Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
Emily Noyes Vanderpoel (1842-1939) was an artist, collector, scholar, and historian working at the dawn of the 20th century. Her first and most prominent work, Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color, provides a comprehensive overview of the main ideas of color theory at the time, as well as her wildly original approaches to color analysis and interaction. Through a 21st century lens, she appears to stumble upon midcentury design and minimalism decades prior to those movements.Presenting her work as a painting manual under the guise and genre of flower painting and the decorative arts-- subjects considered "appropriate" for a woman of her time--she was able to present a thoroughly studied, yet uniquely poetic, approach to color theory that was later taken up and popularized by men and became ubiquitous in contemporary art departments.Her remarkable inventiveness shines in a series of gridded squares, each 10 x 10, that analyze the proportions of color derived from actual objects: Assyrian tiles, Persian rugs, an Egyptian mummy case, and even a teacup and saucer. Vanderpoel had a deep knowledge of ceramics and analyzed many pieces from her personal collection. She leaves her process relatively mysterious but what is clear, as historian and science blogger John Ptak notes, is that Vanderpoel "sought not so much to analyze the components of color itself, but rather to quantify the overall interpretative effect of color on the imagination".… (more)
Local notes
From KickStarter:
About The Book
Emily Noyes Vanderpoel (1842-1939) was an artist, collector, scholar, and historian working at the dawn of the 20th century. Her first and most prominent work, Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color, first published in 1901, provides a comprehensive overview of the main ideas of color theory at the time, as well as her wildly original and artistic approaches to color analysis and interaction. Through a 21st century lens, she appears to stumble upon midcentury design and minimalism decades prior to those movements.
She was a visionary color theorist whose methods were later adopted by men and became ubiquitous in design curriculums around the world. She was an incredible artist and creative champion whose pioneering work is conspicuously absent in nearly all history books. We aim to change that with this new presentation of her seminal work. In addition to presenting the original book in an accessible softcover, we are offering a beautifully bound hardcover edition exclusive to this Kickstarter campaign. This deluxe facsimile version will not be made available again.
Her remarkable inventiveness shines in a series of gridded squares, each 10 x 10, that analyze the proportions of color derived from actual objects, many of which were in Vanderpoel's vast collection of ceramics and antiques. She leaves her process relatively mysterious but what is clear, as historian and science blogger John Ptak notes, is that Vanderpoel “sought not so much to analyze the components of color itself, but rather to quantify the overall interpretative effect of color on the imagination”. Her square format predates Josef Albers’ iconic Homage to the Square by some fifty years.
This incredible book has long languished in antiquarian book markets. Original copies trade hands for more than $500 and it has never received its proper audience. We aim to change that, and with this new edition have taken meticulous measures to reproduce the original artifact at an affordable price. Largely disserved by the public domain, this vast 400 page book has been reproduced in recent years by shoddy print-on-demand services, from academically held PDFs and most tragically, only in black and white. Working with the Historical Society that Emily Noyes Vanderpoel helped establish, we are the first to invest the time, money, and love it takes to replicate this brilliant collection of color studies accurately. Using the most current digital methods and archival printing production, we aim to finally do justice to Vanderpoel’s forgotten legacy as visionary and pioneer.
We will also be contributing an introduction written by design scholar Alan P. Bruton, who has been researching Vanderpoel and her work for decades. This introduction will serve to reflect on her incredible body of work from the vantage point of 21st century art history and women's movements, helping to illustrate that Vanderpoel remains one of the most important, underrated, and contemporarily relevant artists of her time and of the last century.
"Thoroughly conversant with the best scientific research of her day, Emily Noyes Vanderpoel brings an artist’s eye and designer’s sensibility to her prescient study of color. From embroidery and Persian rugs to ceramics and painting, her perceptive analysis reveals what was long hiding in plain sight. The remarkable illustrations are actually works of art that not only anticipate but actually compete with the best work of some of the most important twentieth-century artists."
Mark C. Taylor
Columbia University
"Vanderpoel’s delightfully inscrutable work is an artifact from out of time: abstract modernism born of the Victorian need to classify everything—even the mundane. This book inspired me, and deserves this beautiful new treatment in print."
Liza Daly Author and creator of the Vanderbot
"This re-edition of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel's 1901 Color Problems is a fantastic addition to the library of literature that celebrates the wonders of visual experience. The writing is elegant, the information profound. How can we resist a book that opens with an exegesis on various elements of color in nature and on bird songs and Beethoven and declares "We may aptly term color the music of light"? The book is both a celebration and a lucid guide: to issues of luminosity and color temperature, and of harmony as well as contrast. And it is a compact dynamo of the history of color theory up to the time of Vanderpoel's writing. The many color plates are magnificent, both in the pleasures they provide and the magic they demonstrate; I feel safe in saying that Josef Albers would have been gobsmacked by this glorious volume."
Nicholas Fox Weber
The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation
From Sacred Books Press:
Emily Noyes Vanderpoel (1842-1939) was an artist, collector, scholar, and historian working at the dawn of the 20th century. Her first and most prominent work, Color Problems: A Practical Manual for the Lay Student of Color, provides a comprehensive overview of the main ideas of color theory at the time, as well as her wildly original approaches to color analysis and interaction. Through a 21st century lens, she appears to stumble upon midcentury design and minimalism decades prior to those movements.
Lined with 116 remarkable color illustrations, this abstract and poetic book is being properly reprinted for the first time since 1903.
Emily was a remarkable and tenacious academic mind. Alongside a rigorously studied examination of the principals of color theory, her gridded Color Analysis works predict abstract art movements, while her quiet experiential Color Note watercolors denote a particular sensitivity to time and place.
Emily's principal motivation was to make color theory available to every person, not just artists or people in graphic trades. Her idea that homemakers and everyday people could benefit from a better understanding of color was a radical democratization of a perviously niche discipline.
Sacred Bones has teamed up with longtime collaborator The Circadian Press to reproduce and distribute this seminal text.
*This printing of Color Problems includes a thoughtful selection of paper stocks. Like the original, the text portion of our edition is printed on a soft uncoated natural stock. The 116 color plates are printed on a bright white coated paper stock to best display colors. The interiors will be offset printed with close attention to color reproduction. The book includes sewn signatures for long term durability and lay flat binding for ease of viewing. The cover is foil stamped and includes a vibrant slipover belly-band. We have taken careful measures to ensure all aspects of the production are of the highest quality.
The Deluxe Version with Inserts includes several color filters that provide interaction with the material and help illustrate some of Vanderpoel's most ingenious ideas about the perception of color. These filters are true to the ones included with the original printing.*
From The Circadian Press:
The most vast and exciting publishing project The Circadian Press has been involved in to date, COLOR PROBLEMS reproduces the original 1902 Color Theory masterpiece by artist and historian Emily Noyes Vanderpoel.
Lined with 117 color illustrations, this abstract and poetic book has been properly reprinted here for the first time since 1903.
Emily was a remarkable and tenacious academic mind working at the dawn of the 20th century. Alongside a rigorously studied examination of the principals of color theory, her gridded Color Analysis works predict abstract art movements by decades, while her quiet experiential Color Note watercolors denote a particular sensitivity to time and place.
Emily's principal motivation was to make color theory available to every person, not just artists or people in graphic trades. Her idea that homemakers and everyday people could benefit from a better understanding of color was a radical democratization of a previously niche discipline.
The Circadian Press has teamed with longtime collaborator Sacred Bones Books to reproduce and distribute this seminal text.