Color Wheel Wednesday

A short-form series on the color wheels you've never heard of, and why they were built. Each episode covers one wheel: what problem it was solving, who made it, and what it gets right or wrong. New episodes every Wednesday.

Curated by: Color Nerd (18 videos)


Currently Playing: Where "Analogous Colors" Actually Came From (1926 French Color Wheel)

100 years ago, French art students didn't have the color wheel you grew up with. They had this: the Harmonicolor, a spinning paper disc published in 1926 by two painters named Louis Cabanès and Charles-Robert Bellenfant. It's also a direct descendant of Michel-Eugène Chevreul's 1839 color theory, which divides all color relationships into harmonies of analogy and harmonies of contrast. Chevreul's original definition of analogous color harmony is more precise, and more useful, than the version that ended up on modern color wheels. And I think Cabanès and Bellenfant's simplification of Chevreul's "harmonie des nuances" may be why. This is episode 16 of Color Wheel Wednesday, a series exploring obscure color wheels to see what we can learn about the evolution of color theory and how it's taught. thanks for watching! #colortheory #colorwheel #arthistory


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