Chromophobia [Paperback]

The central argument ofChromophobiais that a chromophobic impulse - a fear of corruption or contamination through color - lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge color, either by making it the property of some foreign body - the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological - or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic.

Chromophobia has been a cultural phenomenon since ancient Greek times; this book is concerned with forms of resistance to it. Writers have tended to look no further than the end of the nineteenth century. David Batchelor seeks to go beyond the limits of earlier studies, analyzing the motivations behind chromophobia and considering the work of writers and artists who have been prepared to look at color as a positive value. Exploring a wide range of imagery including Melville's great white whale , Huxley's reflections on mescaline, and Le Corbusier's journey to the East , Batchelor also discusses the use of color in Pop, Minimal, and more recent art.

David Batcheloris Senior Tutor in Critical Theory at the Royal College of Art, London. He is also the author ofMinimalism(1997).

1. Whitescapes
2. Chromophobia
3. Apocalypstick
4. Hanunoo
5. Chromophilia
References
Select Bibliography and Filmography
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements

A thorough and witty cultural history of color.

A provocative contribution to the discourse of color theory.

Full of good writing, good anecdotes, devastating quotes, deft arguments, and just the sort of mysterious anomalies one would expect from an artist writing about the enemies of his practice.

This beautifully produced book is an intelligent and provocative essay on why Western culture hates and fears colour. The prose is cuml³’