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?

Search by Image

Save your search and find it in your favorites

24/31 1 10 20 22 23 24 25 26 30 31

Categories

Subcategories

Colored artworks

Ombres sur terre - Abstraction géométrique

Plage Notre Dame à Porquerolles

Window 1

The dark side of the conscience

SOS pour les oiseaux

Sliced circles on a blue sky background

Over there

Courants d'eau

Receptacle #3. From The Vase Series

Self-Portrait 24.82

Sans titre

Sans titre

Sans titre

Composition Ref BDNW2994

Composition abstraite Ref GO0880

"High Plains Drifter" Lime

La branche coupée

Couple de Pont-Aven

Tondo Blue, Expanded Metal Painting

Tondo Red, Expanded Metal Pigment Painting

Soir de fête

Running Up That Hill

Structures du quotidien

Reflections

Abbaye de Solesmes

Free to play

Sin título

Utopia III

Red line

Sensuous

Papillon

Vague à l'âme

Mes petits bonheurs A

In between

Zone Commerciale #2

Grande Reset Bleu/Vert

117 RI

The Shame Planet

The Trust Planet

The Surprise Planet

The Racist Planet

The Joy Planet

The Greedy Planet

Composition 4 carrés 3D (orange, vert, noir, jaune)

Self-Portrait 24.67

ID Forme 01

ID Forme 29

ID Forme 32

Oeil electro

Sans titre

The Drummer and the Flutist V giclée art print

Interstellar 25184

Le Chenal - Paysage abstrait géométrique

Composition

Réminiscence I

Canoë kayak

Skate

L’oeil

Volatile en lignes

La Mer

Heather

Golden dream

Verdis

HALO - 3D Modern Painting - Collage Construction, Painting, Acrylic on Paper

Dynamique urbaine

Cog (Teal)