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

Parrot bliss

Dog

Street Art Time-1

Vive les fleurs en surf (1)

Indomptables

Fusionnels

Hope street (a tribute to Banksy)

Love a tribute to Banksy

Love Gold

True love

Live and let live

Pure Love (a tribute to K.H.)

Sweet Love (a tribute to K.H.)

Love Angel (a tribute to K.H.)

Rebel Boy (a tribute to K. H.)

Love Angel (a tribute to K.H.)

Big Love (a tribute to K.H.)

L'ange phallique (a tribute to K. H.)

Penis power (a tribute to K. H)

Love light (a tribute to K.H)

Blue day

Ah-ah-face

Françoise Hardy pochoir

Simone Veil pochoir

Frida Kahlo

Marianne

Purple mind

The Deep I

A drop in the ocean

Pink Love

Think Big

Vibes

Maitre Yoda

La Bonne Coupe

Mask singer

Skull colors

Bataclan Banksy

Amour, gloire & ecstasy. Tableau 62x54 cm (+ pack bonus)

Bowie street Art

Street art portrait-28

No name 98.98 #D211

Noname 70.50 #D31

Golden Glow

Noname 70.50 A126

Forever young

In the Moment

I need more than that

Yael

Echoes of Serenity

Chief in urban sunset

Princesse Diana

Jackie Kennedy

Mbappe

Coluche

Joconde

Vincent Van Gogh

Lost in space

Frida Kahlo

Pierre Soulages

Pink p

FlowerSkull Happy

Ou ai je la tête

Branché vers Ailleurs

Transition n°7

Transition n°6

Métamorphose n°9