The Three-Colour Process and Modern Painting

Abstract

VERY much so-called art, defended as “modern”, appears to represent an irrational cult, having no more justification than the chaotic mental concepts which are so often opposed to the progress of science. There is, however, a method of painting which at first seems anarchistic and contrary to Nature, but on closer examination (metaphorically) or more distant examination (literally) appears significant and interesting, amounting to a real discovery in art. Just now we have on exhibition at the University of Colorado a collection of paintings by Robert A. Graham, a rather well-known artist in the United States, in which the method referred to is employed. At close range the pictures appear to be merely arrangements of spots of colour, mainly red, yellow, and blue. It seems impossible that they can represent anything natural. But at the distance of ten feet or so an extremely soft and natural landscape appears. The method is exactly the same, essentially, as that of the three-colour photographic process, which in the hands of experts gives us pictures exquisitely true to Nature, or to our optical impression of Nature. Such prints (e.g. in Taylor's “Monograph of British Mollusca”) are so natural that I have found myself at times using a lens to make out finer details, of course with the result of losing the whole impression. These matters may have been fully elucidated and appreciated in artistic circles, but they throw light on our process of vision, and are of interest to scientific men as well.