Which Way With Color?
Upon leaning of the death of Wolf Kahn, I got to thinking about his use of color and how attracted to it I was. Except for an exhibit that I saw in a small gallery on 7th Street near D Street in the late 80’s. Those works were atypical because I remember only green landscapes were included. The painting below (oil or soft pastels) is more typical of his use of color.
Art is “about intuition, imagination and fantasy,” Mr. Kahn told a Vermont arts publication. “Once you have your nose pointed in the right direction, you can start smelling something. It’s not about expertise. I don’t believe in it. I believe in innocence of spirit.” Wolf Kahn
Wolf Kahn
Josef Albers, on the other hand, seemed to take a more “scientific” approach to color. He did many “Homage to the Square” experiments in which he juxtaposed one color upon upon many others to illustrate the effects of the foundation color on the color he placed upon it. We take color for granted until Albers came along back in the day at the Bauhaus School, Black Mountain, North Carolina and showed us explicitly the ways in which a color affects the other colors next to it.
“Simultaneous contrast is not just a curious optical phenomenon – it is the very heart of painting. Repeated experiments with adjacent colors will show that any ground subtracts its own hue from the colors which it carries and therefore influences.” (Josef Albers)
Josef Albers
I’m not sure how my mind works in determining the colors I use. I exaggerate the colors in a landscape painting on purpose, or I work in black and white with the addition of one color…such as red or yellow. In any case, the determination of color seems difficult. I am still trying to find an easier mode. As Henri Matisse said,
“It is not enough to place colors, however beautiful, one beside the other; colors must also react on one another. Otherwise, you have cacophony.” Easier said than done, I say. In any case, these artists teach me to keep on going no matter how unsure I am, no matter how many times I fall off the cliff of invention.
Henri Matisse
Seeking Confidence, Rosemary Luckett