
The Secret Lives of Color
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Narrated by:
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Kassia St. Clair
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By:
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Kassia St. Clair
About this listen
One of USA Today's “100 Books to Read While Stuck at Home During the Coronavirus Crisis"
The unforgettable, unknown history of colors and the vivid stories behind them.
“Beautifully written.... Full of anecdotes and fascinating research, this elegant compendium has all the answers.” (NPR, Best Books of 2017)
The Secret Lives of Color tells the unusual stories of 75 fascinating shades, dyes, and hues. From blonde to ginger, the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, Picasso’s blue period to the charcoal on the cave walls at Lascaux, acid yellow to kelly green, and from scarlet women to imperial purple, these surprising stories run like a bright thread throughout history.
In this book, Kassia St. Clair has turned her lifelong obsession with colors and where they come from (whether Van Gogh’s chrome yellow sunflowers or punk’s fluorescent pink) into a unique study of human civilization. Across fashion and politics, art and war, the secret lives of color tell the vivid story of our culture.
“This passionate and majestic compedium will leave you bathed in the gorgeous optics of light.” (Elle)
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2017 Kassia St. Clair (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Beautifully written and thoughtfully produced.... Full of anecdotes and fascinating research, this elegant compendium has all the answers.” (Nina Martyris, NPR’s Best Books of 2017)
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- By: Bianca Bosker
- Narrated by: Bianca Bosker
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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An award-winning journalist obsessed with obsession, Bianca Bosker’s existence was upended when she wandered into the art world—and couldn’t look away. Intrigued by artists who hyperventilate around their favorite colors and art fiends who max out credit cards to show hunks of metal they think can change the world, Bosker grew fixated on understanding why art matters and how she—or any of us—could engage with it more deeply.
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I Don’t think I Got the Picture
- By Emily J. on 03-23-24
By: Bianca Bosker
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Your Brain on Art
- How the Arts Transform Us
- By: Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross
- Narrated by: Ellyn Jameson
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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What is art? Many of us think of the arts as entertainment—a luxury of some kind. In Your Brain on Art, authors Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross show how activities from painting and dancing to expressive writing, architecture, and more are essential to our lives.
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Practical, even utilitarian ways of leveraging art
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 04-07-23
By: Susan Magsamen, and others
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The Fabric of Civilization
- How Textiles Made the World
- By: Virginia I. Postrel
- Narrated by: Caroline Cole
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of humanity is the story of textiles - as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture. In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel synthesizes groundbreaking research from archaeology, economics, and science to reveal a surprising history. From Minoans exporting wool colored with precious purple dye to Egypt, to Romans arrayed in costly Chinese silk, the cloth trade paved the crossroads of the ancient world.
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Pop journalism article lengthened into a book
- By Anonymous User on 02-05-22
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A Natural History of Color
- The Science Behind What We See and How We See It
- By: Rob DeSalle, Hans Bachor
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the years, color has dazzled, enhanced, and clarified the world we see. The experimental palettes of painting, the advent of the color photograph, Technicolor pictures, color printing, and so on have created a vivid and vibrant continuum. These ways of representing reality in “living color” echo our evolutionary reliance on and indeed privileging of color as a complex and vital form of consumption, classification, and creation. It’s everywhere we look, yet do we really know much of anything about it?
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This Is An Excellent Book
- By R. Martocci on 12-01-20
By: Rob DeSalle, and others
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Silk
- A World History
- By: Aarathi Prasad
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history, across cultures and countries, silk has reigned as the undeniable queen of fabrics, yet its origins and evolution remain a mystery. In a gorgeous and sweeping narrative, Silk weaves together its intricate story and the indelible mark it has left on humanity.
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Disappointing
- By Amazon Customer on 12-30-24
By: Aarathi Prasad
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The Story of Art Without Men
- By: Katy Hessel
- Narrated by: Katy Hessel
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what is the Baroque anyway? Guided by Katy Hessel, art historian and founder of @thegreatwomenartists, discover the glittering paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance, the radical work of Harriet Powers in the nineteenth-century United States, and the artist who really invented the "readymade." Explore the Dutch Golden Age, the astonishing work of postwar artists in Latin America, and the women defining art in the 2020s.
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Great book, no pdf?
- By Amazon Customer on 08-11-24
By: Katy Hessel
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Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light, 100 Art Writings 1988-2018
- By: Peter Schjeldahl, Jarrett Earnest - introduction
- Narrated by: Peter Schjeldahl
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Hot Cold Heavy Light collects 100 writings - some long, some short - that taken together form a group portrait of many of the world’s most significant and interesting artists. From Pablo Picasso to Cindy Sherman, Old Masters to contemporary masters, paintings to comix, and saints to charlatans, Schjeldahl ranges widely through the diverse and confusing art world, an expert guide to a dazzling scene.
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needs pictures
- By Petra Juarez on 02-19-20
By: Peter Schjeldahl, and others
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How to Be Avant-Garde
- Modern Artists and the Quest to End Art
- By: Morgan Falconer
- Narrated by: Brian Wiggins
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Reacting to the tumultuous crises of the twentieth century, especially the horrors of World War I, avant-garde artists and writers sought to destroy art by transforming it into the substance of everyday life. Following the evolution of these revolutionary groups, How to Be Avant-Garde charts its pioneers and radical ideas.
By: Morgan Falconer
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How to Be an Artist
- By: Jerry Saltz
- Narrated by: Jerry Saltz
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Art has the power to change our lives. For many, becoming an artist is a lifelong dream. But how to make it happen? In How to Be an Artist, Jerry Saltz, one of the art world’s most celebrated and passionate voices, offers an indispensable handbook for creative people of all kinds. From the first sparks of inspiration - and how to pursue them without giving in to self-doubt - Saltz offers invaluable insight into what really matters to emerging artists: originality, persistence, a balance between knowledge and intuition, and that most precious of qualities, self-belief.
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Terrible Book Waste of Money
- By Classic on 04-22-20
By: Jerry Saltz
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Fabric
- The Hidden History of the Material World
- By: Victoria Finlay
- Narrated by: Carla Kissane
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In Fabric, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it.
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Perfect Book for Needleworking
- By LaVonne on 11-18-23
By: Victoria Finlay
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Dress Codes
- How the Laws of Fashion Made History
- By: Richard Thompson Ford
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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For centuries, clothing has been a wearable status symbol; fashion, a weapon in struggles for social change; and dress codes, a way to maintain political control. Dress codes evolved along with the social and political ideals of the day, but they always reflected struggles for power and status.
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Unlistenable
- By Lauren on 08-01-23
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Chromophobia
- Focus on Contemporary Issues
- By: David Batchelor
- Narrated by: Peter Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The central argument of Chromophobia is 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.
By: David Batchelor
Super interesting!
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Wonderful read
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Great listen!
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Wonderful! Entertaining , informative and thought provoking!
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Very entertaining!
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Fascinating
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I also loved her seamless integration of fact and quotes into all the ways in which we take color and chemistry for granted.
However, the book was organized by hue and shade, and this made certain sections repetitive. For instance, ultramarine, indigo, woad and Prussian blue all have overlaps that become difficult to read because they are separate sections and that means certain facts naturally recur.
Overall, the depth and beauty of her research and writing, as well as her voice and narration as bonuses makes me recommend this book without hesitation.
The Things We Do for Color
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This book touches on many dyes: indigo, madder, cochineal, woad, weld,and others. However, the focus is generally on paints because many of the colors come from minerals (cobalt, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, etc. ) or earths (ochres and clays).
The secret life of color is also a history. When did the color come into and out of fashion? Avocado, anyone? Did girls always wear pink? Not at first; they wore blue and boys wore pink.
The accompanying PDF file offers more colors than were discussed in the book. I still don't know what puce is.
I am a dyer, weaver, and spinner
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Put Down Your Brush
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Enjoyed it as short stories
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