Spirit of Colors: The Art of Karl Gerstner (English and German Edition) - Hardcover

Gerstner, Karl

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262070847 ISBN 13: 9780262070843

Publisher: Mit Pr, 1981

Synopsis

"I cannot see why sensation should be less precise than thought. The scientist designs conceptual models, the artist perceptual models."
—Karl Gerstner

Color is Gerstner's essential medium. In this book, he presents the pure sensation of color with great precision. He explores color physically, sumptuously, yet with cool, formal clarity in the book's seventy color plates. He also pursues the subject of color historically and psychologically in a series of essays, citing examples from Aristotle to Andreas Speiser, from Goethe to Max Lüscher; theories and speculations about the character and employment of color and form. His notes and observations are often couched in a poetic, aphoristic manner:

"Kandinsky:
in general, then, color is a means
of exercising a direct influence on the soul.
The color is the piano key.
The eye is the hammer.
The soul is the piano key with all its strings."

"Albers:
if one says 'red'
and 50 persons are listening to him,
they will be imagining 50 reds.
And no doubt:
all these reds will be very different."

"Goethe worked in his green room.
In the blue one he welcomed guests he didn't like.
So that they would leave soon."

The essays include: The Spirit of Color: The Farbenlehre of Goethe; Conception—Perception: Fifteen Aspects to a Sentence of Max Bill; The Precision of Sensation; and Is Constructive Art at an End? Or its beginning? The illustrations include the "Color Sounds," the "Color Forms," and the "Color Lines."

About this title

Language Notes:

Text: English, German (translation)

Review:

"I consider him one of the most impressive and creative men in graphic arts today. His clarity and inventiveness is consistently a mark of his work."
—Gyorgy Kepes, Professor Emeritus, MIT, Founder and Director Emeritus of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies

"It is always a pleasure to have a new book by one of the very few articulate artist-scholars of our day, Karl Gerstner. Gerstner creates a book; he creates a work of art. Not only is this book beautifully designed and crafted, but it is also an astonishing example of an artist revealed as scientist."
—Ralph Coburn, artist and graphic designer

About this edition

• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0262070847
• ISBN 13: 9780262070843
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 225
• Editor: Gerstner Karl, Stierlin Henri