David Mather: Opening to Color

In this episode of "Conversations About Art,” VC Projects (Victoria Chapman), speaks with David Mather about his color drawings and how he approaches color through the history of art and through techniques of perceptual attentiveness. Mather discusses how he combines theories and practices in works that calibrate their viewers to an expanded awareness of color combinations. This conversation was recorded in Los Angeles in late March 2021.

David Mather - biography

As a trained art historian and intellectual historian (Ph.D., UC San Diego, 2011) with a fine art degree (BFA, UC Santa Cruz, 1994), Mather has explored a wide range of color theories and practices, and he has published widely in academic books and scholarly journals on aspects of color in modern art, particularly in his area of specialization Italian futurism. During his 2012–13 postdoctoral fellowship residency at the Getty Research Institute (during the annual scholar theme of "Color"), he developed and lectured on chromatic vitality in the works of early Italian futurist painters. As a college professor, Mather has taught and mentored undergraduate and graduate students on various topics relating to color, and, over the years, his writings have moved toward greater intellectual and creative engagement with some of the overlapping, interdisciplinary concerns revolving around color and its usage in the fields of art, science, and technology. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

Intro music excerpt from Jon Hassell, Dreamworld (Dance), 1988