Art and Colour: Pigment and Politics

This course offers a technicolour history of art. It focus on the history of colour in art, visual, and material culture, and addresses the importance of colour in science, religion, and politics. Attention is paid to the nature of artists' materials, and how these materials have shifted over time in response to new colour technologies. It addresses the relationship of colour production to environmental degradation and pollution. A major theme will be the vexed relationship of pigment to race, racial politics, and colonialism. Topics for examination include: colour versus line; pigment, materiality and new colour technologies; whiteness, blackness and the racialisation of skin, hair and eye colour; colour symbolism; from black and white to colour in print, photography and film; florescence and transparency; colourful landscapes; abstraction; gold, greyscale, and the rainbow.