'Whether scooped up off the palette, deployed as propaganda or opening the doors of perception, colour is central to art. This chronological anthology reflects on the aesthetic, cultural and philosophical meaning of colour to artists within the broader context of anthropology, film, philosophy and science. Those who loathe colour have had as much to say as those who love it. Establishing colour as a central theme in the story of modern art, this is an indispensable handbook to the definitions and debates around its history, meaning and use.

'Artists and writers include: Theodor Adorno, Joseph Albers, Roland Barthes, Charles Baudelaire, Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, Charles Blanc, Faber Birren, Mel Bochner, Osip Brik, Manlio Brusatin, Daniel Buren, Le Corbusier, Tacita Dean, Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Maurice Denis, Theo van Doesburg, Jimmie Durham, Thierry de Duve, Umberto Eco, Helen Frankenthaler, Paul Gauguin, Peter Halley, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Mike Kelley, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, Julia Kristeva, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacqueline Lichtenstein, Magnetic Fields, Kazimir Malevich, Piero Manzoni, Herman Melville, Henri Michaux, Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland, Hélio Oiticica, Jules Olitski, Ad Reinhardt, Gerhard Richter, Bridget Riley, Rainer Maria Rilke, Mark Rothko, John Ruskin, Yinka Shonibare, Paul Signac, Vincent van Gogh, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.' (Back cover)

Colour is one of the Documents of Contemporary Art series, co-published by Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press which document major themes and ideas in contemporary art. Other sourcebooks of the same series are also available in the Archive. For more details, please go to this page.