THE ROLE OF COLOR IN
COLORED SCULPTURE
My colored sculptures have the color ability to control the external characteristics of the materials, so that the color becomes the texture instead of the material’s surface. This would give space for forming colorful Sculptural modeling with absolute freedom that is not constrained by characteristics previously known beforehand for the material used. This represents a unique phenomenon in the entire history of art that only contemporary sculpture opened its arms to.
While the employment of a single color would help characterizing the general form of the colored sculpture giving unity to the figure, the enrichment of the composition with varying degrees of the same color would increase the effectiveness of such aesthetic linkage to the elements of sculptural composition.
Using more than one color in my colored sculpture works would contribute to separating the elements of a composition. The color, may as well, separate such elements of which the work is composed of, to the extent that such elements would seem as if they were individual units. This could be used as well by enhancing the contrasts of forms making different parallel contrasts of hues.
Colors could also be used to envisage comparative dimensional values to the colors in terms of the horizontal color effect attributed to the theory of visual effects in painting, where distant things appear close and vice versa.
Color was used, as well, in my colored sculptures as an expressive value that would highlight and emphasize the expressive power of the colored sculptured work through the influence of color on the mass, size and space of the sculpture. This also helped with my usage of color as an extension of the expressive power of the form, size and space.
I sought in my colored sculptures to use color in order to make various textural effects in order to emphasize the surface, highlight the sense of shadow and light on the colored sculpture and to increase the extension of the expressive power of the colored sculpture.
Besides, color is used in my colored sculptures in order to emphasize the feeling of peculiarity and mystery in modeling colored sculpture.
Moreover, I used color in my colored sculptures in the form of a rigorous mathematical system with serial and colored sculptural forms. Such mathematical system depended on the recurrence of forms and colors with constant ratios in the form of a mathematical sequence arising from mental mathematical thinking. This takes place by developing a mathematical formula through which the relationship between the part and the whole is calculated and controlled in terms of form and color. Such System would be a fundamental factor for the unity of the relation between elements, from which it won’t deviate, as it would serve as calculated lines of work contributing to mathematically solving the problems of composition.
I used the color in my colored sculptures as well as to show the contrast between the inner and the outer part by coloring, which lent vitality to the colored sculptural form, giving emphasis to the inner surface of the colored sculpture.
Multiplicity of the sculptural raw materials used in the colored sculpture, such as: wood, copper and painted polyester mixed with colors had its impact on the diversity of the forms of space on the one hand and treatment of the surface materials on the other hand; this was due to the fact that each material has its form and expressive potential. Hence special treatments appeared, that can be applied to wood to deepen or alter the natural coloration or highlight it. The use of highly polished copper, as well, would result in light reflection on the surface of the sculpture, showing brightness of color that would help in creating a dual effect of a real form and its reflection. In addition, the use of color in polyester sculptures, whether by painting or mixing colors, would cause unity to the sculpture emphasizing the inner surface of such work.
A single color can be employed on the surface of polyester in colored sculptures for the unification of the sculpture and connecting its elements in order to make use of the reflections of light on the work in forming different color degrees of the same color as a result of the fall of light, and its reflection on the surface of the sculpture. In addition to the constant sense of light and shadow caused by the difference in the color of the light and dark colors raw material, which enriched the colored sculptural composition with varying hues of the same color.
A single color mixed with polyester can be employed after polishing to unify the sculpture and emphasize the importance of color in the colored sculpture through the fall of light and its reflection with varying hues that would help in modeling sculpture in order to consolidate and link the elements and parts in the colored sculpture, forming the general form of the blocks and surfaces that are included in the sculpture to be in one unit as well as increase the elements of sculpture causing more bonds of unity between its components. consequently there would be color fastness due to the exploit of the light reflections on the sculpture in the formation of different hues from the same color, hence the shadow is determined through a color gradient, which enriched the color value of the colored sculpture, as well as the constant sense of shadow and light on the surface of the sculpture resulting from the difference in the light and dark colors of the raw material; in addition to the sense of texture and its emphasis on the surface of the sculpture.
It is well known that the light in most of the sculptures falls on the sculptures and its surfaces from outside to highlight the sense of shadow and light on the sculpture. However, we find that the light in these colored sculptural structures result from the sculpture’s inward to the outside giving “illumination” to the sculpture: inward to outward due to coloring; besides the fall of natural light on sculpture from outside, a matter that would lead to a peculiar sense of strangeness and mystery in the colored sculpture.
Many sculptural materials have natural colors that would become an integral part of the sculpture produced from such material. A Sculptor may choose a certain material primarily to realize particular forms; thus s/he may have to accept the natural color of such material. If the artist accepts such limitation, it may be necessary to accommodate the design to the color available making use of it. Many materials can be made, through appropriate treatment, to have varying color effects: the surface of wood, for instance, can accept stains and treatments applied to it to deepen or alter the natural color.
The surface of bronze, as well, can accept a dark patina (the impact of time on sculpture) through heating and chemical treatment to give it a permanent darkness. Whereas, the surface of bronze can be polished to give brightness of a different effect from the unpolished surface of the same material, which leads to making reflections of the polished surface become a part of the natural color of the material.
Surface of polished bronze, has its special shine which gives us a sense of a new metal that did not lose its brightness referring to the colors of ancient monuments. It is possible that polished bronze would convey us the phenomena of light emanations from our bodies, as reflection enriches the sculpture. Thus the coated metal is a symbol of modernity and is very close to the reality of matters.
Due to the polishing of the material surface to highlight its one natural color, may support regular reflection of light on the polished material surface, giving brightness to the sculpture, a matter that might mask light on the surface of the colored sculpture.
Sculptural drawings in space are characterized by the line on which colored sculpture is drawn. Such line in space became an important issue through these shadowing lines which in turn became an integral part of the sculpture, besides widening the size of the space to the extent that the size of the space becomes larger than the sculpture size. In addition to the emergence of the contrast between convex and concave forms. This contrast gives colored sculptures such as polished bronze an extraordinary vitality.
