Poltirsh reviewed The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair
None
2 stars
I ask more from nonfiction books than a disjointed compilation of anecdotes
Hardcover, 320 pages
English language
Published Oct. 14, 2017 by Penguin Books.
The Secret Lives of Color
The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of seventy-five fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history.
In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh’s chrome yellow sunflowers or punk’s fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of color tell the vivid story of our culture.
Chris reviewed The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair
None
4 stars
Fascinating trip through the various shades and tints and colours that surround us. Not in depth enough for many people - but that just means you have knowledge that isn't here (for example this isn't the place for an indepth discussion of languages' development of colour and that some such as Piraha' have very few colour words).
Some nice conundrums turn up here and there notwithstanding - the casually-dropped mention of werewolves in medieval Europe (people with rabies?), the 15th riddle and what it might have referred to (a porcupine, is the current best guess - while not native to England they were found in Italy at the time), the non-colour that is Mountbatten Pink (but Union Castle hulls are a shade of lavender which isn't the same), and the story of Vantablack, which surely requires a reference to the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy but no.
Curious omissions given …
Fascinating trip through the various shades and tints and colours that surround us. Not in depth enough for many people - but that just means you have knowledge that isn't here (for example this isn't the place for an indepth discussion of languages' development of colour and that some such as Piraha' have very few colour words).
Some nice conundrums turn up here and there notwithstanding - the casually-dropped mention of werewolves in medieval Europe (people with rabies?), the 15th riddle and what it might have referred to (a porcupine, is the current best guess - while not native to England they were found in Italy at the time), the non-colour that is Mountbatten Pink (but Union Castle hulls are a shade of lavender which isn't the same), and the story of Vantablack, which surely requires a reference to the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy but no.
Curious omissions given her dissection of pink for boys and blue for girls (only now it's the other way round) include the history of violet or purple as the colour of the Women's Movement.
The book on flag colours and their symbolism is for another volume (and will we ever see the flag of the United British Republic fly - blue for Scotland, white for England and green for Wales - it seems unlikely) but here we do find that the Irish flag is a rebus - peace (white) between the Catholics (green) and the Protestants (orange). And the Dutch flag was originally blue-white-orange but being the first tricolor and thus a long time ago, there was no orange dye that wouldn't fade, so they went with red.
Subjects
- Nonfiction
- Graphic Design
- Art History
- Social History
- Fashion
- Color