Discord

A color that is out of its natural order, that has been inverted [reversed] in value, creates a light discord or a dark discord effect when placed alongside another color that lies above it or below it on the wheel--a color that is still in its natural order or not far off it. It is entirely possible to create a double discord effect, as well, by inverting two colors upward and downward to the extent that they cross each other, in the manner of two elevators going in opposite directions, and placing them beside each other. These are often seen in nature, in, for instance, a light blue sky above a darker red clay hill--blue, in its natural order, is dark and near the bottom of the wheel, and so-called red clay is really a broken orange, and of course pure orange is only two steps below yellow. There is also a light muted discordeffect, not unlike a light discord, except that a muted [low intensity, softened] discord is made with a light chromatic gray, not a pure tint. Pierre Bonnard, during the 1890s and until about 1909, and his friend Edouard Vuillard, throughout his career, were masters in the use of muted discords and dark discord effects.

The student-artist will appreciate now why a wheel based on the natural order of colors is important to a structural sense of colors. If violet, the darkest color in its natural order, is raised in value above the natural value of, say, one of the primaries, blue or red, and placed beside that primary, it will create a kind of [p. 123] disturbance, a light discord effect. If it is raised by the admixture of light gray, it will create a muted discord effect [a broken violet raised by white would also result, in this context, in a muted or diminished discord]. Even if raised to the same value level as blue or red [determined by squinting], it would create the strange effect of luminosity or "bloom," one of the riskiest but also one of the most appealing of all color effects. In small portions it enlivens otherwise dull color combinations, as the right amount of seasoning enlivens food. However, in large doses it is often like too much seasoning: it takes over.

Dark discord [the term discord, for the sake of convenience, may be applied to a single color if it is understood that the color is "discordant" only in the company of another color] is not only less brilliant than light discord, it is easily upstaged by almost every other color. It is, after all, diminished by the admixture of black or is broken. Yet it is capable of playing supporting roles with distinction, as we shall see.

The afterimage and the law of simultaneous contrast affect every color arrangement to some degree, even clash. Their influence on discord is unmistakable. Referring to the first conspicuous type of conflict mentioned in the previous section on clash, symmetrical clash, if, say, the two tertiaries orange-red and crimson that lie on both sides of primary red are placed together in their natural order and without red, they will exhibit an immediate hostility toward each other. It would seem that they want to stretch the equal amount of red in their makeup toward the zones of the other primaries, yellow and blue. Orange-red and crimson are chosen here only because they lie along the side of the wheel and therefore reveal a distinct difference of value, orange-red being appreciably lighter than crimson. If now white is added to crimson to the degree that crimson is raised to at least the same value level of orange-red, preferably higher, and this tint of crimson is placed beside orange-red, the result will be that of discord. To conflict of hue [in this particular case] is added discrepancy of value, and, as adding white pigment to a color is rather like adding light to it, the result will be very lively. The stronger after image of the orange-red [a pale green-blue or turquoise] will suffuse the pinkish tint of crimson, making it seem bluer and cooler. Afterimages are very like light discords, in the sense that they are always very high in value: The afterimage of yellow [ultramarine blue] is as light as or lighter than yellow itself. If it passes over a color that has been raised to the level of a tint, the two are certain to pool their chromatic energies. The more the raised color is separated from its partner [in terms of position on the wheel], the more it will resemble the after image, the complementary, of its partner; hence the more it will vibrate and create an effect of atmospheric light. These light discords often contain a generous quota of blue [p. 125] semi-chromes, either because they are tints of those colors that lie, in their natural order, near or at the bottom of the wheel, in the predominantly blue zone, or because the after images of their stronger companions, which they pick up, have quite a lot of blue in them.

The Impressionists and the Neo-Impressionists, who sought an equivalent of sunlight and prismatic scatterings [warm lights/cool shadows] that would be truer to an experience of the out-of-doors and more lively than the old chiraroscuristic techniques, based their new method on the concept of color. If, for instance, they chose to paint a tree in a particular [p. 125] light [such as that of the slightly warm, yellowy light of a fine summer day], the illuminated side of the tree would be a warm light green, and its shadow side and the shadow cast upon the ground would be quite dark and perhaps a bit bluish. This great contrast of value would present, ironically, the exact set of circumstances the Impressionists wanted to avoid! The old vision and technique were based primarily on the phenomenon of contrast of values. Manet, and before him, the seventeenth-century Spanish painter Vel½squez, and certainly Turner, whose paintings and watercolors the Impressionists were soon to discover, had made it clear that strong value contrasts and subtle minglings of color are basically incompatible. The choice, for the Impressionists, was not difficult. They had everything going for them: relatively new theories about light, color, and color vision, and a host of new colors available in tubes. [63]

Instead of acknowledging the gradation of values from highlight [the intense glint of light in the lighted area] to shadow areas around, inside, and beneath the tree, the Impressionists substituted a gradation of colors from around the wheel, from a light warm green downwards to a blue-green and perhaps as far down as violet. But, instead of their being allowed to remain in their natural order, most of these colors were raised in value to about the same high level, the white of the canvas being, both the highest level attainable and the reflective ground upon which the quick dabs and strokes were applied. [64] Raising the blues and violets, the darker colors on the wheel, to the level of the lighter ones [or above] resulted in a considerable incident of discord. Far from despising this, the Impressionists took great advantage of it, especially in shadow areas, where they were able to produce an effect of light infiltration, openness, and airiness. This, more than anything, led to certain excesses and therefore accusations of formlessness.

This outline of the ways and means of the Impressionists is, of course, an oversimplification. They seemed to scorn the idea of precise theories that every artists must follow. Each preferred to use his own eyes and instincts. As a group, however, they did share an enthusiasm for light and landscape, used both light and dark discords [broken colors], avoided the use of black and chromatic grays wherever possible, and avoided the kind of formal and perceptual problems to which Cézanne would dedicate himself with such stubborn resolve.

Bonnard and Vuillard, who were of a younger generation than that of the Impressionists, and whose attitudes toward Impressionism were conditioned by the opinions of two older artists, Odilon Redon and Gauguin [each in his own way a Symbolist], proved themselves as colorists of outstanding talent, before 1900, particularly in their use of resonant combinations of impacted colors. Vuillard continued in a more and more refined vein [intimate interiors with rich overtones of grays and broken colors, deceptive spaces, patterns, and screens], apparently ignoring or avoiding the challenge of Fauvism. However, between 1905, the year of the first Fauve exhibition, and 1909, Bonnard revealed a gradual evolution toward the use of more radiant colors. During the next 35 years he would extend the impressionist inspiration into new areas of expression. From about 1909 he brought to his paintings a resurgent interest in color not altogether as blended color [physically or optically mixed], but as color thinly scumbled, smeared, or washed upon color, creating a plentitude of color. Whereas the Impressionists were content, on the whole, to translate the effect of prismatic light on surfaces, Bonnard pursued the effect of light through surfaces--skin, hair, glass, fruit, water--and for effects that transcend mere description [in this he may have been influenced by Monet's early and late water-lily paintings at Giverny, c. 1900-1925 (65)]. He caused colors to glide from one area into another, in and out of form and space, by the most ingenious permutations. His patterns and embellishments were conceived so as to keep the eye occupied with a plentitude of experience, much as a gemstone holds the eye by a constant display of iridescent light. In this and other ways, his paintings resemble those of Constable--"Constable's snow," the sun-sparkled grass, water, and trees that some of his English contemporaries failed to appreciate, but of course with colors and color interactions even Constable could not have foreseen. [pp. 123-126]