The starting point of the theory of color impressions is the study of color manifestations in nature. This means that we should study the impressions that colored objects produce on our vision.
One day, in 1922, shortly after Kandinsky was invited to teach at the State Bauhaus in Weimar, Gropius, Kandinsky, Klee and I calmly talked, when suddenly Kandinsky asked himself: “What subjects do you teach?” Klee replied that he was giving lectures on problems forms, and I - my introductory course. Kandinsky dryly remarked: "Well, then I will conduct a drawing from life!" We nodded and said nothing more about our curricula. And Kandinsky really for many years after that began to lead in the Bauhaus classes on the analytical study of nature.
It is symptomatic that in our time, with an uncertain orientation of art schools, we have to discuss the need to study nature. Her study should be understood not as an imitative transfer of random impressions, but, above all, an analytical, research elaboration of the objective characteristics of form and color. For such a study requires the interpretation of nature, rather than its imitation. However, in order for the interpretation to correspond to the essence of the phenomena, precise observation and clear thinking are necessary, which must precede the creation of the image. The clearer the meaning becomes, the more acute the senses become, and artistic perception becomes accustomed to the logical analysis of observations. Learners must wage a “struggle” with nature, for its possibilities of influence are different and exceed those graphic means that we have in art. Cezanne with great interest worked on the motives of nature. Van Gogh was destroyed by this struggle, trying in a tireless work to convey his impressions of nature, transforming them into his own system of color and formal picturesqueness.
Each artist, in accordance with his inclinations, must determine for himself the measure of his work on the study of nature. However, it would be unwise to neglect the outside world due to an excess of our internal. Nature in its rhythm of the seasons, turned outward, now inward, could serve as an ideal example for us. In the spring and summer, the forces of the earth come out, embodied in growth and maturation, and in the fall and winter they come back again and are renewed for future growth.
Consider now the problem of color in nature. From the standpoint of physics, all objects themselves have no color. When white light - by which we mean sunlight - illuminates the surface of an object, then the latter, in accordance with its molecular composition, absorbs some light waves of a certain length, or color, and reflects others. In the section “Physics of Color” it was established that the colors of the spectrum can be divided into two groups, each of which groups can be combined into one color with the help of a collective lens. The resulting two colors complement each other. Thus, the light rays reflected by the surface of an object turn out to be a color that is complementary to the sum of absorbed rays. Reflected color seems to us the local color that is inherent in this subject.
A body that reflects all the rays of white light and does not absorb any, looks white. A body that absorbs all the rays of white light and does not reflect a single one seems black to us.
If we light a blue body with orange light, it will appear black, because there is no blue in orange that could reflect this body. From here you can judge the enormous value of the color of light. Changing the lighting color changes the local colors of the illuminated objects. The more chromatic the lighting, the more local color changes. The closer the color of the light is to white, the more intense the colors that are not absorbed by objects are reflected and the more pure their local color will appear to us. When studying color in nature, it is extremely important to observe the color of light. In this regard, it would be useful to refer to the working methods of the impressionists, who continually studied the changes in local colors under the influence of changing lighting.
It goes without saying that not only the color of the light is important, but also its intensity. Light not only adds color to the object, but also materializes it plastically. To transmit these qualities, it is necessary to at least keep in mind three different gradations of the intensity of light: light that has full power, medium power, and light that gives a sense of shadow.
When illuminated by medium light, the local colors of objects acquire a special clarity, as well as the textural features of the surfaces become more obvious. With the light at full strength, the color of the object is highlighted, and in the shadow it is perceived as vague and darkened.
Reflected color rays greatly change the local colors of objects.
The local color, as already noted, occurs due to the fact that the color rays are reflected and pass into the surrounding space. If a given object has a red color and its red rays fall on a nearby white object, then at the latter a reddish reflection is noticeable. If the red rays fall on a green object, we will see a gray-black reflection on it, for the interaction of red and green leads to the destruction of each other. If red rays fall on a black surface, then black-brown reflexes are visible on it.
The more glossy the surface of the objects, the stronger and more tangible the reflection will be.
Studying the changes in the actual color of objects with the continuous change in the color of sunlight and the color of reflections, the impressionists came to the conclusion that local colors dissolve in the general color atmosphere. This means that when studying color impressions one should pay attention to four main points: the local color of the object, the color of the light, the color under intense light and in the shade.
The subject can be presented in various ways. It can be depicted on top, front and side in the most accurate of its proportions. And it will be the analytical form of his image. Then the object can be drawn according to the laws of perspective or transmitted in bulk form using light and shade.
A red vase and a yellow box can be painted in perspective and flatly covered, each with its own local color. Then the shape and color with the help of light and dark tones can get a three-dimensional study. In this case, the volumetric interpretation can be turned into a planar one, if the color of objects in their lightness is associated with the background color. In this way, the tonal relationship of the depicted objects with the plane of the picture is achieved.
If each object and each plane is depicted in accordance with their real natural color, then a completely realistic image can be achieved. But such a composition will consist of many individual parts that are reluctant to seek to unite.
If the color of objects appears as a local color of the painting composition as a whole, and the object here finds its own color as red in general red or yellow in general yellow, then the objects lose their isolation. They dissolve into their own atmosphere, which becomes the pictorial atmosphere of the painting.
Plastic impression can be achieved by modulating the cold and warm tones that contribute to the dissolution of local colors. In this case, the places resolved in the light-and-shadow relations are occupied by equal cold or warm variations of local colors in lightness. At the same time, the contrast of light and shade is considerably softened, causing a feeling of increased picturesqueness. When studying local colors, one should pay attention to changes caused by the color of the illuminating light itself. So, with a bluish lighting green vase will look blue-green, because the local colors are mixed with the color of lighting.
Reflected colors dissolve local ones, freeing the shape and color of objects from rigid definiteness and turning everything into a polyphony of color spots. Delacroix said in this connection that "all nature is a reflection."
The problem of color shades also belongs to the field of studying impressionistic manifestations of color.
If in the summer evening in the orange light of the setting sun and with the blue sky in the east to watch the shadows of the trees, then their blue color is very clearly visible. Even more noticeable colored shade in winter, when all the streets are covered with white snow. Under the dark blue night sky in the orange light of street lamps, the shadows on the snow acquire a deep, glowing blue color. Passing on a winter evening after a snowfall on a street lit by a motley color advertisement, it is easy to notice the red, green, blue and yellow shadows lying on the white ground.
In painting, these natural phenomena were mastered by the Impressionists. The blue shadows of the trees that appeared in their paintings caused great excitement among the visitors of the exhibitions. As before, it was generally believed that the shadows should have a gray-black color. Although the Impressionists came to the image of color shadows, relying only on careful observation of nature.
However, the concept of "impressionism", in the sense in which it is used in the present, is not limited to the actual belonging only to an impressionistic school of painting. I rank as impressionistically minded artists and brothers Van Eyck, Holbein, Velázquez and Zurbaran, and brothers Lenen, Chardin and Ingres, because their works are largely due to accurate observations of nature. Chinese ink painting is also very much impressionistic. The worldview of ancient China demanded respect for nature and its forces. Therefore, it is not surprising that artists paid serious attention to the study of natural forms. Mountains, water, trees and flowers were spiritual symbols for them. Chinese artists studied natural forms for as long as they did not master them, as they took possession of their letter signs. For the image of natural forms, they, in most cases, used only paint, their black ink, which was made to sound in all possible shades. The abstract character of the carcass itself reinforced the symbolic meaning of their painting.
In modern art, you can find paintings in which human faces are depicted green, blue or purple. The uninitiated viewer often does not know what to think. For artists, this use of color can have a variety of reasons. Blue and purple color for the image of a human face can have an expressive meaning, expressing a certain psychological state. Green or blue complexion may have a symbolic meaning. These images are nothing new. Such a symbolic relationship to color can be found already in the art of ancient India and Mexico. The green or blue color of the face can also be explained by the shadow itself, which is given by the color of the lighting.
The color shading problems could clarify the following experiments.
In 1944, in Zurich, on the occasion of the exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Art, devoted to the phenomenon of color, I read a report on color shadows. I demonstrated that a white object, illuminated in daylight with a red light, gives a green shadow. Green - cast a shadow of red, yellow - purple, and purple - yellow. Each color light in daylight casts a shadow of additional color to it. I asked class leader Hans Finsler to photograph this phenomenon. Color photographs showed that color shadows were really real, and were not the result of simultaneous contrast.
In this regard, it should be emphasized that in these experiments all color mixtures were the result of complex color synthesis, because the matter concerned the actual color of light, and not pigment paints.
Studies of color shadows, undertaken in subsequent experiments, yielded amazing results.
With red-orange lighting color in the absence of daylight, a black shadow is obtained. With blue or green lighting, shadows also turn out to be black.
Illumination of the subject in the absence of daylight with two colored rays gave the following results:
If you take three different lights for the experience, namely, red-orange, green and blue-green, then with red-orange color of the lighting, a shade of blue-green is cast, the green beam gives a shade of purple-pink, and blue-green - yellow . At the intersection of all three color shadows turned out black, and the combination of the color rays themselves gave just a white background.
The study of color impressions gives the artist many more opportunities to comprehend the color secrets of nature and their use in art.
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