IV
A color has many faces - the relativity of color
Imagine in front of us 3 pots containing water, from left to right:
WARM
LUKEWARM
COLD
When the hands are dipped first into the outer containers, one feels — experiences — perceives — 2 different temperatures:
WARM → COLD
Then dipping both hands into the middle container, one perceives again 2 different temperatures, this time, however, in reversed order:
COLD → WARM
though the water is neither of these temperatures, but of another, namely
LUKEWARM
Herewith one experiences a discrepancy between physical fact and psychic effect called, in this case, a haptic illusion — haptic as related to the sense of touch — the haptic sense.
In much the same way as haptic sensations deceive us, so optical illusions deceive. They lead us to “see” and to read” other colors than those with which we are confronted physically.
To begin the study of how color deceives and how to make use of this, the first exercise is to make one and the same color look different.
On the blackboard and in our notebooks we write:
Color is the most relative medium in art.
Challenging examples of very surprising color changes are shown. Then the class is invited to produce similar effects but is not given reasons or favorable conditions. It starts, therefore, on a trial-and-error basis.
Thus, continuing comparison — observation — “thinking in situations” — is promoted, making the class aware that discovery and invention are the criteria of creativeness.
As a practical study we ask that 2 small rectangles of the same color and the same size be placed on large grounds of very different color. Soon, these first trials are collected and separated into groups of more and less promise. The class will become aware that change is a result of influence. The influencing color is distinguished from the influenced color.
It is discovered that certain colors are hard to change, and that there are others more susceptible to change.
We try to find those colors which are more inclined to exert influence and to distinguish them from those which will accept influence.
A second class exhibition of more advanced results should clarify that there are 2 kinds of changing influences working in 2 directions, light on the one side and hue on the other. And both occur simultaneously — though in varying strength.
Since 2 pieces of the same paper, therefore of the same color, are to appear different — and, if possible, incredibly different — we must compare them under equal conditions. The only colors which are factually different are the large grounds, though they are alike in size and shape. Because of the laboratory character of these studies there is no opportunity to decorate, to illustrate, to represent anything, or to express something — or one's self.
Here, successful studies present a demonstration. Since they cannot be misread or misunderstood, they prove understanding both of the principle involved and of the materials to be manipulated.
It should be clear that, with these exercises and all others to follow, whether or not we arrive at a pleasant or harmonious color combination is unimportant.
Arrangements such as the one shown below disguise the desired effect and lead to confusion:
Such studies shown separately in pairs may demonstrate clearly the desired effects. But interlocked in the tile pattern above, their illusional effects annul each other because of:
a. The simultaneous influence from too many directions — from left and right, and above and below;
b. The unfavorable distribution of area between the influencing and the influenced color.
Consequently, such presentation lacks both sight and insight.
V
Lighter and/or darker — light intensity, lightness
If one is not able to distinguish the difference between a higher tone and a lower tone, one probably should not make music.
If a parallel conclusion were to be applied to color, almost everyone would prove incompetent for its proper use.
Very few are able to distinguish higher and lower light intensity (usually called higher and lower value) between different hues.
This is true despite our daily reading of numerous black-and-white pictures.
Since the discovery of photography and particularly since the development of photomechanical reproduction processes, we are exposed — more and more every day — to pictures from all over the world, the world seen and unseen, visible and invisible.
These pictures, which are predominantly “black and white,” are printed in only 1 black on a white ground. Visually, however, these pictures consist of grey shades of the finest gradations between the poles of black and white. These shades penetrate each other in varying degrees.
With the tremendous increase in pictorial information — through newspapers, magazines, books — we receive a training in the reading of lighter and darker tones of grey as has never before existed. With the growing interest in color photography and color reproduction, a parallel training in the reading of lighter and darker color is on the way.
However, it is still true that only a minority can distinguish the lighter from the darker within close intervals when obscured by contrasting hues or by different color intensities.
In order to correct a prejudice common among painters and designers — that they belong to that minority — we have the students test themselves. We confront them with several pairs of color, from which they are to select and to record which color in a pair is the darker.
The darker one, it is explained, is visually the heavier one, or the one containing more black, or less white. It should be mentioned that the students are encouraged to abstain from making a judgment in any case of doubt. It may also demonstrate that not voting can have a positive meaning.
Though there have always been advanced painting students in the basic color class, the result of this test has remained constant for a number of years: 60% of the answers are wrong and only 40% are right, not counting the undecided cases.
By this experience we are led to the next task: To find colors about which we cannot say immediately which is the lighter or darker. These colors are collected and pasted in pairs, and observed again and again until their light-dark relationship is clearly recognized.
In cases where a decision seems impossible, an after-image effect may be helpful. 2 color sheets are put on top of each other in this way:
Focus longer than the eye wants to on the covering corner (B) of the upper paper and then quickly remove this upper sheet. If area (C) now appears fighter than area (A), then the upper paper is the darker — and vice versa. After this, repeat the experiment with the papers in reverse order. Frequently only 1 of the 2 reversed comparisons reveals the true relationship.
The usual results (60% wrong) are disillusioning as well as revealing. Voting for the wrong color often needs cover or compensation; also, the disappointment of wrong answers encourages doubts. The doubts often are directed, not against one's own judgment, but against the competence of the teacher: are his answers the right ones?
As the test is to prove whether one has a trained eye or not, the pairs of color presented for discrimination are not easy to decipher. Within the pairs there is no equal light intensity because the conclusive question to be expected from a class is: are there equal light values within these couples?
The answer is No.
Another unavoidable question is: will a photograph of these colors reveal their true relationship and thus give the final proof?
The answer again is No.
This answer will remain true for black-and-white as well as color photographs, because the sensitivity and consequently the registration of the retina of an eye is different from the sensitivity and registration of a photographic film.
Normally, black-and-white photography registers all lights lighter and all darks darker than the more adjustable eye perceives them. The eye also distinguishes better the so-called middle greys, which in photography often are flattened if not lost.
As an example we showed our class 2 different reproductions of the same Ensor painting, “Masks Contronting Death,” of 1888. The first appeared in the catalogue of an Ensor exhibition, the other in a newspaper report on the same exhibition.
The first, the larger and more official reproduction, in very fine screen on coated paper, presumably would be considered more representative than the second, smaller reproduction in a coarser screen and on the cheapest paper.
But the latter was not only much more correct in its whole tonality: it also showed clearly 1 more mask, face, or head which the more expensive, so-called high-key reproduction blotted out entirely — a small but complete frontal face, lighter than all the others and separated from them, near the left picture edge.
This shows what a higher key in light can lose in photography.
The greatest advantage the eye has over photography is its scotopic seeing in addition to its photopic seeing.
The former means, briefly, the retinal adjustment to lower light conditions.
Color photography deviates still more from eye vision than black-and-white photography. Blue and red are overemphasized to such an extent that their brightness ts exaggerated. Though this may flatter public taste, the result ts a loss in finer nuances and in delicate relationships. Whites rarely appear white but usually look greenish. This makes color slides of Mondrian paintings unbearable.
For practical reasons, certain groups of our color reproductions in the original edition are done in 4-color process which presents subdivided, optically intermixing transparent colors instead of the opaque colors which are characteristic of most of our studies.