In this important scholarly study, Patricia Sloane surveys the history of theories about color and challenges readers--students and instructors of art and art history, artists and designers, and those concerned with color in other fields such as science, philosophy, and industry--to rethink their beliefs about color from the simplest level. Suggesting that the ways in which color has been viewed since the nineteenth century are, at best, inomplete, she discusses Color and Language, Color and Light, Color and Form, Color and Culture, Color and Theory. Sloane asks: are the concepts of primary, secondary, and tertiary colors significant? Are color harmony and complementarity meaningful notions? How is our perception of color limited by the words we use to describe it? What is the relationship between color and light? Between color and form? Between color and vision? --book jacket.