The World According to Colour

by James Fox

A beguiling cultural history of colour, by one of the rising stars of art history The subject of this book is mankind's extraordinary relationship with colour. It is composed of a series of voyages, ranging across the world and throughout history, which reveal the meanings that have been attached to the colours we see around us and the ways these have shaped our culture and imagination. It takes seven primary colours - black, red, yellow, blue, white, purple and green - and uncovers behind each a root idea, based on visual resemblances or properties so rudimentary as to be common to all societies. The book traces these meanings to show how they changed and multiplied, the role that they have played in our culture and history, and how understanding them allows us to see many of the milestones in the history of art - from Bronze Age gold-work to Turner, Titian to Yves Klein - in a new way. It proceeds by stories, which cumulatively tell another, larger one- a history of the world from the black nothing which preceded existence to the birth of our red-blooded species; the gilded gods who animated the world in antiquity to the blue horizons which framed the Age of Discovery; the pristine aspirations of Enlightenment, the technicolour innovation which fuelled the Industrial Revolution and the colour which most embodies the environmental crisis which now faces us.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, History, Science, Art History, Design, Microhistory

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2022

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meticulously-researched exploration of the kinds of cultural associations that have grown up around particular colours. Art historian James Fox takes seven colours and constructs a series of curious, revealing histories: the “mauve mania” that swept Victorian England influencing art and literature; the dye wars between manufacturers desperate to cash in on their discoveries; how the vivid yellows of a Turner painting attracted a health warning; how white became linked to ideas about purity and fuelled dangerous prejudices around notions of race and identity. Although I thought Fox’s conclusions about what the myriad meanings attached to colours say about humanity were a little too sweeping, his approach often reminded me of Neil MacGregor’s absorbing A History of the World in 100 Objects, Fox’s writing’s similarly accessible and lucid. He’s adept at unearthing and presenting an array of fascinating information. There are weaker sections that stray into exhaustive, laundry-list territory, transparency’s often achieved at the expense of nuance, and the sheer wealth of detail can be overwhelming but I think there’s more than enough compelling, stimulating material here to compensate for any shortcomings.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Allen Lane, imprint of Penguin Books for an arc

[Diz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This provides a fascinating look at the meanings and associations that colors have. The author takes a look at culture, history, myth, religion, art, and science and combines these sources to create a complex and fascinating look at how we relate to colors. I particularly recommend this to those who have an interest in history and culture as it feels that it draws on these fields extensively.

[Beth Storey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having been a fan of James Fox’s work and his thoughts on colour since watching his series on the subject in 2012, this book was my most anticipated release of 2021. The series, made for the BBC all those years ago illuminated so much about art history for me back then and encouraged me to look more closely and deeply at art. I often come back to ideas that James Fox brought up in those programmes and think about the work he discussed often, when I found out that he was working on a book about colour, I could not have been more excited.

Away from the time restrictions of making a documentary for broadcast, this book offers a much wider variety of colours to be explored and artist’s work to be featured. With the addition of black, purple, and green and much more space to explore red, white and yellow/gold, The World According to Colour, is a rich cultural history and full of art that has so much to say about colour it’s meaning, cultural significance and impact on civilisation.

In addition to the cultural history of art, as the title suggests, there is a mix of colour theory, the biology of how humans can recognise colour, as well the chemical make up of substances that make them a certain colour. It’s impressive that such a wide range of information can be contained in a single book, and with such a lightness of touch, but the author’s style is fluid and vivid and the book is so well researched that I found it a joy to read.

It’s difficult to highlight particular sections of this book when it covers such a broad range of sources and such a wide span of human history. But particularly the chapter on blue was a standout to me. The chapter discusses colour theory, the origins of ultramarine pigment, how the renaissance master of colour, Titian utilised this pigment to create the masterpiece of Bacchus and Ariadne and then how Yves Klein developed a pigment medium in the 1950s to show off the pigment in all it’s dazzling brilliance and tried to paint the whole world in International Klein Blue. It’s a whirlwind of colour, history and ideas and the most enjoyable way to read about art, when different ideas and theories can be connected across countries and centuries and artworks can be reinvigorated with fresh perspectives.

I really can’t recommend this book highly enough and would recommend it to any reader who is interested in colour, art, and human history. There is so much richness in this book that it’s impossible not to find a new idea or to see a familiar colour, in an entirely new way.

Thank you to Allen Lane for sending me a copy of the book to review.

[Djali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Avrei sicuramente preferito un saggio più “tecnico”; il libro mi ha dato l’impressione di essere un’opera di divulgazione e niente più.
L’approccio è poco sistematico e organizzato, con argomenti che a volte si accavallano e non vengono approfonditi in maniera adeguata. La trattazione generale appare confusa e poco lineare.
Lo considero più una raccolta di pillole di curiosità sui colori piuttosto che un vero e proprio saggio sulla storia socio-culturale del colore.
Mi rimarrà impresso ben poco di ciò che ho scoperto durante la lettura.

[terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

perfetto se volete vincere a trivial pursuit

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable book. I had read a few books about colours and their history by Michel Pastoureau, but this one by James Fox offers a more diverse overview - where Pastoureau focuses on France/Europe and on medieval times especially, it was refreshing to read more about the science behind colours and how they became more accessible, and their history across times and countries. I really enjoyed reading about various countries' legends and use of colours.. It was pleasantly written and easy to follow - really liked it.

Free ARC sent by Netgalley.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy through goodreads giveaways. As such, the plates (pictures referenced throughout the book) were not included so I had to reference them online.

The author does a lovely job painting (ha) the story of color throughout history. It took me longer than usual to read, but simply because it was so incredibly full of historical detail and fascinating facts I found myself often distractedly looking up tangents. Most fascinating were the ways the author contradicted my own American/Western European notions of color associations. Importantly, the white chapter addresses the suffering the reverence for whiteness has brought. For instance, blacks that mean life and reds that mean joy and calmness

Equally fascinating, however, were the historical origins of the physical dyes themselves to humans. Black through ash and carbon, red through iron, blood, and carmine, yellow through saffron, cardamom, blue through well…blue is tough to get!

Emphasized towards the end, we take colors and dyes for granted. But for millennia, all but the most common colors were entirely unattainable to humans. The world according to color helped open my eyes to the everyday and formerly mundane.

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply exceptional. Hyper-calculated in its research and choices of examples to pull from. Anyone who has seen me recently will be glad that I'm finished with this so I stop bothering them with "did you know..." or "guess what ..." facts about colours every 2 minutes. Enjoyed it so much that I was getting angry at myself that I would not be able to remember the fountain of knowledge and trivia this book contains.

[Meinardas Valkevičius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dažniausiai mes net nesusimąstome ką tiksliai spalvos reiškia ir kodėl parenkama būtent viena ar kita spalva. Šis spalvų vadovas apžvelgė kiekvieną spalvą nuo to kaip ji buvo sukurta ir kur bei kada naudota, taip pat ir ką ji reiškia šių laikų gyvenime.

[šimon betina · Rating 5 out of 5]

uzasny historicky antropologicky umelecky deep dive do farieb a ich vyznamu pre ludstvo

[Natalee Jobert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend! Fox draws connections between colors, language, and culture that are as unexpected as they are delightful.

[sheereen · Rating 3 out of 5]

fine. well researched for sure but just not my type of nonfiction book (too broad , im learning my preference is narrow and deep)

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cool one to read. There are so many nuggets of knowledge in this book.

There were some societies that didn't have a word for the color blue because it is so rare in nature. The color purple played an important part in the industrial revolution.

[Irmak · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Hedvig Bendsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally find nonfiction harder to rate and this is no exception. This book overall feels well researched and I did learn I few things, just not what feels like a full length book’s worth of things. It is clear the author has a lot of passion, when it comes to the topic of colour, human interpretation, history and associations but the way that passion was conveyed in the book felt unnecessarily over the top and grandiose, at times without clear connections or just a bit to shallow and obvious too have earned those large sweeping statements about the wonder of colour and humanity.(in a way that feels very “man” iykyk) In short I think this book fell into a weird space between wanting to be concise, easily understandable and approachable vs having a very wide scope in terms of time period, connections and overall ideas from the author that made it pretty good, but not great

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world according to colour (according to men)

[George Purdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exploration of the significance of colour to human societies across space and time, James Fox’s The world According to Colour is an ode to colour and its ability to be both “objective and subjective - ‘the place,’ as Cézanne put it, ‘where our brain and the universe meet.’”
Starting with black, each of this book’s seven chapters focus on a different colour, illuminating the ways in which artists, writers, philosophers and inventors have shaped and been shaped by colour, in turn informing the development of human religion and culture. A seemingly impossible task, Fox uses colour to provide a remarkable account of almost every aspect of human civilisation, from the red handprints of the earliest cave paintings to the invention of mauve dye in Victorian London. Whilst it is impossible to adeptly summarise the breadth of this work, it is possible to provide particular examples of key findings explored in the text:
- Blue is generally the last colour to be named in different languages, likely due to its scarcity in nature.
- Black, despite being associated with the underworld by the ancient Egyptians, was actually the colour of life because it represented the rich and fertile soils of the Nile delta.
- Purple only occurs in 0.06% of paintings before the middle of the nineteenth century because artists were unwilling to mix expensive red and blue pigments to create it.
A feat of writing,The World According to Colour is far more than a sobre account of art history, being imbued with humour and literary flare by its writer and being the most memorable and impressive work of non-fiction I have read in recent years. I will definitely be rereading it in the future.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book about colour. So far so standard. But this is also about psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, chemistry, alchemy, politics, art … you name it, James Fox has got it covered. The facts leap off the page not in a lecturing, boring way but in an engaging, entertaining way and entertained we definitely are. This is the sort of book you highlight or copy passages out of for future reference.

Starting from black and covering seven colours, the author takes us through how colours got their stories and why white is “good” and black is “bad” and the repercussions of that even today. The absence of colour is a colour in itself. We meet fascinating characters - the man who made a fortune because he stumbled upon purple while experimenting with coal tar! And another purple method that smelled of “rotting flesh, asafoetida, and garlic breath” where 10,000 mollusks were needed to make a gram of dye.

How a book about colour can pack so much in is amazing and I’m getting a full colour hardback version for my Christmas as the ebook - brilliant as it is - misses something. This is recommended as a gift for the person in your life who is hard to buy for - young or old and every artist, designer, or fashionista. A totally beguiling book.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review

[Carlos Casanueva Nardiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. Very interesting and enjoyable to read. I learn a lot of things about history and about the world in general. On top of that, I have learnt to love colours, although I still don´t know which one is my prefered one: blue, red, green, beige, white...

[Dorota Makarzec · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be James Fox when I grow up.

[Trevor Abbott · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s literally been a year. Sorry girl, you’re donezo. DNF

[cinamin •!•_•?• · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthropology, art history and colour symbolism, sapiens-esque. At times very interesting, at others the thread is a bit loose. The most interesting part for me was the history of synthetic pigments and dyes.

[ZB bumbebee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colour is pretty cool 🌈

[Sougeitu · Rating 5 out of 5]

推薦以彩圖模式或實體書閱讀。雖然作者在卷首附的彩圖都是盡人皆知級別的，但是閱讀過程中其實需要反復找出圖片進行對比才能獲得最好的閱讀體驗。
作品本身的質量已經無需多言，如果你想了解色彩學，這裡有簡單易懂的科普；如果你想了解色彩歷史，作者將其娓娓道來的同時知微見著，以此描繪了由色彩構建的世界史與人類對己身的認知。就像是後記中所寫的那樣，與其說這是一本關於色彩的書，不如說這是一本透過色彩看到我們——作為人類這一物種——自己的書。

[Eury10 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t even get passed the first chapter, the amount of misogyny and racism that this book displays is quite phenomenal.
The author omits or brushes over artists/artworks/movements that could have enriched his thesis when they aren’t straight white men:
- The first woman artist quoted appears on page 41, and her statements is immediately followed be the author making a supposition about what she meant (if only there was a way to know what a woman who is very much alive thinks…).
- The author dedicates two pages to the use of black and its connotations in Shakespeare’s work, with a quite extensive list of occurrences and plays without ever mentioning Othello. You know, one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays that features a black man as its protagonist… The very same play in which Iago uses insults based on the word "black" against Othello.
- When writing about the significance of the color black in ancient Egypt and the way it was perceived positively by this culture, the author mentions statues, artworks but fails to conjure up something that has been part of almost every representations of ancient Egypt up to this day—khôl. Black eye-liner still remains a staple of modern makeup routines (the global eyeliners market size was valued at approximately USD 3.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach around USD 5.8 billion by 2032) in many part of the world. For someone presenting themselves as an art historian doing scientific research, this sure feels like intellectual dishonesty.
- To him, Hebrew is apparently an "ugly" guttural language that evokes someone spitting "phlegm" out of their throat.

I will stop here, you get the gist.

And for the rest of the book, the author mainly exposes facts and theories that have been talked about many times, if you know a little bit about art history, you won’t learn much.

[mylogicisfuzzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, wide ranging cultural history of colour. Fox focuses on seven colours: black, red, white, yellow, blue, purple and green, taking in science (optics, chemistry, biology), perception, meaning and symbolism across cultures and time. There are religious social and ideological considerations, such as history of white’s association with purity, skin colour and cleanliness that led to racism. Negative meanings of black in Western Europe: death, evil, decay and so on are contrasted with different meanings black had in Japanese art, which I found particularly interesting. Fox also looks at linguistics and literature with examples from Shakespeare, Romantic poets and Orhan Pamuk among others and I made a note to reread My Name is Red, it’s been too long.

Fans of BBC4 art documentaries will likely remember Fox’s excellent series on three colours (blue, white and gold). He is an art historian first and foremost and the book really comes alive when he discusses how artists past and present use colour, from Turner and Monet to Ana Mendieta and David Nash. I read an advance copy without colour images on kindle and am planning on buying the hardback for reference and for the glorious art.

Overall, an impressive book, highly recommended. My thanks to Penguin, Allen Lane and Netgalley for the opportunity to read The World of Colour.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars (rounding up again- when are we getting half stars??)

Well written and compelling, but I think the scope of Fox’s project is ultimately too big. His book consistently returns to Western European art, particularly painting— a fine endeavor, but one I wish I would’ve seen a little less of in a book hoping to chronicle the world’s cultures. Despite this, many of the anecdotes he provides are diverse in geography and cultural relevance. Fox details cultural notations of color from some of South American’s indigenous tribes to the early connotations of color in Islam. All in all, an interesting overview, for certain, and a good light read.

[Caryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could give this book 0 stars, I would. I only read to page 17 and had to stop. His description of a Hebrew word as “an ugly, guttural noun that had to be coughed out of the throat like phlegm” is so offensive and anti-Semitic that I am unable and unwilling to read any more of this book. This is disappointing, as I am very interested in the subject matter. That said, I’m sure there are other books about the history of color that don’t describe Hebrew words so negatively. Don’t waste your time on this asshole.

[Shru · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story breathes, whispers, time travels and transforms as you turn each page. One of a kind.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Colour's ingredients exist outside of us, but its recipe resides within us.”

I really enjoy watching Fox’s many documentaries and so I was happy to stumble upon this book in the library, and I’m pleased to report that his talents extend to the written word too. This is clearly well researched, though be aware he doesn’t shy from a movie and book spoiler or three too.

We uncover so much through his exploration of seven colours, highlights include Velazquez’s exquisite and pioneering use of black, Turner and his chrome yellow and its many variants. The stunning ultramarine from 16th Century Venice, Yves Klein’s IKB (International Klein Blue). He explains Acyanoblepsia or blue-blind, later corrected and changed from a linguistic shortcoming rather than a perceptional one, he gives a scientific explanation as to how blue so often manages to evade our eye/perception/attention. The Purkinje Effect, is the reason most countries’ emergency vehicles are fitted with blue flashing lights and why filmmakers simulate nocturnal scenes with daytime shots with lavender blue filters.

“Up to 90% of our snap judgements are determined by colour.”

Recent studies show that there are at least 68 languages which fail to distinguish between blue and green, using one word, which linguists have called “grue”. There are also another 17 languages which don’t distinguish between blue black, green or yellow and two Aboriginal Australian languages which have no basic term for blue at all. Apparently this is largely down to its scarcity and because it so rarely adopts a tangible form in nature.

"Every person's visual system is unique. no two will interpret identical light information in the same way."

We also learn of the Female cosmetic coalition hypothesis. This in neither a feminist political party or a Big Pharma lobbyist, but a belief in the idea that, women once used their menstrual blood to demonstrate fertility and attract male attention, but the disadvantage being that these fluids were only accessible at certain times of the month, so the sign ran the risk of men abandoning non menstruating partners in favour of menstruating ones, leaving females two options compete or cooperate. So this, according to the hypothesis led all women in the community to apply red paint (red ochre) to their bodies to confuse men and prevent them from fleeing non-menstruating women.

There are certainly moments where Fox gets a little too carried away and stumbles and falters down a blind alley or two and can be a tad over eager with lists, seemingly flooding us with proof of his wide reading and irrelevant knowledge, gained from all that research. But this is a minor issue and overall this is a quality piece of work and I for one, gained a renewed appreciation for the range, depth, intensity and impact of colour on us and almost every single aspect of our lives.