BLUE: A Colorful History

Lobby and Concourse Galleries

February 6, 2027 - June 27, 2028
Curated by Sarah Vargas, FAM Curator

 

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
-Don McLean, Vincent (1971)

The color blue has a rich and interesting place in art history, from the ancient world to present day. Blue has long been one of the most impactful tools in an artist’s repertoire. From the tomb ornamentation of ancient Egypt to the Renaissance depictions of the Virgin Mary to becoming the foundational color of Impressionism, blue has been seen as one of the most valuable and sacred of all the colors. Once more expensive than gold, blue was for many centuries a rare and difficult pigment to produce. Its scarcity made it a luxury reserved for the wealthy. With the creation of synthetic pigments, blue became much more prominent and widely used, no longer reserved for the most sacred or significant elements.

Color is one of the determining factors of how we experience the world. Blue is consistently ranked as the world’s most popular color with surveys indicating it is the favorite color of roughly 40% of people across different cultures and genders. It is a color full of symbolism, representing calmness and peace, but also sadness. It is also associated with the natural world as the color of the sea and the sky. Despite its popularity and prevalence, it is also one of the last colors to be named in any language.

This exhibition traces the use of blue over the last 80 years in painting, photography, printmaking, in abstract and figural works, and how the color is representative of the human condition. BLUE: A Colorful History is comprised of works from the Fresno Art Museum’s Permanent Collection.

 

Images coming soon!