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The Colour JournalThe Blue Issue

table of contents
NO BLUE IN THE RAINBOW
by MICHEL PASTOUREAU
Historical context of the blue: the discovery of indigo, the Lapis lazuli gemstone and the origins of the ultramarine pigment which fascinated artists from Sassoferrato's Virgin in Prayer (1640-50) to Yves Klein (1960).

THE MAN BEHIND KLEIN'S BLUE
by BENJAMIN GRILLON
In 1960, Yves Klein registered the now celebrated IKB (International Klein Blue), without crediting the man behind its formula: Edouard Adam, a paint supplier in Montparnasse.

INHABITING BLUE
by PHILOMENA EPPS
The early multi-disciplinary artist Helena Almeida reacted to Klein's use of women in his practice by using her own body as the focus of her work by combining photography, painting and performance art.

SOUVENIRS DE BISKA
by BERTRAND RAISON
Discover the forgotten Algerian oasis that inspired Matisse's most controversial painting and shaped the iconic collage series he created 45 years later.

VICTORIAN IMPRESSIONS
by ALEXANDRA GENOVA
How a Victorian botanist became the first female photographer by publishing, in 1843, a series of cyanotypes considered to be the first illustrated book of photographic images ever printed.

IN SEARCH OF BLUE GOLD
by DANIEL SHEA & DAVID CAMPANY
Back to the origins of this American myth through a through a road-trip with denim hunter Brit Eaton. A redneck version of the gold rush, set in today's desolate American West.

CALIFORNIA BLUE
by LIAM HESS
Dive head first into the chlorinated water of David Hockney's pools to celebrate the symbol and embodiment of Southern California culture and lifestyle.

NEW TOPOGRAPHICS
by BENJAMIN GRILLON
How a new generation of American photographers redefined landscape photography by taking pictures of highway signage, petrol stations and parking lots.

STUDS IN LA LA LAND
by ROSANA MCLAUGHIN
How to build an art scene from scratch and what to avoid in the process: The story of Ferus Gallery that will define one of the most important art movement fuelled by American pop culture.

BLUE MONDAY
by PHILIPPE AZOURY
Blue is often associated with melancholy and depression. An essay going through the origins of the Blues, Picasso's blue period and Derek Jarman blue testament film.

BLUE COLLARS
by CHARLES FREGER
In the 16th century, the Protestant Reformers imposed blue as the moral colour instead of black. This is a portrait series of the workingclass still wearing blue clothes today.

PORTO'S AZULEJOS
by JEFF BOUDREAU
A house was built in between two churches standing side by side to prevent any relations between the nuns of Igreja dos Carmelitas and the monks of Igreja do Carmo.

THE CHALK LINE & THE SHADOW
by RAFFARD & ROUSSEL
A novel by Tim Ingold accompanied by a visual study of classical paintings blueprints from Botticelli to Mondrian.

PLEASURE GARDEN
by JACQUES MAJORELLE
Before Yves Saint Laurent fell in love with the Jardin Majorelle in 1966, it took French painter Jacques Majorelle forty years of passion and dedication to create this enchanting garden in the heart of the Ochre City.

侗族 DÒNGZÚ
by ALEXANDRE GUIRKINGER
Nestling among tree-clad mountains, Dòngzú village sare one of the last memory of an ever expansive China. An immersion into one of its last cultural minority still dyeing indigo.

INSTANT GRATIFICATION
by HELMUT NEWTON
Fetishist of the instant images for their own rawness and their artificial cyan tints, Helmut Newton kept his collection of Polaroids private for decades before finally publishing them in 1985.

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
by ROBBIE LAWRENCE
A travel story in the Faores Islands, a remote and unspoiled volcanic land in the North Atlantic Ocean at the intersections of Iceland, Scotland and Norway where steep coastal cliffs that harbor thousands of seabirds and isolated locals.

A FADED BLUE
by ROBIN MUIR
The story of Wallis Simpson's blue wedding dress that scandalized the United Kingdom.


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