From test tube to Turner - the role of the chemist in art
1,022 views · Published 16 July 2012 · 1:07:22 · Indexed 14 October 2026
Channel: Royal Society of Chemistry · 2012 · Science & Technology
Professor Andy Abbott, University of Leicester, questioned what colour is and even challenged what art is. From primitive cave art through renaissance Italy, the Dutch School and the French Impressionists the work of the colour chemist has dominated the canvases of the world. In a non-technical presentation the correlations were drawn between developments in chemical processing and the pigments available to the artist. The revolutionary changes in art history match those in the chemical and industrial world. This talk correlates, using a series of demonstrations, the changes in the artist's pallet from natural pigments through the work of the alchemist and the chemist to the current kaleidoscope of vibrant and even fluorescent colours. http://bit.ly/LLiEIe See more events from the Chemistry Centre, London
