Teaching Gallery: The Substance of Color
Exhibition
Exhibition Overview
Teaching Gallery: The Substance of Color
Mary Dusenbury, curator
Gallery 319, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Color was a critical element in ancient and medieval East Asian life and thought. In contrast to Western thought-in which color has been associated with light at least since the time of Aristotle-ancient and medieval East Asian beliefs suggested that the primary colors were earth-bound, associated with specific plant or mineral substances. Many of these materials were also potent medicines, toxins or primary ingredients in Daoist elixirs of immortality. The idea that these colors shared the transformative powers associated with the substance from which they originated-that they possessed a life-force or energy of their own-permeated early religious, political, and social thought and practices.
Exhibition images
Works of art
late 1800s or early 1900s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
1800s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
late 1800s or early 1900s, Meiji period (1868–1912)
late 1400s–early 1500s, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
date unknown
1827, Edo period (1600–1868)
circa 1847–1852, Edo period (1600–1868)
Events
March 8, 2013
Talk
6:00–7:00PM
309 Auditorium
March 10, 2013
Workshop
10:00AM–5:00PM
Art and Design Building, 5th Floor Textiles