Colors can be seen almost in everything in the surrounding, in every moment that people encounter. However, very few people have every stopped to ask themselves what impact color has on them. Be it the calming effect of green and blue skies, or whether it is the saliva-inducing effect of the color red, or of yellow witnessed at fast food restaurants. Clearly, each of these colors tap into people’s emotions. In fact, studies have shown that different colors have different meanings almost in every language (Eckstut & Eckstut, 2013) . Almost all artists, from whatever artistic period or generation has been aware of these meanings, and the fact that color is a language in its own right; as a result, they have always been wise and careful in the way that they utilize color to communicate in their works. Color have allowed them to create their own flare and individuality. Leeuwen (2011) asserts that, long before there was written language, color was used by mankind as a universal language. Prehistoric man used color to describe every facet of their lives. In this present study, a comparative analysis is carried out of various artworks from different cultural and geographical locations to explain how color has been used not just as a visual language, but also as a component of transnational and transcultural communication.
There are numerous reasons why artists throughout history have chosen different colors in their artwork. For instance, there are artists who choose and use color to create and illustrate time, whether day or night. Winslow Homer, a renowned artist, is one of those people who used the language of color for this purpose. For example, in one of his paintings, illustrated in Appendix 1-A, utilized a primary color palette, including white to create time of day. His use of color in this sense perfectly captures and illustrates the strong daylight of the tropics. In another of his paintings illustrated in Appendix 1-B, Homer utilizes a dark color palette to create time of night. He magnificently manages to create the illusion of a scene in the night. Another artist Piet Mondrian utilizes lines of bright color on a background that is only white to replicate the activity, as well as the rhythm of the streets of New York (Appendix 1-C).
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Another reason why artists choose and use certain colors is to give a sense of atmosphere of place to their artworks. For example, Van Gogh, another prominent medieval period artist, utilized color for this very purpose. In his artwork illustrated in Appendix 2-A, the artist uses saturated cool and warm colors. He includes the context of bright yellow and surrounds them by greens and blue to offer them a somewhat cool look. In using this combination of colors in this manner, Van Gogh manages to utilize the language of color to present and support the feeling of the sky in the night. Often, all cool colors contain the color blue and are known to retreat from the viewer; thus creating some sense of distance. Cool colors are also considered as being clean and refreshing. It is for this reason that the creator of the artwork illustrated in Appendix 2-B, utilized cool colors to illustrate distance and evoke clean and refreshing emotions on part of the viewer.
There are other artists who have used color to express different emotions in their work; similarly, some have used certain colors to evoke certain emotional responses from viewers. Art maestro, Pablo Picasso utilized this element of the language of color in some of his artworks. For instance, in his painting, the Old Guitar Player, illustrated in Appendix 3-A, Picasso utilizes only brown and cool blues to evoke and reinforce emotions of sadness, isolation and distance with regards to the musician. In fact, as previously intimated, Picasso created numerous melancholy paintings during a period of his artistic life commonly referred to as his “blue period”. Mary Cassatt is another artist who was renowned for working with pale hues, which were all made with white. The use of these colors in her artwork, helped viewers connect with the romantic and idealized vision of mother and child (Appendix 3-B).
Many warm colors are considered to contain some element of the color red. Artists have, throughout history, used warm colors to create and evoke physical response to temperature. Van Gogh, in one of his artworks illustrated in Appendix 4-A, utilizes warm colors to illustrate the heat of summer, and as a result evoke a physical response to temperature. Keith Haring also utilizes these high key colors that complement each other to create a feeling of movement (Appendix 4-B).
Color has also been used throughout history by artists as a technical element in design; in fact, most artists have used color for this reason. For instance, a renowned artist, Mark Rothko, in his artwork illustrated in Appendix 4-C, uses the strength of warm colors, particularly, that of saturated red as a technical tool to compress the tiny orange shape. Studies have shown that saturated warm colors such as red, often advance towards viewers (Eckstut & Eckstut, 2013) . Another artist who use color as a technical tool is John Singer Sargent. In his artwork, as illustrated in Appendix 4-D, the artists, using hues that are light and transparent in their value arrays, manages to create some sense of light on water. By doing this, the artist managed to make the orange and blue complements to create some sense of activity without necessarily clashing. One of the most acclaimed artist, at least historically, Leonardo da Vinci, once famously stated that the main enemy of art was color. In fact, most artists from his period utilized value instead of color as their main technical tool. They used colors that contained black to create shadows and volume. A good example of this technique is illustrated in da Vinci’s own artwork, the Mona Lisa; see Appendix 4-E. A magnificent art-piece by Dale Chiluly utilizes the reflective and transparent properties of blown glass (Appendix 4-F). The saturated colors and complementary color palette used in this artwork creates lively movement both to the outside and inside of the artwork.
Nevertheless, some artists have utilized color to support and enhance whatever story they are communicating in their artwork. For instance, in his work illustrated in Appendix 5-A, Caravaggio manages to utilizes dark colors, which he contrasts with smaller areas of white and red to capture a serious moment. In this last supper artwork, the use of red and white are intended to guide the viewer’s eye through the painting and reinforce the story being communicated. Hundreds of years later, another prominent artist, John Singer Sargent, uses an almost similar color palette in the portrait of actress Ellen Terry, which captured and illustrated her role of Lady Macbeth, to enhance the sense of drama; see Appendix 5-B. similarly, using several neutral colors and gray, Winslow Homer manages to isolate the two figures in his painting. In using colors this way, Homer manages to focuses the attention of viewers on the figures which are the center of the story he is communicating in the artwork. Another renowned artist, Henri Matisse, also uses color to support and enhance the story in his artwork (Appendix 5-C). The artist uses bright active colors in an active dancing manner to support the story of Icarus who, after flying close to the sun with artificial wings, fell to the ground. The use of the colors somewhat dramatizes that fall.
This comparative analysis of the language of color has examined the works of various artists across different artistic periods, geographical and cultural locations, and has clearly shown that there are various reasons as to why artists throughout history have chosen and used different colors in their artwork. The study has shown that different colors have different meanings and when used in different ways – combinations- communicate artists’ works in different ways. Most importantly, the study has clearly shown that the language of color is useful in not just communicating emotions, but also in evoking different emotions on the part of viewers. Further, the study has shown that the language of color supports story communicated in artwork, technically enhances artworks, as well as enables artist communicate time and space. Overall, it is clear that all these artists have appreciated and recognized color as being a language that they can use to communicate in their artwork.
References
Eckstut, J., & Eckstut, A. (2013). The Secret Language of Color: Science, Nature, History, Culture, Beauty of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue & Violet . New York, NY: Running Press.
Leeuwen, T. van. (2011). The Language of Colour: An Introduction . London: Routledge.
Appendices
Appendix 1-A
Appendix 1-B
Appendix 1-C
Appendix 2-A
Appendix 2-B
Appendix 3-A
Appendix 3-B
Appendix 4-A
Appendix 4-B
Appendix 4-C
Appendix 4-D
Appendix 4-E
Appendix 4-F
Appendix 5-A
Appendix 5-B
Appendix 5-C
