Blog Assignment #5

The experience and experimentation of artists has influenced our understanding of colour and the development of a theory of colour vision through the way that they experimented with colour and light through optical mixing and simultaneous contrast. Simultaneous contrast is strongest when the two colours are complementary, which are colours that are completely opposite on a colour circle like Newton’s colour circle.  And example of this is Vincent Van Gogh’s painting ‘The Night Café’. “I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green.” ^{1 (Gage, J)}

Reference:

Gage, J. (1993). Colours of the Mind in Colour and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction (pp.191-212). New York: Thames and Hudson.

Blog Assignment #4

Adolf Loos argued on 1908 that 'The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use." I agree with this because the history and development of design follows that statement closely. An example of this is the image of the vase below, as it does not look like a traditional vase or even a vase at all. It looks more like just a decorative form.The way that the designer has reshaped a traditional vase and the use of colour also adds to the uniqueness of the design. The sleek, beautiful design and shape of the vase attracts the eye unlike a traditional vase.

As stated in this weeks reading from Adolf Loos’ essay 'Ornament and Crime', "...But if the ornament is beautiful."¹ (Loos) Loos then went on to say "If I want to eat a piece of gingerbread I will choose one that is completely plain and not a piece which represents a baby in arms of a horse-rider, a piece that is covered in decoration."² (Loos) I can see how this relates to modern design and in the image of the vase as the vase uses a form to show beauty rather than being ornamented, rather than being decorated. 

Works Cited

Loos, A. (n.d.). Ornament and Crime.