The Scientific Foundations of Modern Colour Theory
Newton's optical research and the changing understanding of light, colour and perception establish the scientific point of departure.
Nicholas Van-Orton
Color as a Generative Principle
In the Work of Sonia Delaunay
The Book
A scholarly study tracing the development of colour from physical phenomenon and perception toward an autonomous organising principle.
The Book
Colour is simultaneously a physical phenomenon, a perceptual experience, a means of artistic expression, and a form of technological information.
This book follows the long development through which colour gradually became an autonomous organising principle. Its trajectory moves from the optical research of Isaac Newton through the changing theories of perception and modern painting, into textile design, digital imaging and contemporary generative art.
Book information
Author
Nicholas Van-Orton
Language
English
Publication
2026
ISBN
9786158313353
The Study
A continuous visual logic.
The book develops its argument across five chapters and a conclusion, following the historical transformation of colour across science, art, material production and computation.
Simultaneism and the Autonomy of Colour
The work examines how colour becomes an autonomous organising principle in the art of Sonia Delaunay and within Simultaneism.
Structural Systems of Colour
Colour moves beyond the canvas into textile design, modular structures, repetition, variation and systems of material production.
The Structural Colour Theory of Digital Imaging Systems
The structural logic of colour is followed into digital imaging and raster-based visual systems.
The Algorithmic Interpretation of Simultanism and Generative Art
The final movement considers the relationship between colour, structure, rules and generative computational systems.
Conclusion
The historical trajectory converges in a broader view of colour as a structural and generative principle.
Sonia Delaunay
Colour becomes structure.
In the book's account of Simultanism, colour is no longer treated simply as something applied to predetermined forms. Its relationships become an organising logic of the image itself.
The Central Idea
The book connects apparently different fields through a continuous mode of visual thought.
Scientific colour theory provides the initial framework. In modern painting, colour becomes increasingly independent of representation. In Sonia Delaunay's work, relationships between colours become capable of generating movement, rhythm and spatial experience.
The study then follows this structural understanding into textile design, where repetition and variation become part of an organised system.
From there, the historical trajectory reaches digital imaging and, finally, the algorithmic perspective of generative art.
Hardcover Edition
The physical edition.
Color as a Generative Principle in the Work of Sonia Delaunay by Nicholas Van-Orton.