Description: Originally published in 1902, Color Problems examines the theory of color in 117 conceptual plates by Emily Noyes Vanderpoel.
Brief description: Emily Noyes Vanderpoel (1842-1939) was an artist, collector, scholar, and historian working at the dawn of the 20th century. Her work in color theory was decades ahead of it's time in design aesthetics and interpretation.
Review Quotes: "A watercolorist of some reputation, Vanderpoel penned this exacting investigation of chromatic perception and the intricate kinship between colors decades before Josef Alber's landmark text Interaction of Color...Vanderpoel illustrated her treatise with over a hundred presciently modern grids, each of these Mondrian-like schemes demonstrating how, for instance, 'hues grade softly into one another from edge to heart, ' or how 'if two unbroken masses of the same quantity of strong color are put side by side the result may be unbearable" - Bookforum (Feb/Mar 2019)
"It's something that people all over the world [can appreciate], ' Schaff says. '[It's] the kind of art where anyone who looks at it has an emotional experience. I feel like Emily Noyes Vanderpoel herself knew that back when she made it." - Medium "The plates display an aesthetic decades ahead of its time.... her pared-down, geometric way of expressing color is nothing short of remarkable." - 'This Forgotten Female Artist Taught Us Everything We Know About Color', Surface Magazine "Color Problems' is very much a book for our time." - 'A New Life for a 1902 Manual on Color', The New York Times "Despite the history and visual wisdom detailed in her color guide, the tome never received the audience it deserved." - This is Colossal "Drawing from nature, as well as her vast collection of objects, her research rings true even today and is an excellent guide for design lovers." - My Modern Met "Capturing colored light and vanished impressions from a bygone era; hearing the thoughts buzzing inside a woman's patiently bended head; revealing the palimpsest layers of color theory's history; training the eye to see the old inside the new, the new inside the old -- those are indeed all wonderful things to ponder." -Printmag.com