Sunday, 18 May 2025 Contact us

You are Currently viewing Past Events, Click here to see upcoming 2025 Events

Go to 2025 Events

The World According to Colour: A Cultural History CANCELLED

James Fox

Wednesday, 30 March 2022

2:00pm

1 hour

Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre

£7 - £12.50

This event has been cancelled. Ticket purchases will be refunded by the TicketSource box office. If you purchased your ticket with a credit for 2020, the credit has been restored to your code.

Broadcaster and art historian Dr James Fox looks at humankind’s relationship with colour and uncovers the meanings we have attached to colours and the ways they have shaped our culture and imagination.

Fox takes seven primary colours – black, red, yellow, blue, white, purple and green – and uncovers a root idea behind each one that’s common to all societies. He says understanding them allows us to see milestones in the history of art in a new way, from Bronze Age gold-work to Turner, Titian, and Yves Klein. Colour, he argues, also tells the history of the world from the black nothing that preceded existence to the colour that embodies the environmental crisis of today.

Fox is an art historian and fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. His BBC television documentaries include programmes on the history of Cornish art, the British Renaissance and the culture and politics of Vienna in 1908, Paris in 1928 and New York in 1951.

University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Spain Arts and Culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation
 

The Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Spain Arts and Culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Embassy of Peru Embassy of Peru Embassy of Chile in the UK Embassy of Chile Iberia British Airways Embassy of the Dominican Republic Embassy of the Dominican Republic Institut Ramon Llull Promoting Catalan culture and language worldwide Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Symington Wines of the Douro Valley HM Government of Gibraltar Sotheby’s Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Gravita Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College founded 1893 Pusey House Founded 1884 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Science Oxford Windrush Group The Oxford Times Italian Cultural Institute BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine Africa programme American programme