The Nature of Color

[CHEERFUL MUSIC]

[Bright, multicolored power is tossed against a black background in slow motion]

[Colorful video clips of animals, plants, and human activities cycle on screen]

ROB DESALLE (CURATOR, THE NATURE OF COLOR): Color is one of those things that we see around us all the time and that we probably take for granted.

[Rob DeSalle appears on screen in front of a purple background.]

DESALLE: This exhibition, the Nature of Color, will give you the full spectrum of information about color.

Color is central to how we understand evolution.

[Green, single-celled organisms swim under a microscope; a chameleon with bright red, green, and blue skin looks at the viewer.]

DESALLE: Animals use color in almost every way you can think possible.

[A pair of emperor penguins with orange beaks and accent feathers walk in front of a large group of penguins; a large school of yellow fish swim in a coral reef.]

DESALLE: To camouflage themselves,

[An octopus quickly changes the color of its skin to match a rock it sits on.]

DESALLE: …to warn other organisms off,

[Brightly colored poison dart frogs leap with a RIBBIT sound.]

DESALLE: …to attract mates.

[A male peacock displays its impressive feathers and HONKS.]

DESALLE: Plants have used colors in many different ways to attract pollinators.

[A yellow and black butterfly sips from an orange flower; a bee crawls in a yellow flower; a white moth sips from a flower bud.]

DESALLE: If you’re a plant that opens your flower late at night, you don’t want to be dark. You want to be white.

[Time-lapse of a white gladiola flower blooming; small white flowers on tall stalks sway in the night breeze.]

DESALLE: If you’re a plant and you want to attract, say, a bird, you want to have a bright color.

[A hummingbird sips from a red flower while in flight; time-lapse of pink cherry blossoms blooming on a branch.]

DESALLE: If you look around you, you see human beings use color in many various ways.

[A little girl and boy blow party horns in front of colorful streamers; a hand moves colorful game pieces across a board game; sports fans dressed in team colors with painted faces cheer from the stands.]

DESALLE: Color in culture is a fascinating subject,

[Time-lapse of a busy Tokyo intersection at night with bright electric signs and car lights.]

DESALLE: …because it allows us to dig deep into our way of dealing with day-to-day human life.

[A neon “Open” sign flashes in a store window; a hand presses the green button on a credit card machine; a father hands a green backpack to his son and a pink backpack to his daughter.]

DESALLE: Color is an important way for us to communicate and we’ve used it for tens of thousands of years.

[Images cycle onscreen of examples of blue pigment through history: a blue Egyptian funerary figure, a Zapotec urn with blue coloring, a Chinese blue-and-white teapot, Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Vermeer’s The Girl with the Pearl Earring, and a shibori-style dyed indigo fabric.]

DESALLE: And it continues…

[Two young people with different shades of blue hair laugh as they walk along a heavily graffitied wall.]

 DESALLE: …in art,

[A palate knife moves paint on a palate.]

DESALLE: …and in fashion,

[A woman picks out clothing from a rack.]

DESALLE: …and in other areas where color is very, very important.

[Flags of many nations wave in the wind outside of the United Nations building in New York City.]

DESALLE: We wouldn’t have color if it wasn’t for physics.

[Green lights of the Aurora Borealis move across the night sky.]

DESALLE: We wouldn’t have colors if it weren’t for the evolutionary process.

[Time-lapse of a purple crocus flower blooming; a rainbow lorikeet TWEETS while looking into the camera.]

DESALLE: We wouldn’t have colors if it weren’t for the cultural attitudes of people.

[A woman buys cotton candy from a colorful vendor at a carnival.]

DESALLE: We’re all seeing a different world of color, and that’s what’s really spectacular.

[Children cast colorful shadows in cyan, yellow, and magenta on a white background.]

[More colorful powder is tossed in the air in slow motion. The Museum’s 150th-anniversary logo appears with text reading “THE NATURE OF COLOR, OPENS MARCH 2020.”]