A Million Shades Of Black

Once, fifteen years ago, sitting in a small Italian restaurant in Kiev, I looked around me - on the table there was black pasta and black Murphis beer, a black diary with a black pen, a black mobile phone. Nearby is a black briefcase. Needless to say that I was dressed in all black?..

Yes, I like black. And today we will talk about it.

What is black

Black is one of the most paradoxical phenomena in our world.

To begin with, it simply doesn't exist. Black is a tone, a lack of light from an object.

Perfect black is not even a color. This is a complete absence of color, darkness, nothingness, "black hole". By the way, the astronomical "black hole", according to the assumptions of scientists, is so compressed by the forces of its own gravity a star that even light is not able to "escape" from this attraction.

Many religions say that the world was created from primordial darkness. In Christianity, for example, it is believed that the universe was black before God created light.

Fashion designer Christian Lacroix once accurately noted that “black is the beginning of everything, a reference point, an outline, a case, and only then the content”. It should be added that this color is a wonderful background. Any other color next to it becomes lighter and brighter. We can say that black is necessary in order for all other shades of color to be varied.

In everyday life, what we call black are just variants of too dark. Color specialist Gunn Johansson said: “There are amazing shades of black. You look at him - as in a tunnel, and the tunnel is endless. "

Common perception of black is negative

Back in the Roman Empire, he became the color of mourning, and for centuries has been associated with horror, grief and death, is a symbol of failure, grief and hopelessness.

In a cultural context, black, as a rule, symbolizes evil, which is confirmed by such frequently used metaphors as “rainy day”, “black list”, “black stripe”, “black humor”, etc.

Black color in psychology is most often negative emotions - depression, detachment, lack of goals and alienation. Lovers of black are often prone to a state of long depression and apathy. People who prefer black can be self-centered and selfish. Black causes anxiety and fear in many.

I think this negative attitude towards black is due to the fact that people are always afraid of what they do not know and do not understand.

After all, black is a mystery, an eternal mystery

The color of secret knowledge associated with magical or esoteric ideas. In a more practical sense, black is the color that hides. It can be used to hide feelings, to separate yourself from the world, to hide your own flaws.

And black is not at all simple and unambiguous. It is contradictory and paradoxical.

No wonder black is often used symbolically or figuratively to denote darkness, and white for light. Black and white were often used to describe opposites such as darkness and light, good and evil, dark ages versus the Enlightenment, and night versus day.

It is a color that has many different meanings. It can affect a person in different ways, and cause different perceptions and emotions.

But not only negative ones.

Black is wisdom

In Kabbalah, "black fire" is an epithet of absolute light and wisdom. And it is black because it is "incomprehensible to our limited mind."

In Japanese culture, black is a symbol of age and experience, in contrast to white, which signifies youth and discipleship. Black represents the highest rank in many martial arts (black belt).

In the Turkic history, black "kara" means the concept of "great", "big", "invincible".

Black is holiness

In the Bible, the light of faith and Christianity is often opposed to the darkness of ignorance and paganism. However, while Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant priests wear black vestments. The black color of the robes of monastics and priests is a symbol of renunciation of worldly vanity and the benefits of the material world. He also testifies to the desire to gain spiritual peace and get rid of passions.

In this case, the black color is a call for purity, simplicity, austerity of the way of life, a reminder that one should take care not of the external, but of the internal, spiritual. In black clothes, there is a call to humility and concentration. The black color reminds that the priest must die to himself, humbling himself and exalting God in his life.

In Islam, black does not carry the meaning of mourning. In the Middle East, traditional women's clothing is often black, again as a symbol of modesty and in order to hide the female body.

Black represents inner strength and power.

This is the color that makes a person stand out from others. Black lovers are usually reserved and disciplined, do not express much emotion, and this secrecy gives the man in black a sense of confidence and superiority.

Persistence in achieving goals and natural tenacity are also inherent in black lovers.

Black clothing is also considered a symbol of inner freedom and independence. As fashion designer Yoshi Yamamoto said: "Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and simple, but mysterious. But above all, black says:" I don't bother you - don't bother me either. "

Black is the color of protest

Asking the question of what black means in psychology, experts have proven that it is often associated with protest and an aggressive state. Therefore, black lovers are extremely controversial and prone to rebellion. They rebel against their fate. Let's remember the famous pirate flag ..

Black lovers have a complex but noble character, most of all they value intelligence, wit, personal safety and independence. Such people can be sophisticated intellectuals and sophisticated aesthetes, or they can consider themselves very sexy persons, because black is also very passionate and sexy.

I wonder what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you say "black"?

Leave alone the unfortunate black cat crossing the road and recall some of the most famous examples of the positive use of black in our history.

Henry Ford and the T9 car

It all started with him - a black Ford T. Henry Ford said "I agree to any color as long as it is black." He appreciated it for its simplicity and versatility. "Black for all" personified for him democracy and equality.

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The first production car from 1914 to 1926 was only available in black.

For 20 years, according to the Ford Motor Company, 15 million 484 thousand 784 cars were sold, painted with quick-drying Japanese black varnish. And since then, black began to dominate the entire civilized world.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, equipment and machines (for example, telephones, sewing machines, locomotives, cars) were often produced in black to emphasize their reliability and functionality.

Little black dress from Chanel

The little black dress - the perfect dress that every woman has in her wardrobe - appeared in 1926 thanks to the incomparable Coco Chanel. She created it based on her concept of modeling clothes with simplicity of form, versatility and practicality. The black color was chosen so that the dress could be worn for several seasons in a row and in any situation, and the simplicity of the form consisted in the absence of unnecessary details and accepts seasonal fashion.

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Although in the conservative society of the time, black was considered exclusively mourning and was not used for everyday attire, the little black dress became a model of chic and elegance. Any woman could afford a small black dress, even with a low income, because having one such dress, you could create many combinations with the help of accessories and look different every time.

Like the Ford Model T car, the little black dress was a very popular item, available only in black. In 1926, American Vogue wrote that the popularity of the LBD (little black dress) was equal to the popularity of the Ford car, and equated the versatility of the "little black dress" with the Ford T.

Coco Chanel's "Little Black Dress" has gained such popularity for a reason, because it combined independence and elegance, sophistication and practicality. It is the only one in the world that has remained fashionable for 80 years. Coco herself very accurately said about him: "Fashion passes, style remains"

It is difficult to argue with this opinion. Karl Lagerfeld once said: “Black is a color that suits everything. If you wear black, you can be confident."

Black still remains the most popular color among customers. After examining 183,000 dress models from online retailers operating in the US, marketers found that 38.5 percent of them were black (in second place, by a significant margin, white - 10.7 percent).

Malevich's Black Square

The black Suprematist square is a completely unique piece of art. painting by Kazimir Malevich, created in 1915. This is his most significant work in a conceptual sense, one of the most talked about and most famous paintings in world art.

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For some, the "Black Square" is a rectangular trapezoid, but for others it is a deep philosophical message that was encrypted by the great artist.

Malevich took the position of a complete break with objectivity, supported by the declaration of the black square as “the first step of pure creativity in general”. The square became a symbolic form of Suprematism and, at the same time, it was also a “zero” expression of color - a black “non-color” on white, understood by the artist as a “desert of nothingness”.

However, the "Black Square" is not black at all. As the specialists of the Tretyakov Gallery found out, Malevich obtained a black tint by mixing three dark pigments and chalk. The dark pigments are iron ocher, burnt bone and copper arsenite. Chalk was added so that the picture would not glare, would not be too "oily". To create such a mixture, you need to experiment with proportions for a long time - that is, "Black Square" is not a spontaneous creation at all, but the result of long reflections..

The artist himself said that he wrote "Square" for a month or two. "For a long time I could neither eat nor sleep," Malevich said, "and I myself did not understand what I had done." What did the artist think for hours, mixing paints in order to achieve a shade of black that he could only understand? ..

So, despite the different, often contradictory attitudes towards black, black can hardly be ignored. It has a huge inner meaning and strength that leaves no one indifferent.

For me, black does not carry a negative connotation. It is the color of endless depth and secret meaning. It attracts, intrigues and bewitches. I find beauty and personality in him.

How do you feel about black?