Collins Memorial Library: Conn 375: The Art & Science of Color: Arts & Humanities

Getting Started: Subject Encyclopedias

Use subject encyclopedias as a starting point for an overview of a topic.

Oxford Reference Online a collection of encyclopedias, handbooks and other tertiary sources on a broad range of topics.

Note: There is a limit of three simultaneous users.

Geoffrey Newman, et al. "Colour." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Osborne, Harold. "Colour." The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Articles on composers, performers, conductors, instruments and notation, forms and genres, and individual works

Jörg Jewanski. "Colour and music." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

Note: There is a limit of 3 simultaneous users.

Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an

Rippin, Andrew. "Colors." Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. Ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Vol. 1. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2001. 361-365. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Encyclopedia of Aesthetics

Riley, Charles A., and C. L. Hardin. "Color." Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. Oxford University Press, 1998. Oxford Reference.

The first essay demonstrates the central role of color in the history of the various arts, especially architecture, literature, music, and painting. The second essay provides a closer look at how scientists and philosophers have understood color, both in the past and today.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt

Robins, Gay. "Color Symbolism." Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, 2001. Oxford Reference Online.

Image Databases

ARTstor
A digital library of images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences, with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images.

Websites

Pigments Through the Ages - an exhibit about pigments used through the early 20th century; includes timeline, history and techniques

Color Vision & Art - includes color theory, paints, African color, 19th-21st century art

Pantone - A company that specializes in standard color reproduction. Site includes color of the year, color fashion report, and color reference.

Color Matters - Fun facts about color

Subject Databases

Subject databases cover a specific discipline and provide the widest range of access to scholarly sources. They are used for in-depth research. Below are just a few examples of databases to search articles about a color from an arts and humanities perspective.

Can't find what you need? Recommended subject databases for each discipline can be found on the "articles" tab in each library subject guide.

Art Database

Art Full Text
coverage of Latin American, Canadian, Asian and other non-Western art, new artists, contemporary art, exhibition reviews, and feminist criticism.

Humanities Databases

Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies

Religion & Philosophy

Religion and Philosophy Collection
coverage of such topics as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy
Philosophers Index
covers scholarly research in all major fields of philosophy.

Performing Arts: Music & Theatre

Music Periodicals Database
covers the full spectrum of subjects and all aspects of music, including music education, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theatre, theory, popular music forms and composition.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database
covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.

Literature

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
The key database for identifying scholarly books, essays, articles, and dissertations on modern literature in all languages. Also covers cultural studies, folklore, film studies, and linguistics.

Search tips

The name of a color is a broad term and needs to be narrowed to find relevant results. Here are some tips to try:

Add more words: blue AND clothing
Change the default search field to title or subject.

Books and More!

Search Primo, the library's gateway to books, selected articles, video, and more.

Suggested search phrases

Color (Philosophy)

Color in Art

Color in Motion Pictures

Color

Color in Art by Stefano Zuffi
Call Number: Print Books (N7432.7 .Z84 2012 )
ISBN: 9781419701115
Publication Date: 2012-09-05
Every color has many aspects, many variations, and many meanings. Red, for instance, can mean passion, or suffering, or anger. How are these aspects represented in works of art from Titian and Bosch to Matisse and Warhol? Painters use colors to convey a message as much as they do for surface appeal.
Chromophobia by David Batchelor
Call Number: Print Books (NX650.C676 B37 2000 )
ISBN: 9781861890740
Publication Date: 2000-09-01
The central argument of "Chromophobia" is that a chromophobic impulse - a fear of corruption or contamination through color - lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge color, either by making it the property of some "foreign body" - the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological - or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic.
Men in Black by John Harvey
Call Number: Print Books (PR149.C67 H37 1995 )
ISBN: 9780226318790
Publication Date: 1995-11-01
Men's clothes went black in the nineteenth century. Dickens, Ruskin and Baudelaire all asked why it was, in an age of supreme wealth and power, that men wanted to dress as if going to a funeral. The answer is in this history of the color black.
Color for Philosophers by C. L. Hardin; Arthur C. Danto (Foreword by)
Call Number: Print Books (B105.C455 H37 1988a )
ISBN: 9780872200395
Publication Date: 1988-01-01
This expanded edition of C. L. Hardin's ground-breaking work on color features a new chapter, Further Thoughts: 1993, in which the author revisits the dispute between color objectivists and subjectivists from the perspective of the ecology, genetics, and evolution of color vision, and brings to bear new data on individual variability in color perception.
Colors Demonic and Divine by Herman Pleij; Diane Webb (Translator)
Call Number: Print Books (BF789.C7 P5713 2004 )
ISBN: 9780231130226
Publication Date: 2004-06-30
Color has been a subject of heated debate for as long as anyone can remember. Is it an innate part of material objects or a trick of perception and light? Is it merely superficial and decorative, or does it reveal deeper meaning? Is it the manifestation of divine presence on Earth or evidence of Satan's cunning? This debate captured the medieval imagination and influenced every aspect of life in the Middle Ages -- an era that was truly obsessed with color.
If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die by Patti Bellantoni
Call Number: Print Books (PN1995.9.C546 B46 2005 )
ISBN: 9780240806884
Publication Date: 2005-06-09
This book guides filmmakers toward making the right color selections for their films. It helps movie buffs understand why they feel the way they do while watching movies that incorporate certain colors.
History of Color in Painting, with New Principles of Color Expression by Faber Birren
Call Number: Print Books (ND1280 .B574 )
Publication Date: 1965

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Subjects: African American Studies, Art & Art History, Music, Theatre Arts