num_pages: 320
description: A kaleidoscopic exploration that traverses history literature art and science to reveal humans' unique and vibrant relationship with color.We have an extraordinary connection to colorwe give it meanings associations and properties that last millennia and span cultures continents and languages. In The World According to Color James Fox takes seven primary colorsblack red yellow blue white purple and greenand uncovers behind each a root idea based on visual resemblances and common symbolism throughout history.Through a series of stories and vignettes the book then traces these meanings to show how they morphed and multiplied and ultimately how they reveal a great deal about the societies that produced them: reflecting and shaping their hopes fears prejudices and preoccupations.Fox also examines the science of how our eyes and brains interpret light and color and shows how this is inherently linked with the meanings we give to hue. And using his background as an art historian he explores many of the milestones in the history of artfrom Bronze Age gold-work to Turner Titian to Yves Kleinin a fresh way. Fox also weaves in literature philosophy cinema archaeology and artmoving from Monet to Marco Polo early Japanese ink artists to Shakespeare and Goethe to James Bond. By creating a new history of color Fox reveals a new story about humans and our place in the universe: second only to language color is the greatest carrier of cultural meaning in our world.
language: English
title: The World According to Color: A Cultural History
publisher: St. Martin's Press