Learning From Each Other - The Reference Fair

Every year the San Francisco Public Library organizes a staff only reference fair so that Main departments and selected branches can highlight their collections and remind all staff what they do.

What treasures do big main libraries hold that even the librarians don't know about?  This fair gives all our departments the chance to share and explore.

At past Reference Fairs, the Art, Music and Recreation Center highlighted specific resources used to answer specific reference questions by patrons.  This year our goal is to illustrate a more subjective type of reference question. This is the kind of bibliographic brainstorming a visual artist might do using our collection. It could also be the kind of "forensic" reference work you need to do for the patron who doesn't know, or can't articulate, exactly what they're looking for. Our hypothetical artist needs to find images based on the elements of Color, Pattern, Graphic Lettering and Copyright Free Images.

We created four sample boards, one for each of the subjects above, filled with examples from our collection.

1. COLOR was further broken down into “theory”, “in combination”, “form and space”, “mixing pigments” and “psychological aspects”.  A few Library of Congress subject headings that can be used to find more books on this subject are: Color in art; Colors; Color guides; Color Decoration And Ornament; and Color In Art Exhibitions.

Selected sources used to create this board are:

Artist's Color Manual: The Complete Guide to Working with Color by Simon Jennings (San Francisco, CA : Chronicle Books, 2003)

Color Management: A Comprehensive Guide for Graphic Designers by John T. Drew (New York: Allworth Press, c2012.)

Color Index by Jim Krause. (Cincinnati, Ohio: HOW Books, c2010)

2. PATTERNS, PRINTS AND TEXTURES - Subject headings and keywords that can be used to find books on these topics are: Mosaics – technique; Tiles – history; Decorative arts – history; Patchwork – patterns; Repetitive patterns (Decorative arts); Symmetry (Art); Stencil work; Decoration and ornament; Design -- Themes, motives

Sources consulted for this board:

Mosaic Patterns: Step-by-step Techniques, Stunning Projects by Emma Biggs and Tessa Hunkin. (North Pomfret, Vt. : Trafalgar Square, 2006.)

Japanese Stencil Designs; one hundred outstanding examples collected and introduced by Andrew W. Tuer.(New York : Dover Publications, 1967)

Floral Design. Second series by Alan Weller designed by Juliana Trotta. (Mineola, N.Y. : Dover Publications, 2011)

3. GRAPHIC LETTERING - Use subject headings and keywords such as: Graphic Design (typography); Type and type-founding; Calligraphy; Lettering; Alphabets; Printing; Letterpress printing; Signs and signboards; Electric signs; Posters; Graffiti; Words in Art; Illumination of books and manuscripts.

A selection of books used to design this board:

Vintage Neon by Len Davidson (Atglen, Pa. : Schiffer Pub. c1999)

Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story by Paul Shaw (Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2011)

An A-Z of Type Designers by Neil Macmillan.(New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, c2006)

4. COPY-RIGHT FREE IMAGES.  The main source of inspiration for this board was the library's own Etching and Engraving Picture File.  The list of subject headings can be found here and the actual etchings and engraving can be found in Art, Music and Recreation Center at the Main library.  Twelve items can be checked out at a time and there is a scanner and copy machine available at the library.  Also search the catalog with the keyword Dover Clip-Art Series.

Other books used to create this board:

Food and Drink: A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources. selected by Jim Harter. (New York : Dover Publications, 1980.)

Ready-to-use Old-fashioned Music Illustrations: Copyright-free Designs, Printed One Side, Hundreds of Uses. selected and arranged by Carol Belanger Grafton. (New York : Dover, 1990.)

Ready-to-use Art Nouveau Small Frames and Borders: Copyright-free Designs, Printed One Side, Hundreds of Uses. designed by Ted Menten. (New York : Dover, c1985)

BURIED TREASURES:

Floréal Dessins & Coloris Nouveaux by E. A. Seguy (Paris: Calavas, n.d.)
Within the pages of this book you will find examples of a pochoir-illustrated book by the well known E. A. Seguy.

example of pochoir illustration

Color Papers [n.p.] 1930
sample book of Fat Shan, paper dealer, Canton, China.

example of paper for sale for 10 cents

Interaction of Color by Josef Albers

display of color silk screens housed in individual folders

A Brief History of Color in Western Painting

edit of "The Cincinnati Museum of Art - An Ambitious Student" (Harpers Weekly 12/20/1890) from the "Painters" folder of the Art, Music & Recreation Center Picture File

In its most basic form, painting may be defined as the use of pigments (pure colors) in powder form which are suspended in a medium and then applied to some sort of support. The earliest pigments date back to around 350,000 BCE and were made from colored earth materials such as crushed red and yellow sands called ochres. Manganese oxide provided browns and blacks, and white came from calcite. These colors have been found in cave paintings throughout the world and the pigments were used by themselves or mixed with animal fat for better adherence.

As civilizations grew in sophistication, so did the art of painting. Animal fat medium became replaced by plaster, wax, egg tempera and eventually oils such as linseed and poppy seed. Artists moved beyond cave walls and started using papyrus, wood, parchment, and eventually linen canvas for supports.

During the Middle Ages, the artist’s palette became broader due to the discovery of new animal, vegetable and mineral products found locally and abroad. Much of the research in color chemistry and technology was carried out by physicians and alchemists. Pigments were sold by grocers or pharmacists because many of the materials used in painting also had pharmaceutical uses or were found among the spices. The colors were then made by the artists themselves in a long and exacting procedure that required extensive knowledge on the part of the painter.
By the latter part of the seventeenth century pigments were available ready-ground and were sold to artists by specialized grocers who became known as color merchants. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the trade of the color merchant evolved from just grinding pigments to preparing paint and packaging it for sale.

John Brooking's Studio from the "Painters" folder of the Picture File

Until 1841, pieces of pig’s bladders were the normal method of storage, but because they were so permeable, the paint would gradually harden. Pig’s bladders were messy, not easily portable and once the bladder was punctured, the paint began to harden very quickly. The invention of the collapsible paint tube in 1841 by John G. Rand, was one of the most important developments for nineteenth-century painting. Paint in tubes contributed significantly to the ever-growing number of amateur painters. It also made the practice of painting outside much easier. The painter Auguste Renoir is often credited with saying that without paint in tubes, there would have been no Impressionists.

The advances made by chemical scientists in the 19th century brought about the invention and availability of new pigments in colors that had never been used by artists before. Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Matisse were but a few of the artists who embraced these new colors and used them for emotional impact. Monet and Seurat, on the other hand used colors to capture light and produce optical color mixing effects.

The next major change in painting materials occurred in the 1950’s with the invention of acrylic paints. Initially sold as latex house paints, they rapidly found their way into the artistic community. Water soluble, artist quality acrylic paints became commercially available in the 1960’s.

The Library has many books on painting materials and techniques that may be checked out. The following is just a sample of the titles that are available:


Alla Prima: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Direct Painting by Al Gury (Watson-Guptill, 2008).

Color Mixing Handbook by Julie Collins (David & Charles, 2007).

How to Paint: A Complete Step-by-Step For Beginners Covering Watercolours, Acrylics and Oils by Angela Gair and Ian Sidaway (New Holland, 2005).

New Artist’s Manual by Simon Jennings (Chronicle Books, 2006).

Paint Like Monet by James Heard (Cassell/Sterling Pub., 2006).

Painting Abstracts: Ideas, Projects and Techniques by Rolina van Vliet (Search Press, 2008).

Traditional Oil Painting: Advanced Techniques and Concepts from the Renaissance to the Present by Virgil Elliott (Watson-Guptill, 2007).

Understanding Color: Creative Techniques in Watercolor by Marcia Moses (Sterling Pub., 2007).


In addition to reading books on painting technique, it is helpful to look at a variety of painting methods used by other artists. Some painters worth studying include Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pierre Bonnard, Peter Paul Rubens, Frida Kahlo and Jackson Pollock. Ask our librarians for other recommendations.

Works cited in hyperlinks:

Noa Noa: The Tahiti Journal of Paul Gauguin; translated by O.F. Theis (Chronicle Books, 1994).

Renoir / edited by Margherita d'Ayala Valva and Alexander Auf der Heyde (Rizzoli, 2005).

Van Gogh, Starry Night; text based on the interviews between Federico Zeri and Marco Dolcetta (NDE Pub., 1999).

Henri Matisse by Susan A. Sternau (New Line Books, 2006).

Monet, preface by Roberto Tassi (Rizzoli, 2005).

Georges Seurat by Pierre Courthion (H.N. Abrams, 1988).

Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Julian Treuherz, Elisabeth Prettejohn, Edwin Becker (Thames & Hudson, 2003).

Pierre Bonnard: Observing Nature / edited by Jörg Zutter (National Gallery of Australia, 2003).

Peter Paul Rubens by Claudia Bauer (Prestel, 2004).

Frida Kahlo, 1907-1954: Pain and Passion by Andrea Kettenmann (Taschen, 2002).

Jackson Pollock, 1912-1956 by Leonhard Emmerling (Taschen, 2003).

Color and Music

'The Harmony of the Birth of the World' (Harmonia Nascentis Mundi), represented by a cosmic organ with six registers corresponding to the days of creation (from the Glasgow University Library, Special Collections Department).

According to the Oxford English Dictionary synæsthesia (often spelled synesthesia) is the “production, from a sense-impression of one kind, of an associated mental image of a sense-impression of another kind.” Put more simply it is a response of one sense by a different sense organ. One of the most discussed forms of synesthesia is the perception of music as color.

The ability of color and music to move the emotions has been recognized for millennia. Ancient Greek philosophers drew parallels between color, music and the planets which were not replaced until the 18th century. Many terms in music can also be used to describe color and art: composition, tone, chromatic, harmony, key and texture. Artists have been fascinated with the direct emotional appeal of music.

As far back as the 1870s musicians and artists have tried to fuse color and music through the use of “color organs,” a crude version of “Laserium.” In his work Prometheus: a Poem of Fire, Aleksandr Scriabin created a color “score” to be played simultaneously with his music score.

(from Poem Of Ecstasy and Prometheus: Poem of Fire by Alexander Scriabin (Dover Edition))

American artists Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell created the Synchromist Movement based on treating colors like notes in an overall composition. They believed that in order to represent a color scale, the colors could not be blended since the mixed color no longer exists, but should be set next to each other like a musical chord – these notes are still present.

Synchromy in Green and Orange, 1916 Stanton Macdonald-Wright (image source: Walker Art Center)

For some people with synesthesia the connection between color and music seems to be buried deep in the psyche. Those who have this condition experience a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. Duke Ellington, Amy Beach, and Jean Sibelius experienced the sound-color version of synesthesia where, as the listener heard a sound he or she would also see a color.

The Colour Amour exhibit will be continuing on the 4th floor of the Main Library through March 26, 2009.


A Reading List for Color and Music

“Artistic and Psychological Experiments with Synesthesia” by Cretien van Campen. Leonardo Vol. 32, No. 1 (1999): pp 9-14.

Color, Myth, and Music: Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Synchromism by Will South. (North Carolina Museum of Art, 2001).

A Great Russian Tone-Poet: Scriabin by A. Eaglefield Hull. (K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1916).

“Instruments to Perform Color-Music: Two Centuries of Technological Experimentation”
by Kenneth Peacock. Leonardo Vol. 21, No. 4 (1988), 397-406.

Kandinsky: Compositions by Magdalena Dabrowski. (Museum of Modern Art, 1995).
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Morgan Russell by Marilyn S. Kushner. (Hudson Hills Press, 1990).

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and The Brain by Oliver Sacks. (Knopf, 2007).

Paul Klee: Painting Music by Hajo Duchting. (Prestel, 2004).

Sweet Man, The Real Duke Ellington by Don George. (Putnam, 1981).

Synchromism and American Color Abstraction by Gail Levin. (G. Braziller, 1978).

Synchromism and Color Principles in American Painting, 1910-1930 by William Agee. (M. Knoedler & Co., 1965).

Red and Orange

Red

The most emotionally charged of all colors. The range of emotions evoked by red can range from passion, love, and lust to anger, rage and murder. Red is associated with blood and life. This bond between red and life has made it a significant color in every culture on Earth. Since blood held the secret of life, the color was credited with special powers. On the darker side, red can stand for blood violently spilt. The expression “to be caught red-handed” originated from the offender still being stained with the victim’s blood.

As if to Celebrate, I Discovered a Mountain Blooming with Red Flowers, by Anish Kapoor (1981) (image: Tate Collection).

Red is significant in Indian wedding traditions. A bride will usually wear red on her wedding day and on the eve of her wedding, she will have her hands and feet painted with henna.

(image source: Colors: What They Mean and How to Make Them)

Orange

As a color, it is a bridge between red and yellow, but lacks the emotional impact of either. It is considered a bright color, like yellow, thus infusing it with some of yellow’s traits: cheerful, uplifting, extroverted and expansive. It is the color of fall, fire, spices and homey baked goods, thus associating it with shelter, warmth and comfort. The French custom of adorning brides with blossoms from the orange tree symbolized the hope of fruitfulness.

The Harrison Violin by Antonio Stradivari (source: National Music Museum, University of North Dakota, Vermillion).

See Color: A Natural History of the Palette for a description of the mysterious orange varnish on Antonio Stradivari's violins.

The Colour Amour exhibit will continue on the 4th floor through March 26, 2008.

Bibliography

A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield. (New York: HarperCollins, 2005).

The Root of Wild Madder by Brian Murphy. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005).

Anish Kapoor: My Red Homeland. (Köln: Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2003.

Anish Kapoor by Germano Celant. (Milano: Edizioni Charta: Fondazione Prada, 1996).

Colour After Klein: Re-thinking Colour in Modern and Contemporary Art. (London: Barbican Art Gallery: Black Dog Pub., 2005).


Visit the Art Museum Image Gallery (available to San Francisco Public Library card holders) to view digital images of other works by Anish Kapoor.

There are two streaming audio playlists available at Smithsonian Global Sound (also found on the Library's Articles and Databases page and available to library card holders). Following the tab for Playlist Folders and go to the bottom of the page. Under "Course Folders" there are two playlists:

"Songs of Red" (26 tracks, 56 minutes in length)

"Songs of Orange" (8 tracks, 18 minutes in length)

Blue, Indigo and Violet

BLUE

... is the color of the sky, and the oceans and of tranquility. Lapis lazuli was the stone that was ground to create the intense blue of medieval paintings and Tibetan wall murals; this stone
was first imported from India. It’s name changed to ultramarinus, “coming from beyond the sea”, but today we use ultramarine to describe this intense shade of blue.

Perhaps because of its scarcity in nature, blue became more revered and prized before the advent of synthetic dyes.

Reticulated plate (Meissen c. 1774-1814) Blue Onion

INDIGO

... is derived from the Greek term meaning “from India.” Once upon a time, or actually several times upon a time, indigo was the most important dye in the world. At one time it helped prop
up an empire, and then later it helped destabilize it. Ancient Egyptians used indigo-dyed cloths to wrap their mummies, in Central Asia it was one of the main color of carpets, and for more than three centuries in Europe and America it was one of the more controversial of dyestuffs…the original blue jeans, invented by Levi Strauss in the California gold rush of 1850, were dyed in France with indigo grown in the west indies…indigo can give many results from stone-washed pale to nearly black…

Indigo resist fabric used in the 18th century in America. Most probably printed in England.

VIOLET

... has had many names – purple –mauve – lavender…..first called Tyrian purple by an English chemist then changed to a more marketable name of a flower – violet. Violet is the last color
in the rainbow spectrum, symbolizing both the ending of the known and the beginning of the unknown…It is the color of emperors and royalty.

The Phoenicians were traders of the luxurious ancient dye made from a type of shellfish, murex trunculus; the Japanese extracted the color from the murasaki root; but the English were the first to develop the modern synthetic dye in 1856.

Madame Gautreau (unfinished copy) 1884, oil on canvas

John Singer Sargent painted this famous portrait of Madame X, aka Madame Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau, who was a professional beauty of her day. Her reputation as such was built
on her use of violet-colored powder and low-cut dresses. The extreme whiteness of her skin, said the skeptics, was caused by her ingestion of arsenic. She swallowed a small amount every day, it was said, just enough to maintain her otherworldly shade of lavender-white without actually killing herself.

The Colour Amour exhibit will continue on the 4th floor through March 26, 2008.

Visit Smithsonian Global Sound on the Library's Articles and Databases page to listen to two related playlists of streaming audio. Following the tab for Playlist Folders and go to the bottom of the page. Under "Course Folders" there are two playlists:

"Songs of Blue" (24 tracks, 61 minutes in length)

"Songs of Purple and Indigo" (8 tracks, 22 minutes in length)


Recommended reading:

Colors: What They Mean And How To Make Them by Anne Varichon (Abrams, 2006)

Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Painting in Europe by Thomas Kren and Scot McKendrick (Getty Museum, 2003)

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis (Penguin Group, 2003)

America’s Indigo Blues: Resist-Printed and Dyed Textiles of the Eighteenth Century by Florence H. Pettit (Hastings House, 1974)

Blue and White Japan by Amy Sylvester Katoh (Charles Tuttle, 1996)

Islamic Tiles by Venetia Porter (Interlink Books, 1995)

1000 Tiles: Ten Centuries of Decorative Tiles (Chronicle Books, 2004)

Chinese Indigo Batik Designs by Lu Pu (Dover Publications, 2007)

Meissen’s Blue and White Porcelain by Nicholas Zumbulyadis (Schiffer Publishing, 2006)

John Singer Sargent by Carter Ratcliff (Artabras, 1982)

Blue: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau (Princeton Univ. Press, 2001)

Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World by Simon Garfield (Norton, 2001)

The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Yoshiko Wada, Mary Kellogg Rice and Jane Barton (Kodansha International, 1983)

Colour Amour

Colour Amour, an exhibition celebrating the history, science and art of color, opened January 10 at the Main Library, Fourth Floor.

Inspired by the book, Color: A Natural History of the Palette, by Victoria Finlay, the floorwide exhibit features 16 display cases, each devoted to a different aspect of color. This exhibit highlights the collections of the Art, Music and Recreation Center and Business, Science and Technology Center and also features colorful objets d’art and other visual treats.

In addition to the artistic aspects of color, the exhibit also touches on color in music, the technical aspects of creating color, color in nature, the history of specific colors and more.

The exhibit runs through March 26.

Additional reading:

Color in Art by John Gage. (London: Thames & Hudson, 2006).

Colors: The Story of Dyes and Pigments by Francois Delamare. (New York: Abrams, 2000).

Colors: What They Mean and How to Make Them by Anne Varichon. (New York: Abrams, 2006).


Video documentation of the Colour Amour exhibition (2009).