Filed under: Color, Design, etc
This week, a senior curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art discusses the allure of blue-tinted purple.Purple is the unofficial color of Baltimore, Maryland, if you didn't know. Given that, we figured it only right to end our conversation on the color purple with David Curry, senior curator of American painting, sculpture and decorative arts at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Speaking with Curry, we realized that there's a lot that we didn't know about purple, especially how it always seems to play a subtle role in landscape paintings. Scroll through to see our talk with David and his thoughts about purple and his favorite time of day for a Martini.
Vase: c. 1878. Designer: Frederick S. Shirley. Manufacturer: Mount Washington Glass Co., New Bedford, MA. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Albert H. Cousins Memorial Fund. BMA 2002.207. Painting: Walter Ufer. Luzanna and Her Sisters. 1920. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of the Friends of Art. BMA 1931.5.1.
I think purple is a wonderful color. My favorite is almost bordering on periwinkle to blue. It's the color of my favorite hour of the day, which is called "L'heure bleu." It's a brief time of the day when there isn't any red in the sunlight right before it goes into the purple shadows. It always seemed more purple than blue to me.
2. Why do you like this shade of purple?
If you're in a garden at that hour at the ed of the day, the flowers look different and it's a great time to sit outside to look at them; it's also a great time for a Martini.
3. What does this shade remind you of?
19th-century and early 20th-century landscape paintings...Impressionist and Realist paintings. I see a lot of this purple in the museum everyday.
4. Do you have a personal possession or a favorite object that is in this specific shade of purple? Is it possible for us to get an image of it?
I often buy flowers in this shade. But I did find a large early-20th-century painting by Walter Ufer in storage when I first moved here and brought it out for folks to enjoy in the galleries. Ufer uses a range of sharp purples in the clothing of the girls and the sheen of the black San Ildefonso pot-and he uses acid green and canary splendidly to set off the purples. In the background are the mountains around Taos-rendered in that dusky purple that is so hard to define as it shifts minute by minute. L'heure bleu in Taos and Santa Fe is a splendid time for seeing evanescent color effects in nature.
5. How do you see this shade of purple used in a home?
I'm a fan of cut flowers. Purple goes with everything. It's always been an extremely fashionable color and it has a history for royal interiors. We forget how valuable color has been and what a differentiator it is, and purple has long been a noble color. Purple in small things or in the details of something is nice.
6. What are three colors that you think go well with this shade of purple?
Acid green, and any reds and blues.
7. If you could give this shade of purple a name, what would it be?
L'heure bleu.
And if you haven't already, see our previous chats on the color purple with textile designer and illustrator Lena Corwin and artist Kimberly Brooks.