Psychology of color: through the lens of mood and color
Picasso intentionally painted in monochrome tones of blue which reflected his low psychological state, while Kandinsky used color as a mean to elicit sensations from other parts of the body. Panelists at the Royal Academy of Arts in London explore the relationship between mood and colour and discuss how artists use this to express emotions and elicit a response from the viewer.
Philosopher Aristotle, in the fourth century BC, considered blue and yellow to be the true primary colours, relating as they do to life's polarities: sun and moon, male and female. Through art history, artists universally adopted his principles drawing on these theories for two thousand years, until Newton's discoveries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries replaced them with his colour theory.
Pablo Picasso, La Vie (Life), Barcelona, 1903. The Cleveland Museum of Art.
With Newton’s color spectrum, different theories came to light. German poet and artist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's most radical points was a refutation of Newton's ideas about the color spectrum, exploring the psychological impact colors on mood and emotions, derived from the poet's intuitions. For instance, to him the color yellow in its highest purity always carries with it the nature of brightness, communicating a serene, gay, softly exciting character.
“It became about which emotion the colors can trigger linked to senses and sensibilities,” art historian, writer and curator Dr Alexandra Loske said of Newton's radical discoveries.
The philosophies and symbolisms attached to many artististic compositions were greatly used through art history as a result. The color theory that Kandinsky developed in the 1910s offered a bridge between emotional well-being and different tones and hues of the color spectrum. Kandinsky, who was said to have experienced synesthesia believed that color generated emotion to the extend of physical reactions.
Several shades of red, for instance, “can enliven the heart,” while blue “can lead to temporary paralysis.” Kandinsky is said to have seen lines and colors while listening to the music, hence naming his artworks according to musical compositions.
“From Newton’s initial dualistic color theory, with blue as the darkness and yellow as the light, Kandinsky later says blue is about power, is masculine and is about stability. But Hilma af Klimt says no yellow is masculine and blue is feminine which would suggest color is largely subjective,” Loske said, supporting the argument of the subjective connotations of color.
Pablo Picasso, while living in Paris, in extreme poverty and no fame began in 1901 his “Blue Period” which lasted until 1904. This artistic period followed the suicide of his closest friend, Carles Casagemas. Picasso later explained, "I was thinking about Casagemas that got me started painting in blue," Picasso later said to his friend Pierre Daix.
His blue paintings depict destitute human beings. He chose the color blue deliberately. These paintings are tragic and lifeless, indicating misery, poverty and pain. And the color blue appear to have been used for Picasso's cold connotation that it carries. “Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions,” Picasso later said.
“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions”
"There is this idea of blue colour which we associate with melancholy and sadness and possibly spirituality because it is the colour of distance, the colour of the sky. Blue has also been discussed as the color closest to the absense of light" Loske said.
Yet Picasso could have painted his blue period in a different color argues artist David Batchelor. "I am not interested in Picasso's blue and rose period, I found them the least interesting. Since Picasso is painting for a public." Looking at the blue period through the lens of the color blue, the lens of misery and poverty may prevent us from seeing other aspects of Picasso's work.