David Batchelor Books

Chromophobia - a fear of corruption or contamination through colour - has lurked within Western culture since ancient times. This is apparent in the many attempts to purge colour from art, literature and architecture, either by making it the property of some "foreign" body - the oriental, the feminine, the infantile the vulgar or the pathological - or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the inessential or the cosmetic, which in many cases amounts to the same thing. In Chromophobia, David Batchelor analyzes the history of, and motivations behind, chromophobia, from its beginnings through examples of nineteenth-century literature, twentieth-century architecture and film, to Pop art, minimalism and the art and architecture of the present day. Batchelor suggests how colour fits, or fails to fit, into the cultural imagination of the West, exploring such diverse themes as Melville's "great white whale," Le Corbusier's "journey to the East," Huxley's experiments with mescaline. Dorothy's travels in the Land of Oz and the implication of modern artists' experiments with industrial paints and materials.

This book begins by considering responses by French artists to the First World War, showing how Purism, Dada, and early Surrealism are related to the ethos of post-war reconstruction. The authors then discuss the language of construction in places as dissimilar as France, Germany, and the Soviet Union; the contrasting demands of the utility and decoration of objects and paintings; and the relationship of surrealism to questions of sexuality and gender and to Freudian theory. The book concludes by addressing the widespread debate over realism in art: whether it represents an alternative to the elitism of the avant-garde or whether avant-garde art should play a role in the development of a modern realism.

A new book from Reaktion best-selling author and artist, David Batchelor, The Luminous and the Grey is a unique study of the places where colour comes into being and where it fades away.

Since its launch in 1976, the influential journal of art history and criticism Octoberhas not had one image reproduced in color. Well-known contemporary Scottishartist and writer David Batchelor playfully rectifies this situation in the series ofdelightful, exuberant and colorful drawings (2012 13) that transform every pageof the magazine s first issue (Summer 1976). Disrupting October s orderly monochromaticuniverse and textual clarity, Batchelor engages a carnival-like play of form andcolor on each page in abstract compositions of circles, triangles and rectanglesof brilliant transparent color and opaque black planes. Batchelor, who works withfound objects and images in drawing, photography and installation, again appliesthe colors and dynamism of the modern city to this artist project. Reprinted herefor the first time in actual size, this book is a must-have for every art book collector.

A publication of London-based artist David Batchelor's Concretos sculptures (2011-) exploring concrete in conjunction with other brightly coloured materials.