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

Orangeade

Discogolf

Traffic Yellow Mix

Blue

Migration d'éléphants

MB 64

Sweet thing

Abstract 22142

Le départ

Bright prospects

Le chemin

Multi Tags (montée sur chassis)

Composition 01-2022-23

Mabrouk

Enchanted Glade

Mare impetuoso al tramonto olio su canapa

Geometrical shapes III

Happy Hours 20201117

Experimental Landscape 14

Kiss

Playa Es Caragol

Sheep Flock (Love)

Faustine

Drawing 435

Blurred pink landscape

Paris verte

Composition 301

Abstract collection

Dreamed Wild Shelter

Etude 3

Cactus, lithographie originale

Black galaxy

Réfraction

Catch the stars (Standard Edition III)

Night Fall

Belle pluie 18

Spore 1

Pleasure

Dream

55.6559834, 27.1339613

Welcome to the colorful side

Milieu hostile 1

Asthenosphere 9

Réf. 120

Street art is back

Wizard by the Water

ST20240822

Poésie

Aquarelle

The blue one

CSRD

Boîte de Petri #11

Letter lover

Rose salé 1

Fade out

Joyful

Over You

Premier jour

Blue abstract II

The departure of souls

La forêt intérieure

KISSémoi 2

La Semeuse de Trouble

Regard à droite

Twilight Ocean

Vibe 2