The Luminous and the Grey

A measured, carefully researched and lyrical book exploring how we see and use colours

The Luminous and the Grey explores the places where colour comes into being and where it fades away, probing when it begins and when it ends both in the imagination and in the material world. Batchelor draws on neuroscience, philosophy, novels, films, and artists’ writings—as well as his own experience as an artist working with colour—to understand how we see and use colours.

He considers the role of colour in creation myths, industrial chemistry, and optics, and examines the particular forms of luminosity that saturate the modern city. Following this inquiry into the hues that we face every day, he turns to one that is both colour and non-colour: grey itself, which he reveals is as much a mood, feeling, and existential condition as a shade that we experience with our eyes.

Deftly argued, always thought-provoking, and ever entertaining, The Luminous and the Grey is a beautiful study of how we see and feel our multicoloured world.

Details