Colorstruck!
Painting, Pigment, Affect
Will be published approx. on 1. September 2026
Book
Hardback
280 pages
978-0-691-28516-0 (ISBN)
Description
How Black painters use color to create meaning, provoke remembrance, stir emotion, and uplift the spirit
Color does more than capture a viewer's attention. It assaults one's equilibrium physically and psychologically. In this stunning book, Richard Powell draws on the concept of "colorstruck," a twentieth-century slang term describing prejudice toward people with darker skin complexions, to provide a new history of Black American art.
Powell charts the dynamics of paint and pigment in the works of artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Raymond Saunders, Sam Gilliam, Herve Telemaque, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Nina Chanel Abney, and Henry Taylor. Using blue, green, yellow, orange, black, red, brown, and their combinations, he considers the historical and cultural contexts in which these colors unleash their visual magic and shows how the artists' vibrant palettes collide with undercurrents of race in unanticipated and thought-provoking ways. Powell shares compelling insights into the powerful chromatic forces manifested through artists' actions and viewers' reactions.
A landmark work by an acclaimed art historian, this richly illustrated book offers a dazzling look at the transformative use of color by some of today's most exciting painters, revealing how hue and pigmentation strike a chord for freedom and reclamation in life as well as art.
Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Color does more than capture a viewer's attention. It assaults one's equilibrium physically and psychologically. In this stunning book, Richard Powell draws on the concept of "colorstruck," a twentieth-century slang term describing prejudice toward people with darker skin complexions, to provide a new history of Black American art.
Powell charts the dynamics of paint and pigment in the works of artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Raymond Saunders, Sam Gilliam, Herve Telemaque, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Nina Chanel Abney, and Henry Taylor. Using blue, green, yellow, orange, black, red, brown, and their combinations, he considers the historical and cultural contexts in which these colors unleash their visual magic and shows how the artists' vibrant palettes collide with undercurrents of race in unanticipated and thought-provoking ways. Powell shares compelling insights into the powerful chromatic forces manifested through artists' actions and viewers' reactions.
A landmark work by an acclaimed art historian, this richly illustrated book offers a dazzling look at the transformative use of color by some of today's most exciting painters, revealing how hue and pigmentation strike a chord for freedom and reclamation in life as well as art.
Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
216 color + 16 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 279 mm
Width: 229 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-691-28516-0 (9780691285160)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University. His many books include Going There: Black Visual Satire, Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture, and Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson.