Loske, Alexandra, and Sarah Lowengard. The Book of Colour Concepts. Köln: TASCHEN, 2024

Abstract

In 2024, the publishing house Taschen released two elaborately designed volumes that are as important as they are weightly, under the title The Book of Colour Concepts. These books, housed in a slipcase, are indispensable from any colour researcher’s bookshelf. On a total of 850 large-format and colour-printed pages, the two authors Alexandra Loske and Sarah Lowengard unfold an enormous compilation of knowledge on centuries of engagement with the phenomenon of colour by scientists and artists – while many of them could be assigned to either realm. After all, the best colour research tends to emerge from ‘between the chairs’, as it most play a role in all fields of the natural sciences, life sciences, and humanities, yet its effects are often overlooked.