The Material History of the Color Blue

Blue pigment occurs naturally in exactly one form: lapis lazuli. That uniqueness made the color a luxury commodity for thousands of years. Traded at a cost greater than gold, reserved for royalty, and written into artist’s contracts, blue is both visually and materially rich. Marc Walton, senior scientist at the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts, is an expert on blue’s history. Join him as he uncovers the color’s journey through art history, from Cleopatra’s eye shadow to Picasso’s blue period.
The annual Richard Gray Visual Art Series recognizes a significant gift from founding CHF board member and distinguished art dealer Richard Gray and is presented in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago.
This program was recorded on November 1, 2014 as part of the 25th Anniversary Chicago Humanities Festival, Journeys: chf.to/2014Journeys
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Пікірлер: 26

  • @matthieukiriyama7219
    @matthieukiriyama72197 жыл бұрын

    He completely flew over the importance of azurite as a painting pigment. It was the most used blue pigment during the middle ages (a thousand years! but then again he did call that period 'the dark ages', so...), and was -and still is- used in Japan and China as the main blue pigment at least from the 10th century.

  • @liamthompson9342
    @liamthompson93428 жыл бұрын

    Excellent speaker.

  • @billy-joes6851
    @billy-joes68518 жыл бұрын

    Blue is his house with the blue little window and his blue corvette do dah dah di dah dah dah.

  • @i.c.y.
    @i.c.y.9 жыл бұрын

    This is so interesting. Amazingly interesting :) thank you for posting this.

  • @fourclaws
    @fourclaws9 жыл бұрын

    Great Q & A at the end :)

  • @chiefandkat
    @chiefandkat6 жыл бұрын

    What about Maya Blue! Anthropologists have discovered how the ancient Maya produced an unusual, widely studied blue pigment that was used in offerings, pottery, murals and other contexts across Mesoamerica from A.D. 300 to 1500

  • @pnutbutrncrackers
    @pnutbutrncrackers6 жыл бұрын

    The YInMn discovery would now make an excellent extension of this lecture on the wonder of blue.

  • @kale11opez94
    @kale11opez948 жыл бұрын

    Blue is a very positive color.

  • @TesserId
    @TesserId7 жыл бұрын

    So, how come he doesn't have blue suede shoes?

  • @jinxedsphinx3600

    @jinxedsphinx3600

    2 жыл бұрын

    word to Mac Miller?

  • @montyray6163
    @montyray61632 жыл бұрын

    I love the blue

  • @nocopyrightmusic2997
    @nocopyrightmusic29976 жыл бұрын

    Like your Channel ;)

  • @matthiasschulze393
    @matthiasschulze3939 жыл бұрын

    wish he would have went onto organic chemistry, indigo and Tyrian purple...and then of course Perkin dyes and then BASF today

  • @VNeto94
    @VNeto942 жыл бұрын

    What about Mayan Blue????

  • @mostirreverent
    @mostirreverent9 жыл бұрын

    blue flowers...Centaurea Cyanus

  • @J0eCh0p
    @J0eCh0p9 жыл бұрын

    what about woad

  • @hippojuice23

    @hippojuice23

    7 жыл бұрын

    J0eCh0p Woad dude! (sorry-had to!)

  • @BIZEB

    @BIZEB

    7 жыл бұрын

    Woad is a source of tincture, or dye, not a pigment.

  • @apexxxx10

    @apexxxx10

    6 жыл бұрын

    J0eCh0p ...Woad ???

  • @ceecee685
    @ceecee6857 жыл бұрын

    Becky doesn't want blue...

  • @Suite_annamite
    @Suite_annamite9 жыл бұрын

    Indeed, "ultramarine" is a shade of "blue", because traders who needed it had to go all the way "across the sea" to Afghanistan to acquire it.

  • @jinxedsphinx3600

    @jinxedsphinx3600

    2 жыл бұрын

    what’s with all the quotations

  • @maggienwillbyhigh
    @maggienwillbyhigh10 ай бұрын

    Captioning.... :-/

  • @emoster7195
    @emoster71957 жыл бұрын

    perfect to die my hair blue too

  • @greghawkins1025
    @greghawkins10252 жыл бұрын

    Dung is called "shit".