Why do some cultures have no word for blue?
Dr. James FoxUntil relatively recently in human history, there wasn't a word meaning "blue". Of the ancient cultures, only the Egyptians had a word for this colour. What was everyone else seeing?
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"In many respects, colour's greatest challenge is - like music - it resists most attempts to describe it. Colour might be one of those subjects that simply can't be written about."
But that's not going to stop Dr. James Fox from trying!
James is an art historian at the University of Cambridge, a curator, an award-winning broadcaster and the author of bestselling book The World According to Colour. He's joining us in The Garden for a deep dive into the most fascinating questions we could think to ask him about colour.
In this Garden Talk, James explores an astounding linguistic anomaly - the distinct absence of a word for the colour blue in many cultures. But is this really just a question of language, or is there something more complex at work? If you don't have a word for blue, do you still recognise the colour? And if not, what colour is the sky?
Read this talk's transcriptTalk outline
50 minutes
30 minute talk
20 minute Member Q&A
James fell in love with art at the age of six and hasn't looked back since. He is now an art historian at the University of Cambridge, a curator, an award-winning broadcaster and the author of bestselling book The World According to Colour.
The World According to Colour Collection
"In many respects, colour's greatest challenge is - like music - it resists most attempts to describe it. Colour might be one of those subjects that simply can't be written about." But that's not going to stop Dr. James Fox from trying!Colour is an experience: the colours we see and what they mean to us will differ for every human on the planet. What can art history, science, anthropology, literature and politics teach us about colour?
Until relatively recently in human history, there wasn't a word meaning "blue". Of the ancient cultures, only the Egyptians had a word for this colour. What was everyone else seeing?
The colour white has been associated with purity for millennia in religious iconography, architecture and art. But has it come to represent something darker too?
The last 150 years has brought about the greatest revolution there's ever been in colour. How have we ended up living in a hyper-coloured world?
