Goethe's Theory of Colors

[Ganesh H Shankar]

In past (and now too) many times I had struggled to get colors "as seen" (whatever that means). It is often very difficult to reproduce the colors seen by our eyes/mind on a screen (harder on paper). Color cast is one of the many problems. At times cast is so subtle that you can't even make out it exists. Grey cards solve this issue but introduces a new one. At times subjects will have natural color cast (for example sunset/sunrise/warm images). Use of grey card will eliminate them too! One of the other challenging issue is illusion created in the brain as explained somewhere in this nice video on Goethe's work. It is a long watch (~50 minutes) about "theory of color" in general, narrated/presented artistically. I think my time watching this was worth.

[Rajkumar]

Amazing one. Thanks Ganesh

I liked the following quotes
"
- To gain knowledge of the world we must first dismantle it. But then, we must reassemble it to return it to its true context
- Observe the phenomena of color - without pleasure or displeasure-without expectation or prejudice - if we see them for what they really are they open and tell us stories ( but that is asking a lot. Almost Buddha nature
- Darkness is not absence of light. Light and dark are equal. Darkness also gets reflected in a mirror ( more respect for darkness than ever before )


"

[Ganesh H Shankar]

Yes, Raj. They are interesting. I also liked “unmeasurable” attributes of color he mentioned. One of them being colored complementary shadows. Science says it does not exist but we see them. All that we see need not exist! What a helpless situation we are in?! I think it further strengthens my belief in Kantian philosophy and mystery and great art of Nature.

I had bought Kindle version of the original book by Goethe many years ago. Yet to read it though Fortunately two days ago I found this documentary on the same.