Colourful Language: Red, White and Blue
Alexandra Epps
This live HENI Talk, with Arts Society lecturer Alexandra Epps, explores the symbolism, significance and spirituality of the colours red, white and blue throughout the history of art, drawing upon the oeuvres of some of the most famous colourists. Experience the lustrous red of Pre-Raphaelite red hair; the cool white of Brueghel’s snow; the secret power of Yves Klein’s blue and Mondrian’s dynamic combination of all three.
The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli, c.1485
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1864-1867
Photo © Tate
Monochrome Blue KB 73
Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo
Hunters in the Snow (Winter)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565
Composition B (No II) with Red
Piet Mondrian, 1935
Photo © Tate
The Wilton Diptych (detail)
Artist unknown, c.1395-1399
National Gallery, London
Blue Nude II
Henri Matisse, 1952
© 2014 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Blue Nude II reconstruction animation
Alexandra Epps, 2018
Blue Nudes(I – IV)
Henri Matisse, 1952
Yves Klein performance, “Anthropométrie de l’époque bleue,”
Galerie Internationale d’Art Contemporain, Paris, 9 March 1960
Photos: Harry Shunk and Janos Kender, 1960
Image numbers:
00010 / 00015 / 00031 / 00034 / 00036
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
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