Colored artworks

The work of color is central in any artistic work. It is even one of the first tools of the artist. It is difficult to imagine a work that would exist without the working of color - even if it is the absence of color that the artist chooses to present.

Through the ages and artistic movements, the use and meaning attributed to color evolves, but the essence of color remains the same. Every artist must master the properties of color in order to control his composition. In the restoration of paintings, color even becomes a science, because it is necessary to know the different molecules to find the colors and mixtures originally used by the artist.

In the history of art, the importance of color fluctuates according to periods and geographical areas. During the Italian Renaissance, for example, there was a debate (called Paragone) between the authority of color versus drawing: according to the schools, it is the color, and not the line, that creates the emotion and visual power of a work of art. The colors thus take on an immense importance, and assume certain meanings: white symbolizes purity for example, and blue (systematically used to clothe the Virgin Mary) is associated with divinity. These symbols are not thought of randomly: the purple for example, is used since the Byzantine era to signify the highest rank of royalty. Unlike ochre, the purple pigment came from a specific shell, and was extremely difficult - and therefore rare, and expensive - to obtain.

More generally, colors can be divided into three categories: warm, cool, and neutral. As their name implies, these classes of colors give off an atmosphere that the painter can use to influence the emotion of his work. Baroque art, for example, manipulates the contrasts between warm and cold colors to capture the power of bodies. The play of light is exalted by the effects of color. For a long time, the traditional Western school of painting required painters to reproduce the colors of the environment around them. It was the Impressionists, in the 19th century, who explored other ways of seeing - and therefore of transcribing on canvas - their chromatic environment. By avoiding complex mixtures and painting spontaneously, in the open air, the Impressionists reinvented the use of color to reproduce reality.

It was not until abstract and subjective painting that art devoted itself to color as a subject. Mark Rothko, precursor of the Colorfield Painting movement and of abstract expressionism, sees in his paintings a living organism whose color is human and whose format is transcendent. Piet Mondrian, on the other hand, sought in his paintings to approach the very essence of nature through the purity of primary colors, to achieve abstraction. The founder of the Russian avant-garde movement of Suprematism, Kasimir Malevich, will disturb the senses of everyone with his work "White square on white background", in which the color is painted only for itself. Contemporary art, photography, collage, or pop art also use in their respective ways the resources of color, exploring indefinitely all its pluralities. As Picasso said, "When I have no blue, I use red."

Artsper writes art in color: discover below a great selection of works that honor color and its properties. What better way to brighten up an interior?

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Colored artworks

Bird of the sun

The Wind Sweeps the Wind Series 01

Playful Companionship

Scenes shifting

Même la morale

S'auras tu vivre le plus mauvais (Diptyque)

Being is love / 359

Libérez les zèbres

Petits d'herissons

Taureau Or

We've Got You

Felix

Wild horses

Vive les cocktails

Couple d'aras rouges du Costa Rica

Bird pédicure

Le déjeuner sur l'herbe

Spring chickadee bird

Queen Crowned in a Banana

La chatte en chasse

Isabelle

Untitled (71)

Business partners

Arabia. Golden sand series

Panthera pardus

La petite danse des papillons édition

Le cochon et l'oiseau de proie

La révolte des Ouraniens

Little fish

Blue water lilies

Color reflections

King dog

Tigre pochoir

Gorille à dos argenté

Parrots

Apology Socrates

Être sûr de soi

Lion Fleuri

Young, I lived in a little little house

Red dog (trib. to Haring)

life is a dream

Wacas

Seabed Dancing

Isabella

Copain copine

Queen Moth

Suspendu

Mystery

Le Chien

Raven

Mars Litusaniens - Hermès - Hadès - Chevaux - Orange - Luxe

Les beaux sentiments

Fortius

Vive les fleurs et les tigres

Chevaux

Couple ours

Chats en bandes jaunes - Cats

Ronde koïs

Lion King

Love song

Looking for a kiss

Greetings cockfight

Series: Chinese traditional fresco painting, painting of the serving girl No.4

Winner's arena Soumillon Dalakhani Sa Aga Khan arc triomphe horse racing hermes auteuil hippodrome vainqueur

Cattedrale liquida Un tempio che non ha pareti. Solo vibrazioni

Ronzio Non sono insetti. Sono lettere d'aria