Chromophobia (FOCI) (Focus on Contemporary Issues (Reaktion Books))

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Chromophobia manifests itself in the many and varied attempts to purge colour from culture, to devalue colour, to diminish its significance, to deny its complexity. More specifically: this purging of colour is usually accomplished in one of two ways. In the first, colour is made out to be the property of some ‘foreign’ body - usually the feminine, the oriental, the primitive, the infantile, the vulgar, the queer or the pathological. In the second, colour is relegated to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential or the cosmetic. In one, colour is regarded as alien and therefore dangerous; in the other, it is perceived merely as a secondary quality of experience, and thus unworthy of serious consideration. Colour is dangerous, or it is trivial, or it is both. (It is typical of prejudices to conflate the sinister and the superficial.) Either way, colour is routinely excluded from the higher concerns of the Mind. It is other to the higher values of Western culture. Or perhaps culture is other to the higher values of colour. Or colour is the corruption of culture. [...]

He investigates rationalist 19th-century color theorists (one who is named Blanc) and stops at Le Corbusier, who removed color from the Master Narrative of modern architecture. Other chapters are on cosmetic color, which is explicated in the other Romaticist, artifice-laden 19th century of Huysmans and Baudelaire.David Batchelor exposes some key truths about how colour in recent history is experienced, purposefully trivialized and in essence, feared by men in power; especially those of a higher social class and...well, white. Endlich ist noch bemerkenswert, dass wilde Nationen, ungebildete Menschen, Kinder eine große Vorliebe für lebhafte [Meine Betonung] Farben empfinden, dass Tiere bei gewissen Farben in Zorn geraten, dass gebildete Menschen in Kleidung und sonstiger Umgebung die lebhaften [Meine Betonung] Farben vermeiden und sie durchgängig von sich zu entfernen suchen. Beyond his visual practice, Batchelor has explored the importance of colour in his much-admired book Chromophobia, which explores the aversion to its use in western cultures, or as the author puts it, 'since antiquity, colour has been systematically marginalised, reviled, diminished and degraded'. Adding colour to woodwork can be a good place to start Paul Massey Introducing second, third (and fourth and fifth!) colours Ratliff, Jonathan (2009). The Exploration of Color Theory in Museum Education Using Works Found in the J. B. Speed Museum's Collection. ISBN 9781109300321 . Retrieved 22 August 2014.

Taussig, Michael (2009-05-01). What Color Is the Sacred?. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226790060 . Retrieved 22 August 2014. The central argument of Chromophobia is that a chromophobic impulse – a fear of corruption or contamination through colour – lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge colour, either by making it the property of some foreign body – the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological – or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic. Chromophobia has been a cultural phenomenon since ancient Greek times; this book is concerned with the motivations behind chromophobia and with forms of resistance to it. Batchelor considers the work of a wide range of writers and artists and explores diverse imagery including Herman Melville's ‘Great White Whale’, Aldous Huxley's ‘Reflections on Mescaline’, Le Corbusier's Journey to the East and L Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. Batchelor also discusses the use of colour in Pop, Minimal, and more recent art. Batchelor came up with an irresistible collection of anecdotes relating to the experience and believes on color, he relates the tales to quotes and thus surfaces out the full meaning of the issues surrounding color. Although held as a past concept, he presents a passionate and cumulative prose that helps reveal why the western culture disgusts and qualms the color. [3]Chromophobia ultimately is a consciousness-raiser disguised as an art theory book. As silly as it might sound -- and silliness can be a property of color -- it made me think about the fuchsia jeans I almost bought at Helmut Lang. Then about the latent spirituality in Banana Republic ads on the subway, with more color in them than anything else around me.