BOOK REVIEWS
Color and Its Reproduction, 2nd Edition, by Gary G.
Field, GATF Press, Pittsburgh, 1998. 486 pp. $65
This is a substantial hard-backed book with 455 pages, a
thorough list of references and a comprehensive index. As
you would expect from a book of this title the quality of the
printing is excellent, with large, easily-read typescript on
coated paper and copious color illustrations. One of the
references is Prof. Robert Hunt’s book ‘The Reproduction
of Colour’, 5th Edition, Fountain Press, 1995, and it was to
this volume that I naturally turned in order to make com-
parisons.
Field states in his preface that his book “is primarily
directed to those involved in the production of printed
color reproductions; notably, skilled prepress and print-
ing personnel, quality analysts and production manag-
ers.” Hunt’s book, on the other hand, puts equal emphasis
on colour photography and television, and leaves colour
printing until last. A comparison of the indices of the two
books confirms the impression. Field has 29 references
including some whole sections on ‘dot gain’ whereas
Hunt has 2. ‘Density’ has 49 in Field and 19 (but divided
into categories such as actinic, analytical, diffuse etc.) in
Hunt. It would be frustrating to locate the type of density
of interest in the former case! ‘Coloured couplers’ gets 7
mentions in Hunt’s index, along with one on ‘Colour
development, dye coupling’ but there is no sign of the
subject at all in Field’s. ‘Color separation’ has 47 men-
tions in Field and a whole chapter devoted to the subject,
whereas it does not feature at all in Hunt’s index. There
is just one on ‘Separation negatives’. The 2 books are
clearly very different, which goes to show that you can-
not judge a book by its title.
However, Field, on page 1, states that the color repro-
duction process “includes making photographic color trans-
parencies and prints, television images, computer monitor
displays and printed reproductions.” It is a pity, therefore,
that the subjects of photography, television and monitors are
so skimpily covered.
There are 15 chapters in Field’s book, chapters 7-15
being about color printing on paper. One might expect a
chapter entitled ‘Color Communication’ (chapter 14) to be
broader than this, but it is entirely centered on printing.
Chapters 1-6 are about the history of color reproduction,
color theory, perception, measurement and specification,
with a rogue chapter, chapter 3, inserted on the subject of
feed-back and control systems for color management in
printing companies. This would have been better placed
near the end of the book, but is clearly a specialism of the
author.
Chapter 1, on the history of color reproduction, con-
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tains a long list of landmark developments without the
benefit of theory, which comes later, or diagrams to
clarify what the inventions entailed. I found some errors
in the early chapters, but will only mention two here.
a. In the diagrams to illustrate 3 color vision theories on
page 52 there seems to be no signal passed from the
red-sensitive cones to the brain.
b. The diagram of the gamut of a good commercial process
ink set on the CIE chromaticity chart on page 135 and on
the front cover of the book shows white at its center.
This is unfortunate in view of the fact that subtractive
mixtures will only produce grey or black, and tradition-
ally it is in diagrams illustrating additive mixture that
white is placed at the center.
There are some surprising omissions in the book too. I
would have expected to see a diagram to illustrate a
cross-screen grid and another to show how halftone im-
ages are produced from a continuous tone negative early
on in the book. Mention of a diffraction grating when
discussing means of producing the spectrum is surely
essential. When discussing color order systems and at-
lases I thought a printer would at least mention the
Pantone System. The lack of a single chemical formula or
mathematical equation except in the Appendices is also
surprising.
In conclusion I have to admit that I am not in a position
to make much comment on the graphics content of this
book, but from what I can glean it is excellent.
DR. CHRIS HAWKYARD
Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism by
John Gage, University of California Press, 1999. 320 pp.
Cloth $55; paper $35
I view color as somewhat fluid and untenable as opposed to
color as completely quantifiable and determinate. For this
reason, I appreciate the writings of John Gage, who empha-
sizes that color in its full form can only be examined with a
multidisciplinary viewpoint, because there are no exact so-
lutions to color problems. For example, the quantification of
a specific color leads us no closer to understanding how a
culture attaches meaning to that color; formal art analyses
do not answer the questions of how a public interacts with
color on a daily basis. And this is the theme of his book,
Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism. Gage
succinctly and wonderfully outlines this theme:
COLOR research and application
 “[Colour]. . .is like all formal characteristics ideologi-
cally neutral. It can be seen to have served a very wide
range of aesthetic and symbolic purposes; and the same
colours or combinations of colours can, for example,
be shown to have held quite antithetical connotations
in different periods and cultures, and even at the same
time and in the same place.”
Gage presents the larger picture from the perspective of
an art historian, who strips colors of their presumed mean-
ings so they exist as indifferent constituents. He is equally
comfortable presenting Medieval assumptions that color
was not primarily a matter of hue, the rudiments of contex-
tual theory. To read Gage is to meander with him on less
trodden paths. Published on the heals of Color and Culture,
this is a compilation of material that Gage says did not find
a place in that book. From a chapter on William Blake’s
interest in optics to synaesthesia, Gage provides his readers
fascinating glimpses into the diverse aspects of color. A
section on shot fabrics, for example, those woven with warp
and weft threads of different colors, is one such rewarding
digression. Often enamored by the Renaissance painters
such as Andrea del Sarto, the shifting of colors on shot
fabrics led to the invention of the painterly technique called
cangiantismo, the representation of shadows on fabrics with
color changes rather than value changes as a way to intro-
duce more luminous colors into the paintings. Gage mines
such topics with extensiveness and perspicacity as open-
ended questions, which documents from history can eluci-
date.
The second theme that appears from such an approach is
echoed in the book’s title. There exists historically a po-
lemic between those who approach color understanding
scientifically and those who regard color as an intuitive
procedure. Gage writes:
“Since Newton the science and the art of colour have
been usually treated as entirely distinct, and yet to treat
them so is to miss many of the most intriguing as-
pects.”
At an 1817 dinner party, Benjamin Haydon remarked that
Newton believed nothing unless it was as clear as three
sides of a triangle. Another member of that discussion was
the poet Keats, who went home to pen lines in his Lamia
attacking Newton, “Do not all charms fly at the mere touch
of cold philosophy?” and that his theories “. . .Unweave the
rainbow.”
We may be tempted to delegate such positions to history.
However, ask artists how they choose their colors, and a
large number will remark that they choose them by intu-
ition. They consider, and I think incorrectly so, that theory
is nothing but a dry exercise that can kill any innate talent
for color usage. Investigations into how color study evolved
into two antithetical viewpoints provide exciting reading.
Gage pursues this question by reexamining the broad-based
mutual influence found in artistic and scientific discoveries.
Volume 25, Number 5, October 2000
An account of the development of the prism, called by
Christopher Merrett in 1662 “the fool’s Paradise” takes the
reader through a lineage starting with investigations of the
colors passing through hexagonal stones in the 1270s and
culminating with the publication of Jodocus Trutfetter’s
Philosophie Naturalis Summa of 1517. Here, the predeces-
sors to Newton’s experiments are found in Trutfetter’s
optical experiments in a darkened room, where he allowed
light to enter through a single hole in the shutter. He then
passed through the light a variety of optical devices includ-
ing a glass rod, a mirror, and a hexagonal stone. Although
Trutfetter does not mention a triangular glass or prism (the
prism was evidently not seen before the middle of the 16th
century), Newton’s own experiments of 1666 echo the
methodology of these experiments. Upon viewing the spec-
trum, Newton attempted to articulate the exact number of
discrete colors cast by the prism: first citing eleven, then
five, and finally deciding upon seven. It is Gage’s preoccu-
pation not merely to relate a well-known historical mile-
stone, but to enlarge it. This inquiry into the historical
context and the way interest in light cast by hexagonal
stones by numerous researchers predating Newton certainly
broadens the narrative. Newton’s settling upon seven colors
was a correlation with seven tones of the Western musical
scale, indicating a preoccupation with a viewpoint that
suggested the number of colors should fit with a greater or
more divine ordering system. Gage demonstrates how such
a viewpoint was not new; around 1355 the three colors gold,
scarlet, and green were suggested as colors relating not only
to the Trinity and a correlative triad, but also found in the
observed colors of nature such as on a peacock’s tail. These
colorful explorations and foundations are wonderfully ex-
plored by Gage’s careful research and engrossing writing.
Those interested in color-ordering systems cannot fail to
note how early models were bounded by regular polygons,
a natural extension of the proposition that a divine and
perfect universe must in its parts be beautifully ordered. The
philosophical premise of William of Ockham, called Ock-
ham’s Razor, states that “Entities are not to be multiplied
beyond necessity,” or, put in another way, nature takes the
simplest course to get something done. This is one of the
delights in reading Gage; by using other texts contempora-
neous to early investigations of color, he broadens the
foundation of influence. He suggests that Ockham’s Razor
plays a larger role in the perception of and ordering of
colors. Thus, Newton’s antagonist Robert Hooke sought to
apply the reductive premise by constructing a theory utiliz-
ing only two primary colors. These reductive theories even-
tually confounded painters, as well as those who attempted
to create practical color models and unified color theories.
One may ask if Gage reaches his goal of presenting a case
strong enough to unify the polarized disciplines of color
study. He attempts and succeeds in showing that the lines
between art and science, between the operations of nature
and the activities of artists, were linked since pre-Socratic
times and that the rift between the two is relatively recent.
Twentieth-century developments of color theory and re-
383
searches into the eye/brain system are not Gage’s forté, even
though the connection between creative endeavors and color
science has proven a very valuable impetus for many twen-
tieth-century artists and researchers. Thus, while Gage fi-
nally suggests that recent technological advances can only
help artists, thus reuniting the two, it is a determination
gleaned from a potpourri of essays and presentations of
historical positions. Or in his words:
“If there is a unifying thread running through these
chapters, it is that since colour has a vivid life outside
the realm of art, its problems even within that realm
cannot be understood exclusively from within the his-
tory and theory of art itself; or rather that at least in
respect of colour, that history and that theory must be
seen to be part of a larger picture.”
Detailing the point of some Byzantine mosaics: he rec-
ognizes that the optical result caused by small tesserae
arranged with staggered colors is a mingling to the eye,
which creates soft edges and shimmering color. The late
Floyd Ratliff approached the experience of viewing small
pieces of color from a psychophysical perspective by pro-
ceeding with the physiological process and moving toward
the psychological. Gage immediately focuses on the artistic
function of the colors. To him they invite a “. . .continual
advance and retreat by the spectator,” because they never
completely fuse to one single color. This is an obvious fact
to anyone who has ever stood before a mosaic or a neo-
impressionist painting, and a fact in contradiction to a
number of art historians who blindly posit that the small
marks blend to a solid color with any viewing distance.
There are many such trenchant expositions in this book
and it’s hard to find anything to disagree with. A few readers
may feel their hair bristle upon reading Gage’s pronounce-
ment that the work of Berlin and Kay is “remarkably in-
consequential.” Their groundbreaking work sparked exten-
sive research into the connections between language and
color, a debt owed to them by many researchers. Further-
more, Gage suggests Berlin and Kay’s research is not par-
ticularly relevant to everyday life, where we are far more
concerned with nuances of color rather than primaries. My
experience in the classroom with hundreds of beginning
painters and students of color directly contradicts this state-
ment. To them a sky is blue, a tree green — their mental
conception corresponds more with Berlin and Kay’s eleven
basic colors, and this reduced notion appears to circumvent
their early ability to perceive color nuances. Their difficulty
in describing colors in terms of hue, value, and saturation,
further suggests, at least to me, the ways in which linguistic
categorization of colors influences perceptions.
Color and Meaning is profusely illustrated with color and
black-and-white plates, and this makes for pleasurable read-
ing, because the work in question is represented. Thirty-four
pages of notes and a 6-page selected bibliography allow
readers to look up the source being discussed. Indeed, this is
384
a real strength of Gage’s work. His reliance on sources and
the presentation of original documents rather than relying
on later interpretations appears in some cases radical, be-
cause the conclusions contradict many poorly researched
books. Gage’s care in researching material sets a model for
how art historians should approach color.
A fascinating chapter suggests that Matisse shifted from
a position of conceiving black as a dark value to that of
colored light. This idea is crowned by his title page for the
1943 “De la Couleur” in which a black sun sends forth her
rays. Matisse is said to have remarked that when he didn’t
know what color to use he would apply black, but Gage digs
further. Matisse attributes his use of black to black ground
monotypes he did about 1914. In the same year, we learn
that he may have seen black conte crayon drawings by
Seurat that Felix Fénéon had in his collection, as well as
Picasso’s Harlequin of 1915, a painting containing a black
ground. But why Matisse later seemed to view black as a
light is deeper than artistic influences and, according to
Gage, perhaps fueled by contemporary interest in black light
as a physical phenomenon, as developed by Gustave Le Bon
starting in 1896. Le Bon’s premise was that the visible
spectrum formed less than one-tenth of the whole, and he
showed that infra-red and other radiations due to invisible
phosphorescence could act like light while remaining invis-
ible, a fact he demonstrated with the use of photography.
Whether Matisse was aware of Le Bon’s work is debatable;
he possibly read an article on the subject in 1913. Gage
presents a case of possible influence upon a portrait Matisse
did of his wife in 1913. Here the eyes are blackened out, and
another portrait of 1914 shows arching rays emanating from
the sitter, a concept described by Le Bon in his article of
1913.
In his essay “Color Has Not Yet Been Named: Objectiv-
ity in Deconstruction,” Stephen Melville offers this unpur-
sued overview:
“Subjective and objective, physically fixed and cultur-
ally constructed, absolutely proper and endlessly dis-
placed, color can appear as an unthinkable scandal.
The story of color and its theory within the history of
art is a history of oscillations between its reduction to
charm or ornament and its valorization as the radical
truth of painting. From these oscillations other vibra-
tions are repeatedly set in motion that touch and disturb
matters as purely art-historical as the complex inter-
locking borders among and within the individual arts
and as culturally far-reaching as codings of race and
gender and images of activity and passivity.”
Taken as a challenge for research, the paragraph could
easily sum up Gage’s brilliant work. Color and Meaning is
a magnificent read and an impeccable resource.
CHRISTOPHER WILLARD
COLOR research and application