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

Sitting bull

Beethoven

Warhol vs Basquiat

Kurt Cobain,

Picasso

Life is beautiful IV

Pink Portrait

Le voleur d'arcanes

Auto-portrait en prêtre de lune

Magic Mandela

Invite

P. Portrait intervened by the artists.

Le pèlerin bleu

Genius portrait

David James Gandy, Portrait. Photograph intervened by the artists.

Choreography of Love

Company of Dance

Symphony of Movement

Interwoven Steps

Steps of the soul

Egg boy in red cap

Une soirée d'automne

Assise en lecture

The Veil of Expression

Autoportrait II

Spring dog

The Golden Dress

Beautiful Elle

Kiss in dreamhouse

Empreinte mythique d'un chef indien

L'indien libre, le rêve et l'oiseau

Flower Power

Raya Sorkine / Thierry Miramon

Spirit

Who Are These Angels CXLI

Colourful Apollo Design

Beyond realism XX

The Neon Heiress

“The Watchful Muse”

The Mineral Whisperer

Orange Sky

No Sleep Blues

The Geometry of Self

Wall-E

Vive les fleurs bleues

Un sourire

Silence

Moonlight stroll.

Amy

Friends 102

Marilyn Turquoise No. 43

Eclat festif- Portrait de femme

Sans titre

Sans titre (8)

Fragile Connection

La femme au coeur

Virtual Reality

Un footballeur à Wynwood

L'artiste et son marchand

La poissonnière

La famille du mois d'octobre

Beautiful Wrinkles

Overlay

Le cubain

Blue dances variation

Spirit girl