Exploring Colour in Contemporary Art – Epistemic Boundaries and Artistic Practices

This thesis is the result of exploring contemporary artists’ approaches to colour and comparing those approaches with notions of colour in colour philosophy, philosophy of art and artistic colour theories. Since the 1960s, artists have used colours in an ever-increasing variety of media, materials and spatial and temporal contexts. The postmodern crisis of grand narratives as described by Jean-François Lyotard is evident in their attitudes towards universalist and transcendent notions of colour. From the 1990s onwards, the globalisation of the art market, the launching of the Internet and the availability of cheap air travel have granted artists access to ways of using colour that challenge the abstract and normative rules which continue to dominate traditional colour theory. My main research questions are: 1) How do contemporary artists use colour in their works and artistic actions? What governs or guides their choice of colours? 2) What is the relation of colour theories to contemporary art praxis? The research is in six parts. Part 1, Nine conversations, presents interviews that I have made with nine contemporary artists, Kristi Kongi, Jussi Goman, Vesa-Pekka Rannikko, Inka Kivalo, Lois Swirnoff, Nathalie Miebach, Douglas Breault, Ann Veronica Janssens and David Batchelor, about their ways of using colour in their art. Part 2, Epistemology of colour, is an overview of current ontology and epistemology of colour. Part 3, Philosophies about colour in art, is a discussion of texts about colour in art by the French philosophers Mikel Dufrenne, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Gilles Deleuze, Jean-François Lyotard and Michel Henry. Part 4, Guidelines, rules and theories for artists, is a review of recent texts and theories about colour which have been written specifically for artists by artists and art pedagogues. Part 5, Contemporary colours, takes a look at approaches, methods and applications of colour by contemporary artists, beginning with examples from artists of the groups Gutai and Nouveau réalisme and ending with present-day examples. The thesis ends in Part 6 with final conclusions and a discussion of unanswered questions and some further thoughts. The research revealed a marked epistemological gap between current colour theory and contemporary art praxis. Rather than basing their strategies and decisions on available theories of colour relationships, contemporary artists prefer to invent new approaches and applications of colour which diverge from or challenge these theories. Another important finding was the marked difference in knowledges and styles of speaking and writing about colour in the three epis¬temes of colour philosophy, philosophy of art and colour pedagogy. The visually and poetically informed “figural” language of the philosophers discussed in part 3 was found to be closest to the way contemporary artists view and use colour.

Department dc:contributor.department

Taiteen ja median laitos

Grantor dc:publisher

Aalto University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Arnkil, Harald

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Nyman, Göte, Prof., Finland
• Hacklin, Saara, PhD, Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Finland
• Hohti, Paula, Prof., Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland

Contributors dc:contributor

• Aalto-yliopisto
• Aalto University

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/135591

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aaltodoc.aalto.fi:123456789/135591