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White is eternal, black is sad?Color and Culture
June 3, Thursday
Discussion19:00
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Color is indispensable component of our visual experience. Its perception
varies depending on historical period and cultural context. Some colors we see,
others we do not notice, some of them are identified and called in a language
but eventually "disappear" while other ones, particularly disturbing and
frightening colors (eg, yellow), become fashionable and rehabilitated in the
eyes of contemporaries. Let's take black for example. It has come a long way
from aristocratic, mourning, official to bohemian, the color of protest and
non-conformism. Another example is saturated blue, red and black which before
the invention of “democratic” aniline dyes in the XIX, were available only to
representatives of higher society because of its natural dyes and high cost.
The problem of color at all times attracted attention of philosophers, artists,
naturalists, and later researchers from different areas. Scientists have come
to a curious conclusion: if a language has two basic color names, it is black
(dark) and white (bright), if three colors, red is added to black and white, if
four - yellow, blue or green. All this is based on the logic how and in what
sequence the color is identified by culture and called in the language.
Starting with white (which combined two opposite meanings of life, death and
rebirth) and black (the most polysemantic color, which has been valued by
aristocrats, priests, officials, later the color of dandies, artistic bohemia
and the fashion world), it turns to red (a color of royal families,
revolutionary flag, coat of Napoleon's army, lights over the entrance to the
brothels, pioneer scarves and after the color of magic slippers, endowing its
owners with supernatural powers), and in general it turns to bright colors,
which until recently were considered to be dangerous and therefore undesirable
in clothes. Participants: |
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