Edited by David Batchelor

Part of the acclaimed Documents of Contemporary Art series of anthologies which collect writing on major themes and ideas in contemporary 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 surveyed include Joseph Albers, Mel Bochner, Daniel Buren, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Jimmie Durham, Helen Frankenthaler, Paul Gauguin, Donald Judd, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Yves Klein, Kazimir Malevich, Piero Manzoni, Henri Matisse, Henri Michaux, Beatriz Milhazes, Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland, Helio Oiticica, Paul Signac, Ad Reinhardt, Gerhard Richter, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Bridget Riley, Mark Rothko, Yinka Shonibare, Jessica Stockholder, Theo van Doesburg, Vincent van Gogh, Victor Vasarely and Rachel Whiteread.

Writers include Theodor Adorno, Roland Barthes, Charles Baudelaire, Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, Charles Blanc, Jacques Derrida, Thierry de Duve, Umberto Eco, Victoria Finlay, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Johannes Itten, Julia Kristeva, Claude Levi-Strauss, Jacqueline Lichtenstein, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, John Ruskin, Adrian Stokes and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

David Batchelor is a London-based artist and writer who has exhibited widely in Britain, continental Europe, the United States and Latin America. He is the author of Minimalism (1997) and Chromophobia (2000). He is Senior Tutor in Critical Art Theory, Department of Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London.

Paperback, 208 pages, 210 x 145 mm

ISBN 978-0-85488-160-4

First published 2008

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