Contemporary art and colour thinking

Abstract

This collection of texts about colour resulted from a request to colleagues known to be interested in colour and contemporary art, for ‘position papers’ to act as a starting point for a series of symposia. We were interested in whether the writings of the contributors who made their interest in colour manifest either through their own artistic practice, or through a close attention to the work of artists as a starting point for their interest, might differ from the words crafted by those looking at colour in contemporary art from the perspective of the critic or theorist. We wanted to see what ‘colour thinking’ might be in an aesthetic period where the insights of artists do not figure prominently in attempts to understand something of the substance and nature of colour. But most importantly, we wanted to examine how making art and thinking about art, with a particular focus on colour, can add to understanding of both the natural and man-made environment.

The intention is for the publication of these papers to start a dialogue between the participants and to invite others to join in. Two symposia are planned to take place in spring and autumn 2012, with additional contributors and an open invitation through this journal and other networks for interested colleagues to join us. We want to both map the range of interests within current academic and practitioner activity in the colour arena of the visual arts, and to draw interested colleagues together to initiate future projects to explore the field more systematically.