The Pantone Color Institute recently announced their 2018 Color of the Year, a “dramatically provocative and thoughtful purple shade,” PANTONE 18-3838 Ultra Violet. SAAM staff promptly cranked up “Purple Rain” radio and searched the museum’s collection for purple tones, discovering a variety of artworks, some of which we didn’t remember having seen before. Here are a few favorites:
Robert Bidner, Low Resolution, 1970
Werner Drewes, Contrasting Harmony
John R. Grabach, Morning, ca. 1917
Nicholas Krushenick, Purple Passion, 1961
Lise B. McCann Hoffman, Pansies, 2002
Ray Johnson, Pen Pals, 1969
William H. Johnson, Café, ca. 1939-1940
Mary Vaux Walcott, Iris (Iris species), 1939