Color Everywhere: Synthetic Dyes and Modern Art

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course will consider the profusion of new dyes (aniline, azo, and vat) available for coloring textiles, foodstuffs, and other materials in the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth and ask if these industrial innovations, which fueled subsequent rapid shifts in fashion, paved the way for modernist experiments with color. Artists who engaged with various media, including Sonia Delaunay, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and Marguerite Thompson Zorach, will be central to the discussion. Modern artists' engagement with theories of color, particularly those expounded by specialists working in the textile industry, such as Michel-Eugène Chevreul, will also be examined. The relationship between colors, dyes, coloniality, politics, and modernity will be interrogated in order to surface the othering and misrecognition of artists and artforms within art historical discourse. Those enrolled in this course will participate in the making of an accompanying exhibition as part of CWAC Exhibitions. This installation will feature the work of Chicago-based artist Lialia Kuchma as well as works in her textile collection. To register, please email the instructor explaining your academic background and interest in this course (2-3 sentences).