Chromophobia

by David Batchelor

The central argument of Chromophobia is that a chromophobic impulse - a fear of corruption or contamination through color - lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge color, either by making it the property of some "foreign body" - the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological - or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1861890745
• ISBN13: 9781861890740
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

brilliant and brevitous

I picked up this book from a list of gotta-haves for a class on aesthetics and I gotta say this enormously eccentric work of journalism/philosophy/strange-spooky, kaleidoscopic-microscopic assorted collection (loosely connected?) on art and its psychological reception is worthy of many, many more clauses weighed down with much, much praise. Anyone with a theoretical interest in aesthetics will find this book packed with gems begging to be peeked at. A quirky and compelling read. And short too (+).

one of few worthwhile books on color, not just for its cover

Fascinating and readably well-written argument that western civilization has a long-held prejudice (though not one shared by the author) against color, especially bright color. Batchelor is highly literate and informed, plus has an impressive knowledge of contemporary art. His suggestion that color tends to be seen as frivolous/minor/feminine/or even evil is backed up with wide-ranging references to culture (contemporary and earlier), art history, lit., and more. (Including an unexpectedly timely observation that historically, evidence of the decadence of Islam included its profusion of color and pattern.)Just a few other examples: --the white space as sign of seriousness and quality in the modern gallery or collector's home --the art historical ranking of disegno as superior to colore--in French lit, the symbolic association of rich hues and precious materials with decadenceAnd much more.As for me, I almost had to buy this book for its hot pink cover alone

Color in all its problematic glory

Batchelor's own take on color theory is not only a well-researched overview of color in art, architecture, cinema, and literature; it is also a call to action of sorts for artists to reclaim color from its minimalist bastardization in art and its commercial bastardization within the market culture. Batchelor uses the terms "chromophobic" and "chromophilic" to characterize to what extent this bastardization takes place and cites examples from (mainly contemporary) art history as to where the shift from color-as-representation to color-as-color took place.That discussions of color as secondary to drawing (or design) are neither prevelant in the industry nor in academia proves how engrained into art theory the secondary status of color is. Also of interest is the chapter on the role of semantics and color interpetation. How for example some colors in the abstract such as green-yellows are univerally more difficult to convey than others.Every serious artist should read this book to reintroduce the importance of color to his/her concerns and to adress contemporary concerns over the loss of color by its oversaturation in less artistic settings.