- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre / Not Applicable (Feb 1 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0374116792
- ISBN-13: 978-0374116798
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.8 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 794 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #722,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
The making of a painting relies on inspiration, craft, practice, and vision. But, observes the noted science writer Philip Ball, it also hinges on science: "For as long as painters have fashioned their visions and dreams into images, they have relied on technical knowledge and skill to supply their materials."
In this lively study, Ball examines some of the tools and materials that chemists have added to the palette over the centuries. He also takes his readers on a learned tour of what science has taught us about vision, the nature of light, and the physical and cultural factors that condition our perceptions of color (the ancient Romans, he notes, had no term for brown or gray, but that does not mean they didn't use earth pigments in their work). Whether writing of matters scientific or artistic, Ball is a technologist but not a determinist. In the end, he writes, art depends not on science but on artists, and "each artist makes his or her own contract with the colors of the time."
Readers with an interest in science, art, and the crossroads where they meet will relish Ball's erudite travels across the spectrum of light. --Gregory McNamee
From Publishers Weekly
British science popularizer Ball (Stories of the Invisible; Life's Matrix) is part of the excellent new breed of explainers who produce imaginative and vivid prose in magazines like Nature and New Scientist. With academic degrees in chemistry and physics, Ball is also coordinator of an offbeat theater company called Homunculus. Here he applies his considerable energies to the study of how color developed in art and science from ancient history to the present. He has clearly spent time looking at art, and his range over these 14 chapters encompasses prehistory, Tintoretto and Gauguin. What painters have produced over time, Ball shows, has always been connected to the colors available to them. Major styles of painting, from the Venetian Renaissance to French impressionism, can be associated with innovations in pigment manufacture. Scientific discoveries, business imperatives and the history of art are all linked via colors on the painter's palette. In an intriguing chapter on the color in art restorations, for example, he notes, "I have often felt mystified at why Van Gogh's `Sun Flowers' commands such high regard it seems a drab, lackluster piece, uncharacteristic of the artist. But that is because we are not seeing what the artist painted. Those dirty ochres were once bright." Boasting a full and useful bibliography, this book even ventures some predictions about artists' use of color in the future, such as "pigments that change hue as we change our viewing angle." Readers will find the pigments here bright, varied and attractive. (Feb.)Forecast: A good bet for the scientifically inclined who want a grounded entry point to the arts, this book will also stretch out to art fans who want writing well-versed in art's physical bases. It's a rare example of a crossover study where an author really seems to grasp both domains.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I believe that in the future, people will start painting pictures in one single color, and nothing else but color." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
I believe that in the future, people will start painting pictures in one single color, and nothing else but color." Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
interesting science, poor art history,
This review is from: Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color (Hardcover)
If you are a painter, or other artist interested in science you should get this book. This is the only book I have seen that focuses on the history of pigment, especially in relation to painting. And the book starts with a useful overview of the physics and physiology of color, though there are many other books that go into more detail on that subject.Why isn't this book worth 5 stars? The art historical sections that situate the artists are shallow, trite, and full of clichés. I get the sense that the author researched the artists for this book, and regurgitated some of these notes. Great art history requires the meditation of a lifetime. I recommend "The Renaissance Artist at Work", by Cole, to dispel the notion that art historians do not care about materials. I recommend "The Nude", by Kenneth Clark, as a book that manages to say something profound in nearly every paragraph. I also recommend buying "The Bright Earth", it is the best book I have found on this topic.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Historical review about color pigments,
By
This review is from: Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color (Hardcover)
If you have a deep interest in color and how pigments and materials have been developed or discovered this is a book to read. There are only a few illustrations and lots of text, it is not a light book to read cover to cover. It is not a handbook and not a book of facts, its more like a history book.I value the effort put in the book, but it wasn't exactly what I expected and I won't read it twice.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A literary, absorbing work,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color (Hardcover)
In Bright Earth, science writer Philip Ball presents a fine guide that examines the practical side of art throughout history. From its gains from technological advancements to cultural influences on art directions, Bright Earth surveys how color is invented, reinvented, and presented. A literary, absorbing work.
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