"Munsell's Magenta"

In Munsell's Magenta I am referencing and further exploring Professor Albert H. Munsell's (1858-1918) color system. Albert Munsell was an artist and professor at the Massachusetts Normal Art School (now MassArt). Munsell first started to work on his color system in 1898, his findings and theories were published in 1905 in his book A Color Notation (he went on to publish two more books on his theories). Munsell recognized the need for a more formulaic way to describe color to his students, he felt traditional names were "foolish" and "misleading." He wanted to bring clarity to color communication by establishing an orderly system for identifying every color that exists. He based his system on what he defined as "perceived equidistance" -- the human eye's perception of color. His color system specifies colors based on their hue, value, and chroma. Names like red-orange, aqua, and yellow-green don't exist, instead you will find 10GY, 5RP, 5G, 10P, etc. I am being playful by using "magenta" in the tile of this work, something that I hope Professor Munsell would find amusing.

You can thank Munsell for the way we match and describe color today. He was the first to combine science and art into a single color theory. Because his theories are based in the science of human visual perception it has outlasted many of its contemporary color models and is still in use today.

Munsell's Magenta primarily draws from the following complimentary colors on Munsell's 2D wheel:

     
            (5GY)                          (5P)                         (10GY)                         (10P)                          (5G)                            (5RP)




Munsell's Magenta, from the Single Breakthrough series, 2016, heavy bodied acrylics mixed with ceramic stucco and iridescent medium, 18" x 24".