Chromophobia by David Batchelor is a tightly concentrated analytic attack on traditional Western theories of color.  Color, the all-encompassing omnipotent element that permeates every inch of every thing on earth, is uncovered to be the ultimate rival and victim of artists and philosophers dating all the way back from Plato to Jackson Pollack.  Enemy of culture, of intelligence.  Underminer of structure and stability.  Color is seduction; color is sex.  Batchelor uses quotes to great effect, for example Aldous Huxley's vivid description of his mescaline trip, alluding to color as innocence and enlightenment: "brighter colors, a profounder significance."  In other places, he uses Le Corbusier's early Modernist philosophy to illuminate the cultural climate color exists in.  White assumes a moral significance, representing purity, cleanliness and logic, at odds with anything and everything that is not itself.  It is an unreachable ideal, so untouchable it is aggressive in eliminating, in suffocating anything else.  Color becomes the forbidden fruit.  Edifying and stupifying, natural and superficial, glorified yet repressed, it is at the pinnacle of the paradox of Western attitude.  Batchelor brings an artist's and historian's attention to detail and cultural awareness to bear on a society which lives in constant fear of and infatuation with color.  With such a systematic, comprehensive approach, it is interesting to learn about the preconceived notions that define the way we see the world, and the great thinkers who justified it.  Whether or not you agree, the book offers a strong and multifaceted opinion on the role of color in Western society.

~ Joshua S.