The colour violet was largely missing from art before the Impressionists, and is seen differently by different cultures. Why?

Patterned markings on some Southwestern pots in the U.S. were used as a way to symbolize color in black-and-white arts.

Katy Kelleher presages a boom in eau de Nil, the slippery color that snakes through Egypt.

Lovers of gray “lack the passion that comes with loving a ‘real’ color.” And yet I yearn for it. I fill my drawers with gray brassieres. By Meghan Flaherty.

Painted Spanish sculpture had flesh tones and realistic wounds and tears and glass eyes, and it gave Protestants the creeps. But here’s the thing: Italian sculptors of the Renaissance also colored their works and were seemingly happy to do so. If we tend to forget this, it may be because the evidence we are looking at has been rigged: painted terracottas of the Renaissance have been stripped of their color, just as innumerable wood carvings of the northern schools have been stripped and “antiqued” in a manner acceptable to past taste and the antiques trade. By James Fenton.

Unlike other birds, parrots don't rely on what they eat to colour their feathers. Instead they rely on some fancy feather physics. By Belinda Smith.

For centuries, people who were born blind have been the intellectual curios of philosophers studying consciousness. This is particularly true for those exploring the way our consciousness is effected by our bodies, especially our eyes, which Leonardo da Vinci described as the “window of the soul”.

The Forbes Pigment Collection contains samples of material that represent all shades of the rainbow — plus brown, white, black, and metallic.

It’s difficult to come by new colors these days, as the earth’s naturally-occurring colors have been thoroughly researched and new ones created in scientific settings are dwindling in occurrence. The last shade of blue to be discovered and named was Cobalt Blue back in 1802. Since cobalt has been found to be toxic when inhaled or ingested, its use in science has been limited and almost non-existent, though it is still used as a coloring agent for fashion items. The final name for the color will be released by the end of 2017.

Is it a color that means nothing — or is that the point? By Kyle Chayka.

Anish Kapoor, the famed sculptor, who created the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture for the 2012 Olympics, has provoked the fury of fellow artists this week by acquiring the exclusive rights to use the blackest shade of black in the world.

Colour and Subcultural Sublimation

In 1842, British scientist Sir John Herschel experimented with the effect of light on iron compounds, inventing a process to produce the blue-tinted prints we know as cyanotypes... By Claire Voon.

How a corporate spy swiped plans for DuPont’s billion-dollar color formula. By Del Quentin Wilber.

The Pantone #ColoroftheYear for 2016 is #RoseQuartz & #Serenity, inviting shades that embody a mindset of tranquility and inner peace.

This is an early alpha release of some work-in-progress. Hopefully it is functioning well enough for you to have a play and discover some of the wonderful artwork lurking within the Tate's online collection. The idea here is to investigate how colour can work in tandem with other metadata to enrich the browsing experience.

Discovered by a Chemist, Prussian Blue Gave Painters the Spontaneity They Were Missing. By John Griswold.

A company called EnChroma has built a pair of glasses that claims to restore colour vision for the colourblind. Predictably, the internet has erupted with excitement. But it’s not the first... By Diane Kelly and Maddie Stone.

Artists and paintmakers can breathe a little easier now that the European Union has officially thrown out Sweden’s baffling proposal to ban cadmium pigment from paint.