The Colour Journal is not simply another publication about the meaning of colour. Colours have not been approached in a literal way but as a starting point, a pretext to tell bigger stories, a means of revealing the story within the story: Who knows the photographer behind Mao's portrait in the little red book? We all have already seen Rothko's red paintings, but how many of us have heard about his biggest commission gone wrong?
The Colour Journal intends to fight against the dictatorship of immediacy, to give depth to the pretty images of fashion magazines and Instagram feeds, to delve into familiar moments of art history and discover what lies beneath, to dig into museum archives and reveal unseen treasures.
For this Red Issue, we travelled from Pompeii to Chittagong, from antiquity to the present day. Along the way, we encountered Carmen and the Andalusian gypsies, sun-dried tomatoes on the Turkish coast and Gilbert & George’s vivid red sculptures. Follow the trace of the last Marlboro Cowboy, revisit Ferrari’s final legendary victory at Le Mans and discover the true identity of the redhead hidden behind one of the 19th century’s most iconic masterpieces.
