Revolutionary changes occurred in every visual discipline, with rules being broken and new ones set in their place at every turn. The last century was a remarkably significant time for color. We can look through the lens of history at both the first and last decades (and all the decades in between) and discuss with some objectivity what best expressed the creative, cultural, and social influences of the day-or in some cases what helped create them. PANTONE The 20th Century in Color explores a hundred years of such evolution.Īt more than a decade's distance, we are now just far away enough to try to perceive the era as a whole.
The evolution of color is fascinating to watch. And the forces that, over time, may well exchange these associations for others. Historians look back in time to explain the intricacies of people and their societies-the forces that make crimson an ancient color of authority and power, scarlet a badge of sin, and cerise the essence of feminine seduction.
The context within which color unfurls its rainbow of symbolism and emotion is history itself. The resonance of any shade across the spectrum shifts and develops according to the context in which it appears. And what red can express is different from the symbolic potential of greens and blues. Crimson, scarlet, and cerise suggest nuances of feeling and reaction that nanometers cannot quantify. But it is experienced as warmth or danger, romance or revolution, heroism or evil, depending on the cultural and personal matrix in which it appears. Light with a wavelength of 650 nanometers or so is seen as red. What starts as a signal passing along the optic nerve quickly develops into an emotional, social, and spiritual phenomenon that carries many layers of vivid meaning.