Our keynote speaker will be at 11 am EST on January 6th, 2024.
Color and the Cosmic Order: Color Theories in Medieval and Early-Modern Europe
How was color understood in the centuries before Isaac Newton cast a sunbeam through a prism? Pigment grinders, dyers, painters and glaziers dealt with the material realities of color. But what did theologians and natural philosophers have to say about color? About its origins, and place in the cosmos? Perhaps not surprisingly, theories of color and color mixture relied on both secular and religious theories of universal order. This talk will survey a number of color theories from the 12th to 17th century. We will examine, in particular, the lasting echoes of four main classical sources: Aristotle’s Meteorology and of Sense and the Sensible, Pseudo-Aristotle’s of Colors, and Pythagoras’ concept of musica universalis. Finally, Newton’s color circle will be reassessed as the logical end-result of this discourse, rather than a radical departure from it.
About the Speaker: Peter Donahue is an art educator, painter, cartoonist, and graphic designer. He chairs the Art and Design department at a small private school in New Jersey, where he currently teaches an art foundations course. As a freelance color theory consultant and graphic designer, Peter has worked with a variety of institutions, including museums, universities, tech companies, and a major art supply manufacturer. He is a member of the Inter-Society Color Council, and collaborates with the Colour Literacy Project, a joint project between the ISCC and the International Color Association. As a content creator with hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, Peter’s goal is to make science-based color theory accessible to a wide variety of artists and creators. Peter’s free color tools and graphics have been adopted by university professors, make-up artists, opticians and other professionals, hobbyists, and students around the world.