Bright Earth
  • Published: 1 July 2008
  • ISBN: 9780099507130
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

Bright Earth

The Invention of Colour

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A brilliant exploration of the science of art and of colour

Colour in art - as in life - is both inspiring and uplifting, but where does it come from? How have artists found new hues, and how have these influenced their work? Beginning with the ancients - when just a handful of pigments made up the artist's palette - and charting the discoveries and developments that have led to the many splendoured rainbow of modern paints, Bright Earth brings the story of colour spectacularly alive. Packed with anecdotes about lucky accidents and hapless misfortunes in the quests for new colours, it provides an entertaining and fascinating new perspective on the science of art.
  • Published: 1 July 2008
  • ISBN: 9780099507130
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

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Invisible
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Praise for Bright Earth

Brings the mysterious subject of colour wonderfully alive. Quite literally an eye-opener

Economist

A succinct and elegantly structured new survey of Western painting. Ball pitches his learning just right between academic history and a highly readable series of anecdotes and biographical sketches

Daily Mail

Full of fascinating vignettes. Philip Ball writes engagingly on complicated topics

Sunday Telegraph

Scattered with attractive particles, sparkles with redolent names... A solid, well-researched compendium of information

TLS

A fascinatingly different account of the history of art

Scotland on Sunday

Brilliant...in every sense. Ball's book is the volume that has been missing from my library

Guardian

A mine of information...a fascinating book about art and science that is packed with anecdotes

Contemporary Physics

Bright Earth proves that many of the world's greatest artists owe a great debt to the questing colourmen behind them

Artists & Illustrators
penguin pop image
penguin pop image