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Color charts : a history
Author
Uniform Title
Nuanciers. English
Title
Color charts : a history / Anne Varichon ; translated by Kate Deimling.
ISBN
0691255172
9780691255170
9780691255187
Publication
Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2024.
Copyright Notice Date
©2024
Physical Description
280 pages : illustrations (color) ; 29 cm
Notes
"First published in the French language by Editions du Seuil, Paris, under the title: Nuanciers by Anne Varichon".
Summary
"The need to categorize and communicate color has mobilized practitioners and scholars for centuries. Color Charts describes the many different methods and ingenious devices developed since the fifteenth century by doctors, naturalists, dyers, and painters to catalog fragments of colors. With the advent of industrial society, manufacturers and merchants developed some of the most beautiful and varied tools ever designed to present all the available colors. Thanks to them, society has discovered the abundance of color embodied in a plethora of materials: cuts of fabric, leather, paper, and rubber; slats of wood and linoleum; delicate skeins of silk; careful deposits of paint and pastels; fragments of lipstick; and arrangements of flower petals. These samples shape a visual culture and a chromatic vocabulary and instill a deep desire for color. Anne Varichon traces the emergence of modern color charts from a set of processes developed over the centuries in various contexts. She presents illuminating examples that bring this remarkable story to life, from ancient writings revealing attention to precise shade to contemporary designers' color charts, dyers' notebooks, and Werner's famous color nomenclature. Varichon argues that color charts have linked generations of artists, artisans, scientists, industrialists, and merchants, and have played an essential and enduring role in the way societies think about color. Drawing on nearly two hundred documents from public and private collections, almost all of them previously unpublished, this wonderfully illustrated book shows how the color chart, in its many distinct forms and expressions, is a practical tool that has transcended its original purpose to become an educational aid and subject of contemplation worthy of being studied and admired"-- Publisher's description.
Other formats
Electronic version: Varichon, Anne. Nuanciers. Color charts. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2024
Format
Books
Language
English
Added to Catalog
August 26, 2024
Bibliography
Includes bibliographic references (pages [270]-272).
Contents
Grasping color: fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. An age-old interest in color
The sample, a tiny world
In the seventeenth century, a growing range of tools
An ideal system: eighteenth century to mid-nineteenth century. The dyers' drive to innovate
The Werner-Syme nomenclature, a color chart for understanding the world
In the early nineteenth century, chemists work with textile samples
The chaos of synthetic color: mid- to late nineteenth century. Teaching manuals in chemistry reflect the transformation
Continuing the undertaking of creating order in the sciences and the arts
A revolution in color: late nineteenth century to World War I. The chemical industry uses the color chart to promote the dyeing of raw materials
Silk thread dyers orient their color charts toward creativity
The retail color chart
A struggle with the limitations of the color chart
Bringing color to the masses: between the world wars. The color charts of a thriving chemical industry
The sewing and fashion industries: general stability and a few innovations
The paint color chart introduces users to new products, customs, and perceptions
Fine arts color charts become increasingly decorative
Cosmetic color charts reflect an artistic approach to reproductions
Color charts appear throughout the household
Jubilation of color: 1950s-1980s. The color chart in the chemical industry of the Trente Glorieuses
Color charts for clothing that became more colorful
In interior design, color charts for increasingly varied applications
Color charts for artists' supplies: teaching and distancing
Cosmetics color charts evoke enthusiasm
The color chart: Multitude, icon, idol, 1990s to the present. Ordinary and extraordinary color charts
A wide range of choices
In the 2000s, the color chart moves from icon to idol
Color charts and artists
Elegy or epilogue?
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