At Palefire, colour is something we think about every day – from developing new collections to advising clients on palettes for interior schemes. For inspiration, we often look to the work of 20th-century artists and designers whose use of colour continues to shape how we see and use it today. Here, we explore three of our favourites, who, although they took very different approaches, all understood colour as something active, shaped by perception, material and emotion rather than fixed rules.
Josef Albers
Every perception of colour is an illusion.. ..we do not see colours as they really are. In our perception they alter one another. – Josef Albers
Josef Albers’s approach to colour was grounded in relativity. In Interaction of Color (1963), he showed that colour is never fixed, but understood only in relation to what surrounds it. A single hue can appear lighter or darker, warmer or cooler, depending entirely on its context.
His exercises reflected this thinking. By cutting and placing coloured papers side by side, students tested how colours interact – making two different colours appear the same, or the same colour appear different. The aim was not to memorise rules, but to train the eye.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp
She constructed her painting like a work of masonry. The colours are luminous, going from rawest yellow to deep red or blue. – Hans Arp
For Sophie Taeuber-Arp, colour worked alongside geometry, creating rhythm, movement and a sense of play across her work. Active throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the Swiss avant-garde artist moved fluidly between disciplines, embracing painting, textiles, embroidery, sculpture, architecture, stained glass and even dance.
Whether designing a beaded bag or abstract composition, she rejected traditional hierarchies between art and craft, combining bold colour and geometric form in works that feel both rigorous and joyful.
Victor Pasmore
I call it independent painting: art that is independent like music. – Victor Pasmore
British artist Victor Pasmore’s use of colour was more emotive, and evolved dramatically throughout his career. Having begun with the muted, structured geometry of his 1950s abstractions, he later embraced what he described as ‘pure colour’. Inspired by J. M. W. Turner as well as the sunsets of Malta, where he relocated in 1966, Pasmore used spray paint and sponges to create vibrant, soft-edged compositions filled with fluid forms and hypnotic swirls.