When we talk about Maya heritage, one of the most important legacies in the Yucatan Peninsula is the “Azul Maya” (Maya Blue), a pigment developed widely by this civilization and used by different Mesoamerican cultures for the decoration of ceramics, textiles and murals, as explained by Romeo de Coss Gómez, researcher attached to the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav) in Mérida, Yucatán.

Cultural histories of unusual hues. By Katy Kelleher.

From Renaissance portraits to rose gold iPhones, here’s a brief history of pink in art—and beyond. By Alice Bucknell.

Cultures around the world talk about color differently—some don’t even have a word for color. So is color perception a universal human experience or not?

Philosophers have a bad reputation for casting unwarranted doubt on established facts. Little could be more certain than your belief that the cloudless sky, on a summer afternoon, is blue. Yet we may wonder in earnest, is it also blue for the birds who fly up there, who have different eyes from ours?

As the means of creating the color black have changed, so have the subjects it represents. By Mark Peplow.