Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this searching, dazzlingly illustrated investigation of the experience of color in the West, Cambridge University art historian Gage explores color as a language of emotions, psychological meaning and religious significance. His 14 scholarly yet accessible essays, accompanied by 223 plates (more than half of which are in color), are full of arcane and wondrous lore, from ancient Rome's cult of purple (a hue associated with the ruling elite) to the symbology of rainbows, perceived correspondences between colors and music, and color symbolism in heraldry and alchemy. Certain themes re-emerge, such as the impact of color scientists Goethe and Newton on artists like Turner and Surat, and the popular notion of the Orient as a repository of colored, exotic stimuli and attitudes. The magnificent plates range from a fourth-century Egyptian mummy portrait to the color experiments of Kandinsky, Mondrian, Helen Frankenthaler, Sonia Delaunay, Kenneth Noland and Josef Albers.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This book contains everything you wanted to know about color as a cultural construct, physical and optical property, and theoretical problem. Gage (art, Cambridge Univ.; J.M.W. Turner , LJ 7/87) has ranged very widely and come up with an extremely inclusive book dealing with nearly every Western, historical, and perceptual aspect of color. Trained at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Gage has an artist's direct sense of color and communicates it well in his writing, even when the illustration is in black and white. He has written a fascinating survey of this universal--but very subjective--aspect of art; no other title compares in depth and scope to this work. Recommended for general collections as well as for specialists, who will find much of interest in Gage's bibliographical excavations and careful looking.
- Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 335 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1st edition (August 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520222253
• ISBN-13: 978-0520222250
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 10 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #70,541 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLANT SOURCE FOR ARTISTS ON COLOR AND PALETTE DEVELOPMEN, March 7, 1999

By	Darlene L. Swaim "LEHI" (Mesa, Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (Color & Culture) (Hardcover)

This book is an excellant source of palette development, pigment uses and development as well as color theories throughout history. My students have worn out my copy -- needs to be reprinted and made known in college art departments. Good, solid informational writing and illustrations. A must-have book for artists and students. D. Swaim, Prof., M.C.C., Arizona

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pretty complete, January 11, 2007

By	F. K. A. Gemert "Hippekip" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book shows you all you want to know about colours. It's not truly scientific but it showed me the best and most of colour-theory. I had some trouble with the science-language but hey, I'm Dutch, not a native "American" speaker! The only thing that I would change in this book is more pictures, and all in colour!

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great coffee table book, March 18, 2006

By	echo0918 (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

While I won't go to the trouble of selling this book, I do regret having purchased it. There are many other texts that do a much more nuanced and cogent exposition of the relationship between color and culture. My future use of this book will be as a visual reference, i.e. to refer to the various paintings and other works gorgeously reproduced in color.

Otherwise, Gage's Color and Culture as well as Color and Meaning are best used as "intelligent" coffee table tomes.