300+ Years of Color Theory: The Reading List

I learned about color theory back when I was in art school. We all completed lots of color theory assignments in paint as part of our "art 101" classes. It's very different to have the freedom to mix up almost any color from paints—and then to be restricted to working only with the colored fabrics you can find (or hand-dye). This sparked my interest to find out how using color applies to your work when you can't create your own colors. Can you still apply the basics of color theory to using found color, when you are simply perceiving the color instead of creating it?

Going back to basics, I re-read Johannes Itten’s Art of Color. This book has been like the Color Theory Bible to me. It includes all the basic principles I learned about mixing colors when studying painting and fabric dying. Itten does refer to some other Color Theorists in his book, and when I began reading some of these other authors, I discovered that many of the ideas and theories in Itten’s book were not original, but go way back.

So, with all this in mind, I’m starting a new reading project! I aim to read (or re-read) the most influential books published on Color Theory over the past 300+ years. Not only to see where we’ve been, but to better understand how we’ve arrived where we are with Color Theory, and get a glimpse of what’s next.

This is your formal invitation to join me! While I can’t make a hard-and-fast reading schedule (because life just happens), I do plan on posting which book I am reading, and which one or two are next on the list. I’m also planning a short write-up of each book here at my blog, to highlight the most important points in each book and most importantly to follow the trail of breadcrumbs from our current view of Color Theory back to the beginnings.

Some of these books are completely free online, some are still readily available for purchase, some are still available to read at your library, and a few are unfortunately out of print. Let's get reading!

300+ Years of Color Theory Reading List

DATE	BOOK TITLE/AUTHOR
1704	Opticks, Sir Isaac Newton
1720	Coloritto, J. C. LeBlon
1766	The Natural System of Colors, Moses Harris
1810	Theory of Colours, Wolfgang von Goethe
1817	Chromatics: The Analogy and Theory of Colours, George Field
1839	The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors, Chevreul
1878	The Principles of Light and Color, Edwin D. Babbitt
1879	Modern Chromatics, Ogden N. Rood
1901	Color Problems, Emily Noyes Vanderpoel
1916	The Color Primer, Wilhelm Ostwald
1921	A Grammar of Color, Albert H. Munsell
1938	Color Chart (Patent Application), Herbert E. Ives
1938	Monument to Color, Faber Birren
1941	The Story of Color, Faber Birren
1961	The Art of Color, Johannes Itten
1963	Interaction of Color, Josef Albers
1975	Theory and Practice of Color, Frans Gerritsen