Color Theory and Its Application in Art and Design (Springer Series in Optical Sciences, 19)

This book directly addresses a long-felt, unsatisfied need of modern color science - an appreciative and technically sound presentation of the principles and main offerings of colorimetry to artists and designers, written by one of them. With his unique blend of training and experience in engineering, with his lifelong interest and, latterly, career in art and art education, Dr. Agoston is unusually well prepared to convey the message of color science to art and design. His book fulfills the hopes I had when I first heard about him and his book. I foresee important and long-lasting impacts of this book, analogous to those of the epoch-making writings by earlier artist-scientists, such as Leonardo, Chevreul, Munsell, and Pope. Nearly all persons who have contributed to color science, recently as well as formerly, were attracted to the study of color by color in art. Use of objective or scientific methods did not result from any cold, detached attitude, but from the inherent difficulties of the problems concerning color and its use, by which they were intrigued. Modern education and experience has taught many people how to tackle difficult problems by use of scientific methods. Therefore - color science.