"Mondrian" color panel
Date: 1975-1985
Inventory Number: 2004-1-0229
Classification: Panel
Subject:
Maker: American
User: Edwin H. Land (1909 - 1991)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
141 x 141 x 3 cm (55 1/2 x 55 1/2 x 1 3/16 in.)
Bibliography:
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Description:
One of three large Mondrian panels used with the photometer 2004-1-0214a to study the Retinex theory of color vision. It is a collage of colored paper framed in wood and supported by a stand. It can be folded in two for transportation.
Here is how Land described it (1983): "We prepared a laboratory display which we dubbed a 'Mondrian' (although it actually is closer to a van Doesburg), utilizing about 100 colored papers. A paper of a given color would appear many times in different parts of the display, each time having a different size and shape and each time being surrounded by a different set of other colored papers. One reason for the design was to prohibit the superposition of after images of areas onto other areas, and another reason for the design was to obviate explanations of results in terms of the size of shape or surrounding of any given paper."
Here is how Land described it (1983): "We prepared a laboratory display which we dubbed a 'Mondrian' (although it actually is closer to a van Doesburg), utilizing about 100 colored papers. A paper of a given color would appear many times in different parts of the display, each time having a different size and shape and each time being surrounded by a different set of other colored papers. One reason for the design was to prohibit the superposition of after images of areas onto other areas, and another reason for the design was to obviate explanations of results in terms of the size of shape or surrounding of any given paper."
In Collection(s)
Signedunsigned
FunctionUsed by Land for his experiments with color vision (Retinex theory). It was also most likely used in Land's famous lectures on the same topic.
Here is what Land says about the specific experiment related to the purple circle seen on the Mondrian (1983): "This experiment with the circle which we change from white to purple by changing the designators is of particular value for studying the question of the significance of the immediate surround—that is, of the influence on a given piece of paper of the papers that are its neighbors. The very design of the Mondrian is supposed to demonstrate that the immediate neighborhood has no special significance because a paper of a given type is the same color whatever its shape or size or position in the Mondrian."
Here is what Land says about the specific experiment related to the purple circle seen on the Mondrian (1983): "This experiment with the circle which we change from white to purple by changing the designators is of particular value for studying the question of the significance of the immediate surround—that is, of the influence on a given piece of paper of the papers that are its neighbors. The very design of the Mondrian is supposed to demonstrate that the immediate neighborhood has no special significance because a paper of a given type is the same color whatever its shape or size or position in the Mondrian."
Primary SourcesEdwin H. Land, "The Retinex Theory of Color Vision," Scientific American 237 (1977): 108-128.
Edwin H. Land, "Recent Advances in Retinex Theory and Some Implications for Cortical Computations: Color Vision and the Natural Image," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 80 (1983): 5163-5169.
Edwin H. Land, "An Alternative Technique for the Computation of the Designator in the Retinex Theory of Color Vision," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 83 (1986): 3078-3080.
Edwin H. Land, "Recent Advances in Retinex Theory and Some Implications for Cortical Computations: Color Vision and the Natural Image," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 80 (1983): 5163-5169.
Edwin H. Land, "An Alternative Technique for the Computation of the Designator in the Retinex Theory of Color Vision," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 83 (1986): 3078-3080.
ProvenanceThis object belonged to Edwin H. Land and came from the Rowland Institute, Harvard University. Gift of the Edwin H. Land Family.
