A short-form series on historical and contemporary color wheels, and why they were built. Each episode discusses what problem a color wheel (or wheels) tried to solve, who made it, and what it gets right or wrong. We end up covering a lot of color theory ground in the process! New episodes every Wednesday.
Curated by: Color Nerd (24 videos)
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