Making colour

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the history of colour and pigments.

The first room looked at the science of colour, what the primary colours are and how they are used and the colour wheel. I would have liked a bit more on this as I am fascinated by how colours work together and had hoped this would fill that gap in my knowledge a bit better.

However the rest of the show was brilliant as it took a color in turn blue, red, yellow, purple, green and gold and silver and looked at the different pigments which have been used over the centuries to create that colour. There were examples of the minerals etc which had been used and a good video on how pigments were mixed with oil or egg to create paint.

It also discussed how some of the colours had changed over time and why they may appear differently to us now. All aspects of the show were illustrated by pictures from the collection. The whole thing was really interesting and also a chance to see some familiar works in a different context.

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