The Secret Lives of Color
Ratings5
Average rating4.4
15
Ratings5
Average rating4.4
One of USA Today's “100 Books to Read While Stuck at Home During the Coronavirus Crisis” A dazzling gift, the unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them in a beautiful multi-colored volume. “Beautifully written . . . Full of anecdotes and fascinating research, this elegant compendium has all the answers.” —NPR, Best Books of 2017 The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history. In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh’s chrome yellow sunflowers or punk’s fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of color tell the vivid story of our culture. “This passionate and majestic compedium will leave you bathed in the gorgeous optics of light.” —Elle
Reviews with the most likes.
Interesting at times, but overall just a bit too long for what it is. I found the writing to be very dry and I had trouble reading it for long stretches at a time. There were definitely a few cool chapters in here though.
Eleven years ago I had the opportunity to see one of my favourite paintings IRL: Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers (specifically F458, housed in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam). Though Starry Night is my absolute favourite Van Gogh painting, I've always been drawn to Sunflowers because of how ridiculously, wonderfully exuberant the image is. And there may have been a reason for that exuberance: if I have my history aright, Van Gogh made his Sunflower paintings during a particularly optimistic, joyous part of his life - a halcyon time, if you will, that stands in contrast to his work from before, and after, that period. Yellow, the predominant colour in the image, certainly enhances those feelings, and may be why Van Gogh used it in the first place.
And colours is what Kassia St. Clair's book is all about: not only their histories and chemical makeup, but also what they've come to mean in the wider world. The book doesn't include each and every single colour currently in use, nor does she go very in-depth with them (the colours in the main book each get a short chapter about them, while a glossary of colours at the end contains a colour swatch and a brief description of said colour), but what information there is, is very fascinating indeed. Eminently readable too; St. Clair's prose is part of what makes this book wonderful to read. Excellent for anyone interested in art, as well as anyone who's just curious about things like “Why are Apple products white?” (spoiler: they???re actually not white)or “Why do girls wear pink and boys blue?” (spoiler: arbitrary aesthetic choices in the early 20th century).
