COLOURS Effects and interactions
COLOURS
While experimenting with colours and shapes, Victor Vasarely recognised the effects they have on each other as well as on the viewer. To consciously create compositions, he needed to know the characteristics of colours, their effect on each other as well as how they help form optical illusions. The three primary colours are red, blue and yellow. We call them primary colours because they may not be created by mixing other colours. However, you may mix all other colours from them. They are in the middle of the colour wheel.
Johannes Itten’s Colour Wheel
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By mixing yellow and red you get orange and so forth.
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HAVE A LOOK AT TWO VERSIONS OF ORION NOIR BY VICTOR VASARELY. In which picture do you feel the primary colours are emphasized? 4
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Victor Vasarely Orion-Noir (from the “Kanta” Series), 1970
Victor Vasarely Orion Noir 1963
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THE EFFECT COLOURS HAVE ON EACH OTHER Colours rarely appear without a context. Usually they are in relation to something, like a white or black background or to each other. Colours also influence each other causing our eyes to be tricked. Some people do not list black and white as being colours. Vasarely expressed his opinion about them:
“It is a physical law: all colours together – white (light), all the contrast to colours together – black (shadow). Therefore, a black and white work is the most colourful, the most densely-coloured, and the furthest from nature that is in itself colourful” In Victor Vasarely, Színes város (Budapest: Gondolat Kiadó, 1983), 83.
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LOOK AT THE TWO SQUARES! Do they appear to be the same size? The white square on a black background appears larger than the black square on the white background. This is an optical illusion as the white appears to radiate outwards, causing it to seem larger. The black one, on the other hand, contracts into itself. V A S A R E LY M U S E U M — C O L O U R S
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COMPARE THE PAIRS OF COLOURED SQUARES ON THE BLACK BACKGROUNDS! Decide whether one of the smaller squares is darker, lighter or if they are the same.
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Solution: the colour of the squares in all four pairs are the same. A light grey square on a white background usually appears darker than on a white background. A yellow square on a white background usually gives the effect of being darker and warmer, while on a black background it seems to be brighter. In the case of the red square, on a white background it appears burgundy, and on a black background it radiates. On a white background, the blue square appears to be a deep blue and on a black background a bright sky blue.
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WHAT HAPPENS IF THE BACKGROUND IS COLOURED INSTEAD OF BLACK AND WHITE? Do you perceive the three blue squares as having the same shade?
SOLUTION: They are. The background changes the way we perceive them. A lighter background gives a sense of a darker shade while a darker background provides a lighter contrast.
TRY IT OUT FOR YOURSELF! Draw three squares with a smaller square in the middle of each one or use the colouring sheet on the next page. Colour in the smaller square with the same felt tip pen or coloured pencil. Choose different colours for the background. Notice which combinations give the sense of a lighter or darker shade. 10
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V A S A R E LY M U S E U M — C O L O U R S
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COLOUR HARMONY In our everyday lives we choose colours for things like home furnishings and the clothes we wear. Most people try to choose ones that go with each other and create harmony.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHICH GROUP OF SHADES IS HARMONIC? If you would like to see the true shade of a colour, then you will need a grey background. A medium grey provides a perfect balance because it does not affect the shade of the other colour.
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At first sight, the group of shades on the left appears to be more pleasing. However, pairing complementary colours of the same shade creates harmony.
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These are the pairs of colours which are opposite to each other in the colour wheel you saw earlier. blue is paired with orange green is paired with red yellow is paired with violet Using complementary colours results in peace and harmony.
TRY THIS EXPERIMENT! Look at the green square for 10 seconds and then close your eyes. What colour do you see?
Johannes Itten’s Colour Wheel
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SOLUTION: After focusing on a green square for some time, most people see a red square as an afterimage. Try it with other colours as well. Usually the complementary colour appears. Our eyes require or form the complementary colour to create harmony.
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SOLUTION: Experiments show that the colour grey on a yellow background usually has a shade of purple, on an orange one a bluegrey, on a red one a green-grey shade, on a blue background it appears orange and so on. Therefore in every case the complementary colour of the background is added to the grey square.
Ewald Hering, a physiologist, proved that TRY ANOTHER EXPERIMENT! Look at the shades of grey in the squares. In which background do you perceive a different shade?
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a medium shade of grey creates perfect harmony in our eyes. Therefore, two or more colours are in harmony if a neutral grey can be mixed from them. Grey may be made by mixing white and black or two complementary colours as well as white. In painting, artists often strive to create colour harmony.
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NOTICE THE DIRECTION OF THE RHOMBUSES AS WELL AS HOW THE COLOURS CHANGE. The repetition of these coloured cubes gives the sense of a threedimensional background. The red rhombuses pointing towards the top left corner become brown. The blue rhombuses pointing towards the top right corner become green. The rhombuses which run horizontally are grey. The grey quadrilaterals sometimes appear lighter and sometimes darker on the canvas which is caused by the colours they are next to. However, Vasarely used the same shade of grey throughout. By looking closely at the colours in the painting, Stri-Oet, by Vasarely, harmony may be observed. The background of the painting is made up of three rhombuses whose configuration makes them resemble cubes. 18
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FIND PLACES ON THE PAINTING WHERE THERE ARE COMPLIMENTARY COLOUR PAIRS! Decide whether you feel this painting has harmony. If you’d like to know more about the topic we recommend the book Art of Colour by Johannes Itten. V A S A R E LY M U S E U M — C O L O U R S
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Š Vasarely Museum Budapest, 2020 All rights reserved. Cover: Victor Vasarely Orion Noir, 1963 (detail) (as seen on page 5)