Color as a Field of Study: New Perspectives from Asia

Conference organized by Yingxue Wang, Quincy Ngan, Mimi Yiengpruksawan and the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University

Color is woven into the fabric of human culture, shaping artistic practice, systems of meaning, and engagements with the natural world. Across Asia and beyond, color has historically been a precious resource: extracted from minerals, plants, and animals; synthesized through chemical technologies; and traded through regional and global networks. Applied to nearly every crafted object and built environment, color has mediated visual perception, structured aesthetic hierarchies, and encoded symbolic meaning. Engaging these diverse perspectives, this conference brings together art historians and conservation scientists to reconfigure color as a critical field of study. It opens conversations on various themes: the making and movement of pigments, dyes, and other colorful materials; the socioeconomic, aesthetic, and religious significance of color; and the translation of color aesthetics and techniques across media and cultures. Collectively, these approaches broaden the study of visual and material culture by incorporating insights from historical and scientific research, while illuminating color’s power to connect worlds: material and visual, sensory and symbolic, human and nonhuman.