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Color: General resources

Recommended books

Recommended image resources

Other resources

NOTE: “Colour / Color, … The form colour has been the most common spelling in British English since the 14th century; but color has also been in use continually, chiefly under Latin influence, since the 15th century, and is now the prevalent spelling in the United States.” (Oxford English Dictionary)

Recommended for all architectural research

Specialized resources on related topics

Horrocks, Chris (Editor), Cultures of colour : visual, material, textual, Berghahn Books, 2012 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Jablonski, Nina G., Living Color : the biological and social meaning of skin color, University of California Press, 2012 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Keevak, Michael, Becoming yellow: a short history of racial thinking, Princeton University Press, HT1523.K44 2011

Lenclos, Jean-Philippe, Colors of the world : the geography of color, W.W. Norton, NA2795.L42513 2004

MacLaury, Robert E. (Editor), Anthropology of color : interdisciplinary multilevel modeling, John Benjamins Publishing, 2007 (Ebook available via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Paterson, Ian. Dictionary of colour : a lexicon of the language of colour, Thorogood Publishing, 2004 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

St. Clair, Kassia, The secret lives of color, Penguin, BF789.C7S64 2017

Color and space in architecture and interior design, Gingko Press, NA2795.C635 2013

Doherty, Gareth (Editor), “Urbanisms of color”, New geographies #3, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, NA9000.N49 2010 #3

Erik, Mattie, The colours of ... : Frank O. Gehry, Jean Nouvel, … , De Gruyter, 2015

Hans, Ineke, Black bazaar : design dilemmas, nai010 publishers, NK1548.H36 2003

Lavin, Sylvia, “What color is it now?” Perspecta, #35, 2004, p. 98–111 (PDF available via Jstor)

McLachlan, Fiona, Architectural colour in the professional palette, Routledge, 2012 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Meerwein, Gerhard, Color : communication in architectural space, Birkhauser, 2007 (ebook available via SpringerLink)

McLeod, Virginia, Red : architecture in monochrome, Phaidon, NA2795.R43 2018

Rüegg, Arthur, Le Corbusier : polychromie architecturale : color keyboards from 1931 and 1959, Birkhäuser, NA1053.J4P65 2016

Schultz, Kerstin, Thinking color in space : positions, projects, potentials, Birkhäuser, NA2795.S3813 2019

Serra Lluch, Juan, Color for architects, Princeton Architectural Press, NA2795.S46 2019

Batchelor, David, Colour (Documents of contemporary art), MIT Press, N7432.7.C63 2008

Cruz Diez, Carlos, Reflection on color, Yale University Press, ND1488 .C7813 2023

Grovier, Kelly, The art of colour : the history of art in 39 pigments, Yale University Press, ND1510 .G768 2023

Hyman, John, The Objective eye : color, form, and reality in the theory of art, University of Chicago Press, 2006 (Ebook available via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Newman, G., et al., “Colour,” Grove Art Online, 2019

Pulliam, Heather, “Color,” Studies in Iconography, vol. 33, 2012, p. 3–14 (PDF available via Jstor)

Stein, Sally, “Toward a full-color turn in the optics of modern history,” American Art, Spring 2015, p. 15–21 (PDF available via Jstor)

Syson, Luke, Like life : sculpture, color, and the body, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NB1930.L545 2018

Blaszczyk, Regina Lee, The color revolution, MIT Press, 2012 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Color Marketing Group (“international association of color design professionals”)

“Color of the year” (COTY) Several color industry firms annually promote a “Color of the year,” usually as part of a color trend forecast or palette forecast. See Behr Paint (announced in August), Benjamin Moore (October), Farrow & Ball’s “Key colours” (January), Pantone, (December), PPG Paints, (June), Sherwin-Williams’s “Colormix forecast” (September), ….

Mead, Rebecca, “The luxury paint company creating a new kind of decorating anxiety,” The New Yorker, March 18, 2019

Pantone Color Institute (“color trend forecasting, brand color development, custom color solutions, or product palette selection”)

Syme, Patrick, Werner's nomenclature of colours : adapted to zoology, botany, chemistry, mineralogy, anatomy, and the arts, Smithsonian Books, ND1510 .S96 2018

Trautwein, Katrin, 225 colors : a selection for painters and conservators, architects and designers, Birkhäuser, NA2795 .T73 2017

Batchelor, David, The luminous and the grey, Reaktion Books, 2014 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Feeser, Andrea, Red, white, & black make blue : indigo in the fabric of Colonial South Carolina life, University of Georgia Press, 2013 (Ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Gass, William H., On being blue : a philosophical inquiry, New York Review Books, BH301.C6G37 2014

Bucklow, Spike, Red : the art and science of a colour, Reaktion Books, BF789.C7B83 2016

Pastoureau, Michel, Black : the history of a color, Princeton University Press, BF789.C7P3813 2009

Pastoureau, Michel, Blue : the history of a color, Princeton University Press, BF789.C7P3613 2001

Pastoureau, Michel, Green : the history of a color, Princeton University Press, BF789.C7P39513 2014

Pastoureau, Michel, Red : the history of a color, Princeton University Press, BF789.C7P39813 2016

Pastoureau, Michel, Yellow : the history of a color, Princeton University Press, BF789.C7P37513 2019

Steele, Valerie, author, Pink, the history of a punk, pretty, powerful color, Thames & Hudson, BF789.C7 S74 2018

Albers, Josef, Interaction of color [2 volume edition], Yale University Press, ND1489.A4 2009 (Library office)

Albers, Josef, Interaction of color, 4th edition, Yale University Press, ND1489.A4 2013

Buether, Axel, Colour : design principles, planning strategies, visual communication, Detail practice, 2014 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Theory of colors, MIT Press, QC495.G5 1970

Harris, Paul, Colour, AVA Publishing, NK1548.A42 2005

Itten, Johannes, The art of color : the subjective experience and objective rationale of color, Wiley, ND1495.P8I813

Itten, Johannes, The elements of colour, Wiley, ND1493.I8I813 1970

Kuehni, Rolf G., & Andreas Schwarz, Color ordered : a survey of color systems from antiquity to the present, Oxford University Press, 2008 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Runge, Philipp Otto, and Arthur Schopenhauer, On vision and colors, Princeton Architectural Press, 2010 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Trautwein, Katrin, 225 colors : a selection for painters and conservators, architects and designers, Birkhäuser, NA2795.T73 2017

Attokaran, Mathew, Natural food flavors and colorants, IFT Press, 2017 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Bamfield, Peter, and Michael G. Hutchings, Chromic phenomena : technological applications of colour chemistry, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2010 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Baty, Patrick, The anatomy of colour : the story of heritage paints and pigments, Thames & Hudson, NK2115.5.C6B383 2017

Berns, Roy S., Color science and the visual arts : a guide for conservators, curators, and the curious, Getty Conservation Institute, N8560.B47 2016

Burkinshaw, Stephen M., Physico-chemical aspects of textile coloration, Wiley, 2016 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

David, Alison Mathews, “Poisonous pigments: arsenical greens” and “Dangerous dyes: a pretty, deadly rainbow” in Fashion Victims: the dangers of dress past and present, Bloomsbury, RA779 .M38 2017

Douma, Michael, Pigments through the ages, (2008)

Finlay, Victoria, An atlas of rare & familiar colour : the Harvard Art Museums' Forbes Pigment Collection, Atelier éditions, ND1510.A85 2018

Finlay, Victoria, The brilliant history of color in art, Getty Publications, N7432.7.F56 2014

Grovier, Kelly, The art of colour : the history of art in 39 pigments, Yale University Press, ND1510 .G768 2023

Hawksley, Lucinda, Bitten by witch fever : wallpaper & arsenic in the Victorian home, Thames & Hudson, NK3400 .H39 2016

Lee, David, Nature's palette : the science of plant color, University of Chicago Press, 2007 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Phipps, Elena, “Cochineal red: the art history of a color,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 67, No. 3, Winter 2010 (PDF available via Jstor)

Ribeyrol, Charlotte, et al (editors), Colour revolution : Victorian art, fashion & design, Ashmolean Museum, NK1378 .C65 2023

Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC)

Christine Fernandez-Maloigne, et al. (Editors), Digital color imaging, Wiley, 2012 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Fairchild, Mark D., Color appearance models, Wiley, 2013 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Fernandez-Maloigne, Christine (Editor), Digital color : acquisition, perception, coding and rendering, Wiley, 2012 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Flueckinger, Barbara, et al., Color mania : the material of color in photography and film, Lars Müller Publishers, TR510.C64 2020

Flueckinger, Barbara, et al., Timeline of historical film colors, https://filmcolors.org/

Gevers, Theo, et al., Color in computer vision : fundamentals and applications, Wiley, 2012 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Higgins, Scott. Harnessing the technicolor rainbow : color design in the 1930s, University of Texas Press, 2007 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Kane, Carolyn L., Chromatic algorithms : synthetic color, computer art, and aesthetics after code, University of Chicago Press, 2014 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Miranda, Luis de, Being & neonness, MIT Press, B818.5.M5713 2019

Schrader, Paul, “Color,” Film Comment, November/December 2015, p. 52–56 (PDF available via Jstor)

Tooms, Michael S., Colour reproduction in electronic imaging systems : photography, television, cinematography, 2016 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Yumibe, Joshua, Moving color : early film, mass culture, modernism, Rutgers University Press, 2012 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Bloom, Joshua S., What are gamma-ray bursts?, Princeton University Press, 2011 (Ebook available via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Darrigol, Olivier. A History of optics from Greek antiquity to the nineteenth century, Oxford University Press, 2012 (Ebook available via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Electromagnetic waves and interference,” Kahn Academy, Accessed March 4, 2020

Grandy, David, “Light as a solution to puzzles about light,” Journal for General Philosophy of Science, v. 33, #2, 2002, p. 369–379 (PDF available via Jstor)

Jones, Roger, “Optics,” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, 1998

Newton, Isaac, Sir, Opticks : or, A treatise of the reflections, refractions, inflections & colours of light ; based on the 4th  ed., London, 1730, with a foreword by Albert Einstein, Dover Publications, QC353.N57 1979

Rowan-Robinson, Michael, Night vision : exploring the infrared universe, Cambridge University Press, 2013 (Ebook available via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Seeing the causes: optics and epistemology in the scientific revolution,” Synthese, April 2012 (Theme issue; PDFs available via Jstor)

Sepper, Dennis L., Newton's optical writings: a guided study, Rutgers University Press, QC353.S46 1993

Shevell, Steven K. (Editor), The science of color, Elsevier Science & Technology, 2003 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Simpson, Thomas K., Maxwell on the electromagnetic field : a guided study, Rutgers University Press, QC665.E4S554 1997

Trümper, Joachim E. & Gunther Hasinger (Editors), The universe in x-rays, Springer, 2008 (Ebook available via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Chirimuuta, M. (Mazviita), Outside color : perceptual science and the puzzle of color in philosophy, MIT Press, 2015 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Dresp-Langley, Birgitta (Editor), Importance of colour perception to animals and man, Nova Science Publishers, 2010 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Kastan, David Scott, On color, Yale University Press, BF789.C7K37 2018

Perspectives on colour perception,” Erkenntnis, Vol. 66, No. 1/2, Mar., 2007 (Theme issue; PDFs available via Jstor)

Skusevich, Darius & Petras Matikas (Editors), Color perception : physiology, processes and analysis, Nova Science Publishers, 2009 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Cohen, Jonathan, The red and the real : an essay on color ontology, Oxford University Press, 2009 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Descartes, René, “Treatise on light, and other principal objects of the senses,” in Descartes: The World and Other Writings, edited by Stephen Gaukroger, Cambridge University Press, 1998 (Ebook available via ProQuest Ebook Central)

Gierlinger, Frederik & Stefan Riegelnik, Wittgenstein on colour, De Gruyter, 2014 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Hilbert, David R., “Theories of colour,” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, 1998

Levine, Joseph, “Colour and qualia,” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, 2011

Maund, Barry, "Color," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

Smith, A. Mark, “What is the history of medieval optics really about?” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, v. 148, #2, 2004, p. 180–194 (PDF available via Jstor)

Storozhuk, Anna, Color: ontological status and epistemic role, Nova Science Publishers, 2010 (ebook available via Proquest Ebook Central)

Please note

  • These guides are intended to provide initial orientation, and suggest a variety of different lines of investigation—not take the place of individual research.
  • All the resources cited here--print and digital--are available through the Kappe Library at SCI-Arc.Items not available at SCI-Arc are not included.
  • Surveys covering multiple projects are preferred over monographic studies focusing on specific works or individuals.
  • Resources on Los Angeles and Southern California are stressed.
  • Proprietary digital resources (Avery Index, Oxford Art Online, ArtStor, etc) can be accessed on-campus at SCI-ARC via any SCI-Arc internet provider. Off-campus they can be accessed 24/7 via the Kappe Library proxy server, and a valid SCI-Arc Network username and password.

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