Mututal Repulsion or
Clash

Mutual repulsion always involves common elements, often close chromatic kinships. These common elements may be ascertained in any combination of colors by consulting Figure 3-4 [A diagram of the Psychological Wheel showing the influence of yellow, red, and blue around the wheel--how semi-chromes of each of these primaries are to be seen, in diminishing proportions, in those colors that move away from the primary in both directions. Obviously, the influence of each primary terminates at the doorstep of another primary/p. 88.] , which traces the red, yellow, and blue components of every color on the wheel and clarifies the chromatic anatomy of the primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries. We understand that each primary on the psychological wheel is absolute and unique, and, by consulting the diagram, we also understand that they and their complementaries [p. 121] are mutually exclusive. However, it comes as a surprise to discover that, in every other pair, complementaries are not mutually exclusive; they share one semi-chrome. Both green and purple contain blue; both orange-green and purple contain blue; both orange-red [vermilion] and green-blue [turquoise or cyan] contain a bit of yellow.

Perhaps a reexamination, from this vantage point, of the studies in the section on harmony as well as the earlier studies on tints and shades, chromatic whites and blacks, chromatic grays, and broken colors, would be in order.

The primaries, secondaries, and the eight tertiaries represent a descending order of independence and stability. The primaries, like the first [or final] tone of the musical scale [for instance, the C-major scale], are stable. As other musical degrees are felt to be unstable [for example, the so-called leading tone, the tone just below the upper tonic, which seems to want to "lead" into the tonic], so are certain colors in the "chromatic scale" unstable. Such would seem to be true of any of the tertiaries: In any simple design involving both, a tertiary color would appear to lean ["lead"] into its neighboring primary. This relationship of tertiary to primary may not seem in the least bit disturbing, even though it is far from stable in the sense that it is asymmetrical. We could compensate for the chromatic imbalance in a simple two-color arrangement by making the area occupied by the tertiary larger than the area occupied by the primary, or by placing the two colors beside each other in equal portions after having reduced the intensity of the primary by breaking it slightly.

Unlike the tertiaries, the secondary hues are self-sufficient. Yet a tertiary beside the nearest secondary color will not exhibit the same attraction it shows when placed beside its alternative neighbor, a primary. The secondaries are, by nature, more compatible, more submissive, than the primaries., which often seem to have an air of detachment. However, the greater chromatic density of the three secondaries sometimes yields a more subtle effect than the primaries. Their qualities could be described as more internal and held in greater tension by the chromatic overtones that run through them--after all, they are compounded of all the primaries. For example, violet was given an important role for the first time by the Impressionists. When raised in value by the addition of white, it engenders a remarkable vibrancy and cohesiveness.

If it takes a little while to get used to the idea that conflict of complementaries is not the only kind of chromatic conflict [and that it might, in fact, be a harmonious one], it may take as long or longer to appreciate the phenomenon called mutual repulsion or clash in colors that have more in common with each other and are quite often near each other on the wheel; for example, blue-green and ultramarine blue [violet-blue]. These share an equal amount of the same dominant, blue, in their make-up and are rather like twins; but, because primary blue is not present in the design to hold them together by virtue of its greater gravitational pull, they will seem to veer away from each other in opposite directions. The green-blue will swing in the direction of green, and the ultramarine blue will lean in the direction of violet. These are examples of symmetrical clash, in that the primary, although missing, lies between them on the wheel [the other two examples are, of course, green-yellow and orange-yellow, and orange-red and crimson]. The result of their pairing is spatial separation.

Why do colors that often have rather close family connections conflict more cold-heartedly than complementaries: A cynic would say that this is a classic kinship situation: Their similarities serve mainly to heighten their differences, sometimes to the point of alienation. The three primaries are, in a sense, the parents. Fortunately, the results of their matings are not always inharmonious. I

If the influence of a primary is subordinate in the body of the two colors, the resulting effect in a design is likely to be harmonious--as in the case of a tertiary and one of its so-called split-complementaries [the two hues adjoining the true complementary of a given color: for instance, blue-green and green-yellow, which are directly below and above green, the complementary of purple, according to Rood] that would seem farthest removed from it in chromatic kinship. We would, for example, choose crimson [or magenta], a split-complementary of green-yellow, rather than ultramarine blue, its alternate split-complementary. If we should place the same green-yellow and ultramarine blue side by side in a simple design, we should produce clash, because, to use Rudolf Arnheim's words, we should have a "structural contradiction [p. 122] for one common element," an extreme asymmetrical relationship. [62] In the case of green-yellow and crimson or magenta, blue is subordinate and of similar quantity in both colors. In the second pairing, blue is very subordinate in green-yellow and very dominant in ultramarine blue. The first hue lies four steps away from primary blue, the color that both hues partake of in lesser and greater degree, while the second hue lies only one step away; hence an extreme structural contradiction for the one common element, blue. Other pairings of colors that lie rather far apart and that tend to produce clash are: crimson or magenta and orange-yellow, orange-yellow and green-blue, blue-green and orange-red, orange-red and green-yellow, crimson or magenta and green-blue, purple and blue-green, ultramarine blue and orange-red--all involving tertiary colors wherein shared semi-chromes are stretched to the limits.

Combinations involving neighboring secondaries and tertiaries arouse little or no conflict. However, if a secondary is combined with a tertiary that lies just beyond the nearest primary in either direction [orange with crimson, orange with green-yellow, green with orange-yellow, green with ultramarine blue, violet with green-blue, violet with orange-red], each will do a distinct, if not an altogether unpleasant, about-face from the other. If a primary is combined with a tertiary lying just beyond the nearest secondary in either direction , the two colors will want to rebuff each other. Perhaps this could be explained as the case of a powerful matriarch or patriarch [a primary color] rejecting any color that does not belong to the family.

We have been referring, for the most part, to colors as they appear in their natural order an in their prime condition. We must remember to examine them in their more normal guise--in conditions of less purity, both in and out of their natural order [as discords], and in situations of both concord and tension with a number of other colors. [pp. 121-123]