Machine for Living Color

Mar 3–May 14, 2008

MoMA

  • Education Center, Mezzanine, Classrooms and Theater 3 Lobby The Celeste Bartos Theater Lobby

Concurrent with the exhibition Color Chart: Reinventing Color, 1950 to Today, this installation of Library and Conservation Department materials documents color charting in twentieth-century publications, emphasizing commercial, art historical, and avant-garde works. These artists’ books, industry publications, and other documentary materials exemplify the development of a color industry in this period—a machine for living color—and its influence on modern art, design, photography, and film. Materials include an industry-standard Munsell Color Book (c. 1930), a textile-industry sample book, and early paint color charts.

Organized by Jennifer Tobias, Librarian, Reader Services.

  • This exhibition is part of Library exhibitions.
  • View the exhibition website

    Exhibition support is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

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