|
Harry Wohlfarth
(1921-96), professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, was president
of the International Academy of Color Sciences and a consulting staff
member of the Institute for Psychobiological Studies at California State
University. He lectured in a variety of countries, was one of the first to
conduct color and light experiments (color psychodynamics) in the 1950s,
he made important contributions to the understanding of early Renaissance
painting, and enjoyed an international reputation as an artist.
In the 1960s Wohlfarth “discovered” high frequency color
kinetics. His investigations
of the moving-color phenomenon resulted in a 90-page thesis and exhibition
entitled Principles and Functions of Kinetics and High Frequency Color
Kinetics. In 1970 the
Tiberian Academy of Rome (the former Royal Italian Academy) presented its
Great Gold Medal to Wohlfarth during an invitational one-man exhibition at
the Academy. He was the fifth
person to receive the gold medal in that field in the 150-year history of
the Academia Tiberina. This
medal was the first of many honors – and six gold medals – for
Wohlfarth. In 1980 Wohlfarth
was the first modern North American artist to have his works shown in
Moscow at the State Gallery.
After military
service in WWII, Wohlfarth attended the art academy at Dresden and took
postgraduate studies under German expressionist Oskar Kokoschka in
Salzburg. He moved to Canada
to lecture in the University of Alberta’s Department of Extension (now a
faculty). He taught for more
than three decades. Wohlfarth
and the Extension Faculty played a prominent role in establishing art
classes and art schools throughout Alberta.
His efforts led to the formation of the Alberta Community Art Clubs
Association (ACACA) in 1968. Wohlfarth
pointed out with pride that he never missed a single class and traveled
the length and breadth of the province, all by Greyhound, conducting art
classes, judging art shows, and in other ways encouraging development of
visual art and artists in Alberta.
Wohlfarth has
described the color kinetic effect as being “like an atomic chain
reaction.” It is derived
from the afterimage created by bright colors – look at a bright red
object for a few seconds, transfer your gaze to a blank white space and
you will see a green after image of the red object (green being the
complementary color of red). With careful choice and positioning of colors, he exploited
this phenomenon to the point where adjacent colors, reinforcing each other
over and over again, became so vivid that they appeared to move.
He explored this effect in a series of paintings depicting the
human female form using simple, hardedge shapes without apparent dimension
or depth – The Kinetic Series.
Wohlfarth’s
findings helped form beliefs that now have international support: that
color and light affect people and their behavior.
These studies included working with institutions such as schools.
For example, his five-year study in schools found reduced
aggressiveness and higher positive performance when students faced warm
light yellow on three walls, there was light blue on the wall and vertical
surfaces of the desk that the teacher faced, the blackboard color was blue
rather than green, all the carpets were warm golden-gray, and the lights
were changed to "full spectrum."
His early 1980s study found that schoolchildren exposed to full
spectrum lighting, which includes ultraviolet and simulates natural
lighting containing all the colors, were absent due to illness one-third
less than children whose classroom had standard fluorescent lighting.
He also showed that certain colors have measurable and predictable
effects on the autonomic nervous system of people. In numerous studies,
Wohlfarth found that blood pressure, pulse, and respiration rates
increased most under yellow light, moderately under orange, and minimally
under red, while they decreased most under black, moderately under blue,
and minimally under green. |
