A Colour A Day: Week 29. 5th -11th October

Jo Volley writes…

In the early 1800’s the mineralogist Abraham Werner published the Nomenclature of Colours to identify minerals by key characteristics. It was later amended by Patrick Syme, C19 Scottish flower painter, having been introduced to it by Robert Jameson who had studied for a year under Werner before becoming a professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University. Jameson had matched Werner’s descriptions with the actual minerals, Syme then used these as his starting point for the colour names, descriptions and actual colour charts introducing references to animals and vegetables. Darwin took a copy on the HMS Beagle voyage (1831-1836) and its terminology, ‘lent both precision and lyricism to Darwin’s writings, whether he was detailing the changeable ‘hyacinth red and chestnut brown’ of the cuttlefish, ‘the primrose yellow’ of species of sea hare, or the ‘light auricular purple’ and provided his naturalist contemporaries with clear point of reference, and enabled all his readers to clearly envision the creatures and settings of lands that most, in a pre-photography age, would never see.’

Extracts from Publisher’s notes Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, Natural History Museum

 

 

A a cross- and interdisciplinary event at the UCL Slade School of Fine Art to celebrate International Colour Day and World Poetry Day took place on 20th and 21st March 2019. This included all things colourful and poetic and often both, from talks, poetry readings, to making and mixing pigments, and looking at images in the accompanying exhibition The Nomenclature of Colours.

The symposium was conceived and organised by Jo Volley of the Slade School and the exhibition The Nomenclature of Colours was curated by Jo and Stephanie Nebbia. The photos used here were taken by Gabriela Giroletti and Ruth Siddall.

The full programme is available here.

 

Speakers talking about colour and research were; Michael Berkowitz, Malina Busch, Jane Bustin, Mark Cann, David Dobson, Taylor Enoch, Roland-Francois Lack, Liz Lawes, Andy Leak, Antoni Malinowski, Onya McCausland, Dimitris Mylonas, Ruth Siddall, Henrietta Simson, Estelle Thompson and Edward Winters.

The poets who read from their work were Mataio Austin Dean, Rhun Jones, Sharon Morris, Fabian Peake and George Szirtes. Caroline de Lannoy‘s ‘Colour Tale’ was performed by Caroline and Slade School students, the ‘Colour Tale Choristers’.

David Dobson, Ian Rowlands and Jo Volley demonstrated making and mixing pigments.

Looking at Josef Albers’s silk screen prints from the Slade’s edition of Interaction of Colour in a talk and discussion led by Malina Busch.

An exhibition of pigments in the Material Museum curated by Jo Volley.