ChromophobiaDavid Batchelor
Chromophobia
by David Batchelor · first published 2000
3mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2018–2025first – last mentioned
67% recommend33% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
If you are like me and love vibrant colours and struggle to understand the postmodern(?) obsession with drab palettes, I recommend the book Chromophobia by David Batchelor [1]. It contextualizes this phenomenon within broader western art history and is just generally super interesting to someone who has an interest in art and design but isn't embedded…
on “Has the world become less colourful?” ↗There's a really interesting book about this exact topic: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/chromophobia edit: ha, the book is mentioned halfway through the essay. I should finish reading before commenting. I agree with the book's thesis - there's an impulse to associate colour with "the oriental, the…
on “Why is the world losing color?” ↗"As the artist and critic David Batchelor writes in his 2000 book, “Chromophobia,” at a certain point ignorance becomes willful denial—a kind of “negative hallucination” in which we refuse to see what is before our eyes. " It's interesting to note that this psychological phenomenon…
on “The myth of whiteness in classical sculpture” ↗