Color theory reading list

My first color theory class was taught by the wonderful Joseph DiBella at Mary Washington College. The class was at once the most intensive study of a very precise subject, and just the tip of the iceberg.

Interaction of Color formed the basis of most of our coursework.

Itten formed the other half of the curriculum.

And no discussion would becomplete without Goethe.

Supplemental reads

Color Problems has an incredible story: decades before Goethe, Itten and Albers were making their reputations as color theory experts, this author, a female watercolorist (essentially an unimportant craftswoman, by the values of the day) created a massive study of color theory and color mixing for the watercolor scoeity she was a member of. Her color charts predict the observations later, more famous, male, color theorists would publish. Reissued through a Kickstarter campaign of all things.

Secret Lives of Color is a cute breakdown of art history's most popular pigments, in which there are plenty of surprising details, like the medieval European taboo against mixing things (colors, flavors, fibers...).

Nomenclature of Colors is famous for being used by Darwin on his voyage with the Beagle to document his specimens. Like waving Pantone swatches around, I imagine it would be fun to take careful notes about color with this book as a reference. Of course the pigments available to artists have changed since this book was published, and it should be read with a sensitivity to the fact that with the march of time marches too the methods of naming, producing, and reproducing color.

I stumbled across The Anatomy of Color at an art museum gift shop. At a glance it seems to focus on color trends in interior design with some amazing plates of color charts and developments in color theory and pigments.