Australian Library of Art

Current display: All Things Bright and Beautiful

Scarlet, crimson, ultramarine, indigo … there’s a sensual pleasure in the words alone.  

Human beings have made pigments from the earth, plants, insects, and even deadly toxins.  This display explores our love affair with colour, including our long history of sacrificing health for beauty.   

It tells some of the stories of colour through the Australian Library of Art’s collections of illustrated books and artists’ books.  They include the accidental invention of mauve, the first of the coal tar dyes, the green which killed children in their nurseries in Victorian England and yellow, a colour once synonymous with decadence. 

Compare the colour choices of the doyen of design, Christopher Dresser, to those of his contemporaries George and William Audsley, who condemned the use of such “garish pigments” as vermilion, ultramarine, emerald-green, and chrome yellow in architectural decoration. 

Technology brightened the life of the Victorians.  Lovely or lurid, it all depends on your point of view. 

Dive into a world of colour, from the 19th century explosion of synthetics to the Day-Glo colours of Op Art.