Reflected Light

 

Roger Fry wrote that the modulation of color was the basis of Cezanne’s interest in painting. I disagree. When Pissaro took Cezanne aside and taught him the basics of impressionist painting, Cezanne realized at once that the impressionists were all light and air and that they had no comprehension of three dimensional form which, to him, is what fills the world around us. Thus he concentrated on form. In an interview late in his life Cezanne urged young painters to look in nature for the cube the sphere and the cone. Earlier he had made the comment that highlights and shadows were not variations of local color but autonomous colors. Hence his modulation of color. But that modulation was used to emphasize the three dimensional quality of the objects depicted on the flat picture plane. And to me his interest in painting was to balance the dual perception we have when looking at a painting: the perception of surface and the perception of depth created on the surface.

An object has many colors. First it has local color...the color that it is, for example a red apple is red. But it has highlights, which are different colors as are the shadows. And it has reflected light as well...light reflected onto the object by other far or nearby objects.

In modulating colors sometimes the proximity of colors changes the perception of what the colors are. And this brings us to the color theories of Josef Albers. Albers is well known as the author of the book The Interaction of Color. And as a painter he is known for his series Homage to the Square in which squares of color rest within squares of color.

What is not well known is that Alber’s insights on color and his interest in geometric abstraction were inspired by his many visits to Oaxaca during the 30’s and 40’s. The exhibition Josef Abers in Mexico at the Guggenheim Museuum in 2014 or 15 presented that history and examples of the work. A copy of the exhibition catalog is available at IAGO...The Institute of Artes Graficos Oaxaca.

Finally, the camera obscura and the camera lucida have as their function the channeling of reflected light. Channeling and recording reflected light is the basis of photography. Without light there is no picture. And without a camera in our cell phones, what are we to do with ourselves all day?

Now you see how important reflected light is on a more personal level.

On the southwest corner of Noche Triste and Cinco de Mayo, here in Jalatlaco, there is one of the most beautiful stone walls in Oaxaca. In the early afternoon the sun no longer shines on the east facing wall. It reflects only the blue sky and it appears very natural.

At the same time the sun is directly on the south wall of the building on the northwest corner of the intersection. Its east wall reflects the blue sky as well. But its south wall, thanks to the sun, casts a wonderful yellow glow on the facing north stones of the opposite wall.