Do we’ve a bias in opposition to coloration in artwork? Matt Wilson explores prejudices which have constructed up over centuries – main to what has been labelled ‘chromophobia’, the concern of a new exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Art historians and archaeologists have stable evidence that historical Greek and Roman artistic endeavors have been brightly painted,” says Matt Wilson on this video exploring the roots of Western prejudices in opposition to coloration. Chroma, a brand new exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, explores our technicolour heritage – and the roots of a bias that runs deep in artwork history. It’s primarily based totally on studies through Professor Vinzenz Brinkmann and Dr Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, leaders withinside the area of historical polychromy research who’ve discovered historical coloration designs the use of UV light, growing reconstructions of the way Greek and Roman sculpture could have originally appeared.
Yet they have got met complaint alongside the manner. “Those guardians of excellent taste… highbrow people – they can not manipulate it – the conflict is too hard,” says Professor Brinkmann. It’s a fashion that the artist David Batchelor highlighted in his ee-e book Chromophobia. “The extra I study, the extra I note this sample of resistance to coloration; this tendency to deal with coloration as other, as feminine, oriental, primitive, childish or kitsch or cosmetic,” he says.
In the video, Wilson unearths out why we do not fee coloration, thinking a centuries-vintage misunderstanding. As Chroma’s curator Sarah Lepinski tells him: “It’s crucial that audiences come to recognize the manner they see historical Greek and Roman sculpture isn’t always the manner it changed into first created.”
Video through Paul Ivan Harris
Produced through Fiona Macdonald
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Why Her Majesty the Queen changed into a cultural icon like no other

Earlier this year, to mark the Platinum Jubilee, BBC Culture explored the Queen’s iconic repute thru the lens of film, fiction, style and theatre. Click at the links underneath to revisit those and one more article approximately Her Majesty.
Queen Elizabeth II’s evolving get dressed experience changed into a masterclass in royal image-making. In this newsletter, first posted in June, we regarded returned at an first-rate adventure in fashion and diplomacy. Click at the hyperlink underneath to study the article:
How the Queen have become a fashion icon
The artwork and pictures that depicted the Queen discovered some thrilling truths. In this newsletter posted in advance this year, we explored portrayals of a completely unique and brilliant icon. Click at the hyperlink underneath to study the article:
The artwork that captured a Royal icon
The many fictional variations of the Queen in books, on degree and on display screen inform us loads approximately royalty, and our evolving mindset to it. In this article, posted beforehand of the Platinum Jubilee, BBC Culture checked out the memories stimulated through the monarch. Click at the hyperlink underneath to study the article:
The imaginary lives of the Queen
In 2018, Queen Elizabeth II made a wonder look at London Fashion Week, sealing her repute as an inimitable icon. In this newsletter, posted 4 years ago, BBC Culture explores the Queen’s complicated sartorial messaging – and the importance of her well-known handbag. Click at the hyperlink underneath to study the article:
How the Queen conquered style
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And in case you appreciated this tale, sign on for the weekly bbc.com capabilities newsletter, known as The Essential List. A handpicked choice of memories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, introduced for your inbox each Friday.
Why 1960 changed into a turning factor for Africa
Following independence, a experience of pleasure and cultural renaissance swept throughout many African countries. It changed into a time of creativity and liberation, writes Precious Adesina.
When Sanlé Sory changed into photographed for his ID card in 1957, he changed into amazed to discover how high priced it changed into, which gave him the concept to begin his very own business. “I paid approximately 25,000 [West African] francs [£32] and a bottle of whisky to a Ghanaian photographer, Kojo Adamako, to come to be his apprentice for approximately two years,” the Burkinabe photographer Sory tells BBC Culture. “That changed into the start of a brand new career, proper while my united states of america changed into approximately to come to be independent.” By the mid-1960s, Sory had opened Volts Photo, a pictures studio in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second one biggest metropolis in Burkina Faso, which speedy took off.