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

15/42 1 10 13 14 15 16 17 20 30 40 42

Categories

Subcategories

Colored artworks

YO! Stromtrooper (série de rues)

ENJOY PARIS VISITES

Blue flowers

Et l'on n'y peut rien

Culture

Amazing day in Paris

Love will save the world II

batman

daffy d.

Analyse this!

Amex Goldorak

Stay strong

Bullit

Frida.K libertad

Burned Indian

Pas dit mon dernier mot !

Soup Melt Pop Purple

Madonna

La perle

Amex Simpson

Dépassement de soi - Série pop colorée

Spider-square - Série pop colorée

Plus près de mon étoile - Série pop colorée

La team tik-tok - Série pop colorée

Remonter le tunnel _ Série pop colorée

Death02628

King of Pop

DeathF1044

DeathP566

Death04055

DeathQ1269

Death03215

Death G518

Death80

La petite danse des papillons édition

Stop, wait heart

Un peu de cinéma

Splendide

Powerful

Eclipsed Echoes

The Dreamweaver’s Gaze

Passion for Life

I will retrieve your phone from the Bottom of the Ocean

Portrait PS 158 La lionne a les yx verts French School

French School - Portrait PS 173 La Princesse Nordestina

Stormtrooper power

Street art walk in New York-1

On air

Fatal

Vandal life

Elle habite au 6

White little roses

Yellow Rose

No limits

Green Tree in the city

Green Roses

Flowers

Balade en forêt

Green Forest

Young, I lived in a little little house

Super Flower Sunshine

Space Jump

Nathan road

Jungle fever

High Sunflower

Black or white