Hear artist Peter Blake discuss the history of blue paint from the 16th-century ultramarine used by Hans Holbein the Younger to the modern acrylics used by David Hockney
Learn from artist Peter Blake about the history of blue paint from the costly lapis lazuli-based ultramarine used by Hans Holbein the Younger in the 16th century to the ubiquitous acrylic-based pigments used by David Hockney in the 20th century.
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Transcript
NARRATOR: The studio of artist Peter Blake. Blake found fame in the 1960s through art inspired by pop culture. But he was also inspired by artists of a more distant past.
PETER BLAKE: This is a painting I started almost 30 years ago in the early 1960s. And originally, it had a dark background. It looked rather like a Holbein painting. It looked like an old master, in a way.
I hope it still looks like a Holbein. But it has a quality that Holbein couldn't have achieved, because he wouldn't have had the paints available. I mean, blue would have been a very precious color. I could go to an art shop and probably buy 20 different blues. It's changed the way artists can use color.
NARRATOR: From a limited range of natural pigments, Holbein created astonishing works of art in the 16th century. But Holbein and his contemporaries had to deal with one notable problem, the color blue, ground from the gemstone lapis lazuli, to make ultramarine.
BLAKE: He used it very sparingly. It would have been expensive. This is a tube I bought. It cost nine pounds at least 30 years ago and I was frightened of using it, it was so expensive. So Holbein must have rather felt that too that he would have used it very carefully.
Not only was it very expensive, it's not even a particularly nice color. And it's strange that it cost so much and it's made for a very valuable gem, and just produces such a dull color.
NARRATOR: Lapis lazuli was the only stable blue pigment for centuries, until in 1828 chemists created a synthetic ultramarine. Its effect on art was profound.
BLAKE: Suddenly it used very freely. Suddenly, it's not a precious color anymore. It is freely available, and is used very, very much in a different way.
Obviously, Monet had no thought of the cost of it is as he squeezed out probably a whole tube of paint without even thinking. I mean, suddenly it was much more available.
NARRATOR: And if art had been liberated by synthetic pigments, a whole new world opened up when chemistry created a new form of paint all together. In the 1960s, painters discovered acrylics.
BLAKE: You could use it very thickly like oil paint. You could use very thinly like watercolor. It dried almost instantly. You could glaze within minutes. So it changed the way everybody worked.
And someone like Hockney, this is an enormous picture. This is A Bigger Splash. It's about the color blue. I mean, it's about using blue. It's about the California sky, the blue of a swimming pool.
The acrylics have made a kind of painting that looks completely different. Only could have been painted in acrylics.
PETER BLAKE: This is a painting I started almost 30 years ago in the early 1960s. And originally, it had a dark background. It looked rather like a Holbein painting. It looked like an old master, in a way.
I hope it still looks like a Holbein. But it has a quality that Holbein couldn't have achieved, because he wouldn't have had the paints available. I mean, blue would have been a very precious color. I could go to an art shop and probably buy 20 different blues. It's changed the way artists can use color.
NARRATOR: From a limited range of natural pigments, Holbein created astonishing works of art in the 16th century. But Holbein and his contemporaries had to deal with one notable problem, the color blue, ground from the gemstone lapis lazuli, to make ultramarine.
BLAKE: He used it very sparingly. It would have been expensive. This is a tube I bought. It cost nine pounds at least 30 years ago and I was frightened of using it, it was so expensive. So Holbein must have rather felt that too that he would have used it very carefully.
Not only was it very expensive, it's not even a particularly nice color. And it's strange that it cost so much and it's made for a very valuable gem, and just produces such a dull color.
NARRATOR: Lapis lazuli was the only stable blue pigment for centuries, until in 1828 chemists created a synthetic ultramarine. Its effect on art was profound.
BLAKE: Suddenly it used very freely. Suddenly, it's not a precious color anymore. It is freely available, and is used very, very much in a different way.
Obviously, Monet had no thought of the cost of it is as he squeezed out probably a whole tube of paint without even thinking. I mean, suddenly it was much more available.
NARRATOR: And if art had been liberated by synthetic pigments, a whole new world opened up when chemistry created a new form of paint all together. In the 1960s, painters discovered acrylics.
BLAKE: You could use it very thickly like oil paint. You could use very thinly like watercolor. It dried almost instantly. You could glaze within minutes. So it changed the way everybody worked.
And someone like Hockney, this is an enormous picture. This is A Bigger Splash. It's about the color blue. I mean, it's about using blue. It's about the California sky, the blue of a swimming pool.
The acrylics have made a kind of painting that looks completely different. Only could have been painted in acrylics.