Károly SzelényiColours

The average reader picks up his/her head at the title: it is indeed Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the poet giant, who wrote his book on colour theory in 1820. The title is also based on Goethe's statement that colours can be discovered in the actions of light, in its various manifestations.

Photographer Károly Szelényi began this work about a decade and a half ago, purposefully collecting images to illustrate theories of colour theory. It became clear to him from a careful study of the literature that Goethe had left his mark on almost every aspect of colour theory. By reiterating the poet's experiments with prisms, the author proves that Goethe defined the six basic colours of the colour wheel, which are still valid today. 'The elementary colourist has only three or six colours to deal with, which can be conveniently included in a circle. All other infinite variations belong more to the application, to the technique of painting, to colouring, to life in general" he writes in the introduction to the Theory of Colour (translated by Miklós Hegedűs).

Károly Szelényi 1943, photographer, taught at the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts between 1970-1986, publisher of numerous landscape and city portraits for which he received honours. In 2010 he won an award for his application work for the Goethe's Colour Theory. His pictures have been shown in several exhibitions.

Károly Szelényi: THE LIGHTS The Acts and Sufferings of Light Goethe's Colour Theory in Everyday Life
225 x 270 format, 208 pages, hardcover edition, with about 370 colour illustrations, colour scale

Edited by and with a selection of images:
Aranka Sz. Farkas
Edited by Stephanie Jahn
Caption design by Dóra Keresztes, István Orosz
Published jointly by the House of Arts, Veszprém and Magyar Képek Kiadó in 2012
Price: 6.900 Ft with postal delivery.