Overview

A poetic, passionate and intensely personal exploration of colour written during the final year of Derek Jarman's life -- with a new introduction by Ali Smith. A poetic, passionate and intensely personal exploration of colour written during the final year of Derek Jarman's life -- with a new introduction by Ali Smith. In Chroma, his most poetic and lyrical book, Derek Jarman explores the uses of colour. Shifting across the spectrum and from the medieval to the modern, he draws on the work of great colour theorists from Pliny to Leonardo. Interwoven with these musings are evocative memories from Jarman's childhood and illustrious career, along with reflections on his deteriorating health. Written a year before Jarman's death, and as his eyesight was failing, this is an intensely personal work; a paean from an artist seeking to memorialise the extraordinary power of colour even while it receded from his own life.

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9780099474913

Table of Contents

Reviews

Chroma is more than an Aids autobiography...it is a paean to colour...Shot through with sass and moving testimony...this complexly written, yet stylish and readable book locates most powerfully the sublimal brilliance of one artist and the processes that inform, and are celebrated through, his work Gay Times Chroma sparks off pieces of Jarman's poetry and prose against fragments that span Ovid, Alberti, Goethe and Wittgenstein...to form a highly personal reflection on colour, a keleidoscopic experience that throws out different facets like a prism in the light New Statesman Jarman reminds us how much there is to be smelled, observed and listened to in the world if we do not walk past it Guardian The context of the writing of this book inevitably turns it from an amusing bricollage to a gesture of extraordinary generosity, a tribute to the continuing need to create and communicate on the very edge of darkness Financial Times

Full of anger, wit, emotion, and knowledge, this collection of essays by one of England's premier filmmakers informs and astounds. Using color as the base for an exploration of science, art history, social mores, and the passage of his own life, Jarman (Modern Nature, 1994, etc.), who died in February 1994 of AIDS, covers a broad swath of contemporary life in this book. Written in a succession of thoughts, quotes, and poems, Chroma reveals a life involved with art since early childhood. Each essay is devoted to one color and its attendant emotion. White is pure but dead; red is strong; brown is demure and warm. Through these emotional responses, the history of the author's relationship with color unfurls - from his childhood love of flowers and his time at art school to his films (Wittgenstein, Blue, etc.), all of which are influenced by the hues they assume. The text fluidly diverges into discussions of the science of color, the artists and scientists engaged in it, and color's various uses from the classical world through today. Those familiar with Jarman's work will recognize the essay entitled Into the Blue as the text of his final film, Blue. With a new introduction that links it with the rest of the text, Into the Blue is the climax of the collection. In it, all of Jarman's rage and humor are truly expressed. In struggling with his own illness, the author faces the irony of an artist going blind, losing his most vital connection with his work and surroundings. And though strong on their own, the other pieces in the book are made brighter and more resonant in light of this essay. Immensely powerful, this is the final testimony to a life of art and vision. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Derek Jarman was born in London in 1942. His career spanned decades and genres, from painter, theatre designer, director, film maker, to poet, writer, campaigner and gardener. His features include Sebastiane (1976), Jubilee (1978), Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), Edward II (1991) and Blue (1993). His paintings - for which he was a Turner Prize nominee in 1986 - continue to be exhibited worldwide, and his garden in Dungeness remains a site of pilgrimage to fans and newcomers alike.

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