a world-recognized expert on color, will lead you through an illuminating journey exploring the science behind pigments. Pausing for reflections en route to share stories around pigment use and discoveries informed by history, religion, sociology and human endeavour, this book will have you absorbing science and regaling tales. Jam packed with nuggets of information, March of the Pigments will have the curiously minded and the expert scientist turning pages to discover more.

The history of art is inseparable from the history of color. And what a fascinating story they tell together: one that brims with an all-star cast of characters, eye-opening details, and unexpected detours through the annals of human civilization and scientific discovery. Enter critically acclaimed writer and popular journalist Victoria Finlay, who here takes readers across the globe and over the centuries on an unforgettable tour through the brilliant history of color in art. Written for newcomers to the subject and aspiring young artists alike, Finlay’s quest to uncover the origins and science of color will beguile readers of all ages with its warm and conversational style. Her rich narrative is illustrated in full color throughout with 166 major works of art—most from the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Readers of this book will revel in a treasure trove of fun-filled facts and anecdotes. Were it not for Cleopatra, for instance, purple might not have become the royal color of the Western world. Without Napoleon, the black graphite pencil might never have found its way into the hands of Cézanne. Without mango-eating cows, the sunsets of Turner might have lost their shimmering glow. And were it not for the pigment cobalt blue, the halls of museums worldwide might still be filled with forged Vermeers. Red ocher, green earth, Indian yellow, lead white—no pigment from the artist’s broad and diverse palette escapes Finlay’s shrewd eye in this breathtaking exploration.

This book discusses the vital role of chemistry in everyday life. It encourages readers to understand how the knowledge of chemistry is important for the development of society and a better future. The text is organized into three parts. Part 1 covers the historical aspects of chemistry and discusses how countless discoveries since the beginning of life on earth have benefited human beings. Part 2 focuses on modern life and describes chemistry’s contribution to the developments in the fields of food and agriculture, energy, transportation, medicine, and communications. Part 3 emphasizes the role of chemists and educators in making the layperson aware of the benefits of chemistry without having them to go through its complexities. Written in an easy-to-understand manner and supplemented by ample number of figures and tables, the book will cater to a broad readership ranging from general readers to experts.

Highlighting its broad, multidisciplinary nature, this volume presents new research and applications in the field of archaeological chemistry, which focuses on the application of chemical techniques to the study of the material remains of the cultures of historical or prehistorical peoples. Consisting of 18 chapters written by a diverse collection of international authors, this volume highlights new research in archaeological chemistry, and shows how the field combines aspects of analytical chemistry, history, archaeology, and materials science. Current efforts to include archaeological chemistry in science education are also presented. As this book utilizes current scientific advances to better understand our past, it will be of broad general interest to the chemical, archaeological, and historical communities.

A beautifully illustrated history of the many inventive, poetic, and alluring ways in which color swatches have been selected and staged The need to categorize and communicate color has mobilized practitioners and scholars for centuries. Color Charts describes the many different methods and ingenious devices developed since the fifteenth century by doctors, naturalists, dyers, and painters to catalog fragments of colors. With the advent of industrial society, manufacturers and merchants developed some of the most beautiful and varied tools ever designed to present all the available colors. Thanks to them, society has discovered the abundance of color embodied in a plethora of materials: cuts of fabric, leather, paper, and rubber; slats of wood and linoleum; delicate skeins of silk; careful deposits of paint and pastels; fragments of lipstick; and arrangements of flower petals. These samples shape a visual culture and a chromatic vocabulary and instill a deep desire for color. Anne Varichon traces the emergence of modern color charts from a set of processes developed over the centuries in various contexts. She presents illuminating examples that bring this remarkable story to life, from ancient writings revealing attention to precise shade to contemporary designers’ color charts, dyers’ notebooks, and Werner’s famous color nomenclature. Varichon argues that color charts have linked generations of artists, artisans, scientists, industrialists, and merchants, and have played an essential and enduring role in the way societies think about color. Drawing on nearly two hundred documents from public and private collections, almost all of them previously unpublished, this wonderfully illustrated book shows how the color chart, in its many distinct forms and expressions, is a practical tool that has transcended its original purpose to become an educational aid and subject of contemplation worthy of being studied and admired.

This study analyzes the impact of color-making technologies on the visual culture of nineteenth-century France, from the early commercialization of synthetic dyes to the Lumière brothers’ perfection of the autochrome color photography process. Focusing on Impressionist art, Laura Anne Kalba examines the importance of dyes produced in the second half of the nineteenth century to the vision of artists such as Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Claude Monet. The proliferation of vibrant new colors in France during this time challenged popular understandings of realism, abstraction, and fantasy in the realms of fine art and popular culture. More than simply adding a touch of spectacle to everyday life, Kalba shows, these bright, varied colors came to define the development of a consumer culture increasingly based on the sensual appeal of color. Impressionism—emerging at a time when inexpensively produced color functioned as one of the principal means by and through which people understood modes of visual perception and signification—mirrored and mediated this change, shaping the ways in which people made sense of both modern life and modern art. Demonstrating the central importance of color history and technologies to the study of visuality, Color in the Age of Impressionism adds a dynamic new layer to our understanding of visual and material culture.

Are science and technology independent of one another? Is technology dependent upon science, and if so, how is it dependent? Is science dependent upon technology, and if so how is it dependent? Or, are science and technology becoming so interdependent that the line dividing them has become totally erased? This book charts the history of technoscience from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century and shows how the military–industrial–academic complex and big science combined to create new examples of technoscience in such areas as the nuclear arms race, the space race, the digital age, and the new worlds of nanotechnology and biotechnology.