The paint-loaded palettes of fifty world-renowned artists are displayed alongside the paintings the artists created using those hues, and the colours and brushstrokes employed are analysed to uncover surprising new stories about each artist and their work. Presented broadly chronologically, the artists featured in this revelatory book range from those working in the 17th century to the present day, including Artemisia Gentileschi, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Vincent Van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Georgia O’Keeffe and Bridget Riley. Each artist’s palette – whether photographed or visible in self-portraits – is paired with one or more works by the artist that reflect the colours of the paint remaining on the palette. Colour expert and art historian Alexandra Loske skilfully analyses each artist’s colour palette and brushstrokes to reveal not only exactly how they used colour in their work but also to tell the story of their journey with colour and the influence of their approach on the wider culture to which they belonged. For example, Georges Seurat meticulously arranged the paints on his palette in prismatic order, isolating the colours and pairing each with a blot of white paint. His pointillist technique was equally apparent on his palette and his canvas. Kerry James Marshall uses blots of zinc white and smears of pale pink on the surfaces of symbolically oversized white palettes held by black artists in his portraits, raising provocative questions about the role of colour in the story of black history and white western art. The Artist’s Palette will appeal to an art history audience, a wider audience eager to learn more about the use of colour by the great artists and amateur painters looking for inspiration in the creation of their own work.

The earliest forms of human creativity – in carvings, markings, and cave paintings – bear witness to humanity’s engagement with color. Almost as old as these examples is the desire to assign structure, order, and meaning to this universal yet elusive concept, and it is this fascination that unites the works compiled in this expansive edition. Gathering over 65 rare books and manuscripts from a wealth of institutions, including the most distinguished color collections worldwide, The Book of Colour Concepts takes the reader on a chromatic odyssey across four centuries and over 1,000 images of luscious wheels and globes, painstakingly collated charts, and meticulous diagrams, many of them newly photographed exclusively for this edition.Some of these concepts provide exhaustive taxonomies of color, while others reflect upon the relationship of color and music, or the affinities between color and human emotions. Seminal works of color theory, such as Isaac Newton’s Opticks and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s hugely significant Zur Farbenlehre, are shown alongside rare and unfamiliar contributions, including the theosophical color systems of Charles Webster Leadbeater and Annie Besant, the comprehensive color ‘dictionary’ of Aloys John Maerz and Morris Rea Paul, and the patchwork combinations of the Japanese costume designer and artist Sanzo Wada. The two volumes also bring many intriguing and often overlooked works by women into the spotlight, including the radically inventive color “blots” of the English flower painter Mary Gartside and a botanical notebook by the pionieering spiritualist Hilma af Klint.The color systems that make up this edition are contextualized by introductory essays from editor Alexandra Loske and co-author Sarah Lowengard, while authoritative texts from the editor on the works reproduced set out each concept in further detail. Illuminating the history of color in all its shapes and forms, The Book of Colour Concepts offers a chromatic chronology unparalleled in scope.