The Expression and Composition of Color

Abstract

The pictorial medium of representation uses shape and color to serve two basic functions. One of them connects things belonging together and separates the ones that should be apart. The second function serves identification. Using shape and color, it distinguishes kinds of people, different professions, and even individuals. Soldiers or policemen are recognized by what they wear; black and white distinguish the mourners from the happy brides, and the images of the Madonna are known by her blue coat and red dress. In a confusingly complex world, color distinguishes objects from their setting in the environment. A fire hydrant stands out in the street, and the distinctively colored buttons or handles of a machine guide the eyes to direct action. So do the colors of signals. The pictorial use of shape and color is based on the nature of their elements. Shapes derive from line, circle, disk, or square; color derives from the three chromatic primaries, red, blue, yellow, and the achromatic black and white. Each of the three secondary colors-orange, green, violet-holds the balance between two primaries of equal strength. Each of the six tertiaries stands between a primary and a secondary. Each therefore unites components of unequal strength. Together, the three categories form the chromatic color circle (fig. 1). The three categories of color have different characters. The primaries are the basic pillars of color composition. They are powerful and inflexible and therefore hard. Their presence influences their neighbors, but they are not influenced by them. The secondaries are also balanced, and each of the primaries of which they are made up connects with its neighbor outside. Therefore the secondaries serve as bridges. The dynamic influence of a secondary can pull to the left or the right, depending on the attractive power of the neighbors. When, for example, a green secondary is pulled by a strong blue on the left, the traffic on the bridge moves in that direction. Black and white, the fourth and fifth primaries, lie outside the chromatic circle. Therefore, all color systems are three-dimensional, spheres or cones, with the central axis formed by the scale from white to black. The differences between the three categories of color account for what is called the difference between cold and warm colors. The sensations of temperature are paralleled by qualities of color.' The straight inflexibility of primaries makes them feel cold; the complexity of secondaries and tertiaries gives them a flexibility that makes them akin to warmth.2 The expression of colors is influenced also by their association with phenomena of nature. White and yellow look like light, green like foliage, and red and pink have the warmth of blood. Black looks like the darkness of night. Therefore when a modern painter changes natural colors, his colors look like deviations from the natural ones. When Emil Nolde makes a face green, it assumes a deadly paleness, and the red water of the ocean looks warm. I mentioned that primary colors influence others, but are not influenced by them. It is also true, however, that by appearing in the company of others they can form a partial or complete whole. The three primaries become a whole by complementing each other because they comprise all the chromatic elements. Two secondaries will do the same; for example, in orange and a violet overlap and cover the chromatic whole with a surplus. But it would take all six tertiaries to make up a whole.