Colours in past, present and future…

Every artiste has inclination towards certain grade of colours. This happens because of our socio-religious circumstances. Open the art books and have a look upon the paintings of the great masters. The renaissance artistes used to fill their canvases with lemon yellow, golden yellow, Burnt amber, Burnt sienna, crimson and different shades of brown. That was the time when the painters spent maximum time to understand the human figure in great details; the anatomical structures and proportions of the human body. More over the subjects were related to the parables of bible which is full of with human characters. Little work has done on the other aspects of art, i.e. the nature and the outdoor scenes in those beginning days. Shades of blue, green and magenta are not exercised commonly in the period of renaissance. It was the religious circumstances that decided the fate of the art world as well as colours. In the work of Michel Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Pissarro, Rembrandt we can find a great resemblance of the colour schemes.

Time changed and the artists gradually stepped in to the outdoor nature. The tint of blue, green, magenta and other associated colours found their place in the artistes’ canvas. Many new shades felt its presence in the palette of the artists. Cobalt blue, Ultramarine blue, Persian blue, Almond green, sap green, aqua green, olive green, leafy green, cadmium yellow, deep chrome yellow, lemon yellow and a number of other hues were formed. Paul Cizen, August Renoir, Clod Monet, Edward Manett, Vincent Van Gogh and other great impressionists of 19^th century have found new meanings and interpretations to these colours through their canvases.

Came 2oth century and we entered into a different kind of world. As we became more civilized, and modern we started losing the sanctity, serenity and purity of colours. We have seen two great wars in the first half of the last century. The second half of 20^th century including the 1^st decade of current one was dominated by human violence, terrorism and vandalism which strongly affects the human psyche. Human behaviour changed along with the changing society. Man cut of all the links with the outer world and lives in isolation. He became more individualistic than before. Destructions, devastations and globalization, faded away all the colours from our life. The whole world faded into gray. Natural colour shades are slowly wiped out from the canvas of the artistes; especially in the urban cities. Still then in the lap of nature there left a tint of colour in its natural form especially in the rural and tribal regions because of the surroundings. But for how long this will sustain? We are cutting down the trees, deforesting the environment, destroying the mountains and hills and constructing high rising sky scrapers. We are solely responsible for de-colorization.

When we are lossing colours from our life, how can we expect it in art? The works of modern painters, designers and visual artistes are suffering with this trauma from the past century which is growing up day by day. If this pain, anguish and distress will not be stopped, all the colours from the artists’ pallet will be wiped away and by the end of this century our future generations will be left to see a world of black and white...... Just think for a while...

Dr. Satyabrata Rout, Hyderabad University/7.11.09