Showdown

The Next Saatchi Online Showdown Competition: “In Living Color”

Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment.  – Claude Monet

Since the earliest cave paintings, colour has been a source of fascination throughout history. As such, its enduring allure inspired the theme for Saatchi Online’s next Showdown competition,  “In Living Color.”

The story of colour is a global one: the Aztecs discovered Carmine red by crushing cochineal insects; the Phoenicians produced Tyrian purple; India brought us Indian yellow, made out of the urine of cows whose diet was restricted to mango leaves; Prussian blue was created in Germany in the early 18th century. Until then, blue pigment had been so expensive – it was made out of lapis lazuli – that in the 16th century only the wealthiest patrons could afford to commission paintings featuring blue.

Much later, in the mid-19th century, the world turned techni-colour for photographers, and a century later, in 1962, colour photography was finally admitted into the art world with the first museum exhibition of colour photography at MoMA in New York.

Given the powerful role of colour throughout the history of art, we’d like to see how colour informs your work. You can submit work of any medium (painting, photography, sculpture, etc.).

Stay tuned for details on judges, dates, submission tips, and more.  We hope you’ll take part in the “In Living Colour” Showdown and look forward to your submissions.

Photo credits: Shisha-Tom; Stephhzz; Palladian