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The physics of light and color have long been studied, and more recently neuroscience has advanced our understanding of how the brain processes color. In built environments, however, another complexity is present: color is frequently a product of specific technologies and shifting tastes, which have their own histories—histories easily taken for granted. Sensitivity to this issue is what makes Laura Anne Kalba's prize-winning Color in the Age of Impressionism so stimulating and valuable. Focusing on the Impressionist era in France and especially Paris, Kalba examines the social and cultural embrace of a novel range of bright and exuberant colors—on canvas, on paper, in women's fashions, in gardens, at flower stands, on kiosks and walls, and for a host of consumer products. Kalba's achievement is to identify not only the sources and manifestations of this "color revolution," but also the web of interrelationships among its constitutive elements. Indeed, the brilliant color palette of the Impressionists was far from universally welcomed at the outset. By interrogating changing color uses and preferences, Kalba shows just how historically and culturally contingent such phenomena can be.
Kalba introduces her project as a study of "the impact of new color technologies on French visual...