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?
Learn about this Garden Talk
"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?
Talk outline
50 minutes
Fascinating Flowers
About the Fellow
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.
Fascinating Flowers Collection
Flowers are all around us in the world but why do we love them so much?From the meaning of carnations in Sex and the City to sunflowers in the cleanup of Chernobyl and Henry VIII’s ban on saffron dye, flowers are deeply woven into our culture & our history. How have they inspired us & what do they mean?
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?
We could not exist without flowering plants, but to this date researchers cannot explain where they came from. Why did Darwin describe the origin of flowering plants as an “abominable mystery”?
Humans have always speculated about what a perfect world might look like, whether as a reward in the afterlife, part of an origin story like the Garden of Eden, or a real place on Earth. How do we see these ideas play out in the art we create?
