The Meaning of the Colour Black
Introduction
Colour symbolism, like all symbolism, is bound to cultures, ideas and subjective narratives. There is no one unified theory of symbolism, and while attempts have been made, there are always subtle nuances and personal connections that will make such a theory difficult. While there are things that unify humanity, and there seemingly are a lot of commonalities between cultures, perhaps it’s best we don’t all share a common symbolic language if the stories of Babel are to be believed. Instead of attempting to make a universal theory of colour symbolism, this post will focus on the personal meaning of colour in my work and worldview.
When interpreting, understanding, and even creating my work, I often use these ideas of colour symbolism to convey and portray concepts, ideas, and to conceptualise a bigger picture. I don’t view myself as the author of most of my work, as that would require everything associated with authorship: conceptualisation, planning and execution. In the absence of these, I get to be as much of an observer as a creative director, and that allows me to interpret my work from that position as well. Over the years, I’ve come to develop a theory of various symbolism and personal association with colours, shapes, symbols and more.
This post will detail my symbolic understanding of the colour black. It draws upon personal experiences as well as other theories of symbolism. I use it for interpreting the symbolism of my own work, but also others. I will present examples from my work, mainly to highlight my reasoning, and while it may all sound well-planned and thought out, it’s never been my primary reason to use any of these colours. I’ve used them intuitively and developed my art style over years of practice, and independently of this interpretation. The colour symbolism came later, in trying to make sense of my creative expression. We will focus on one colour at a time: beginning with black.
Black is one of my favourite colours, and despite what some smartypants might try and convince you: it is indeed a colour. Yes, it is true, it is the absence of light or the absorption of it which results in the colour, but across almost all models of colour space, it is a primary colour. Just like white and grey, it is achromatic, which means black is refracting light without dispersing it into spectral colours. Achromatic means it has no saturation and therefore no hues. Black is one of the first colours to ever be used in human art, beginning with Neolithic cave paintings using charcoal and burnt bones, and has since then been a part of human art, history and culture across the globe.
In Culture
The most obvious symbolic interpretation of black is, of course, darkness. From this point, it splits into several other adjacent meanings. Darkness is associated with night, and also underground, like caves and holes. From underground western myths of the underworld and the dwelling of the dead, it also came to be associated with black. The association with death leads to black coming to symbolise grief, and it has for a long time in history been associated with funeral apparel. Other than this, in the Middle Ages, it also became a colour of authority, and many judges, magistrates and officials still wear black to this day. For a while, black was also the most common colour for a man’s suit when getting married; however, perhaps because of these previously mentioned associations, black as a colour for weddings has fallen out of fashion.
Black is tricky to unify into some kind of singular symbolic interpretation, and like many other symbols, has both paradoxical and multifaceted meanings. It has both negative and positive connotations. In the West, it has been associated mostly with negative things, like death, grief, and evil. Symbolically, white and black have come to be associated with good and evil, black being the symbol of darkness and wicked things. Even the concept of black magic comes from the idea that black is inherently bad in some way. Yet there are also positive associations like elegance, authority, and dignity. Another paradoxical and largely cultural association with the colour can be seen in dress codes around the world.
Christian monastic traditions, especially within the Eastern Orthodox branch, but also in the Catholic Benedictine tradition, usually wear black. The same applies to priests and pastors of almost all Christian denominations. Here, black is a colour of penitence and humility, and serves as a reminder of death and as a rejection of fashion and the material world. It’s a simple, monochromatic dress code. In contrast, both in Germany and Italy, under the rule of fascism, black came to be a symbol of power and became the standard dress code for both military and political officials. In Islam, black also holds an important military significance, as the black standard that is believed to have been carried by Muhammad’s soldiers. Black is still used for symbolic reasons by Jihadists and military Islamic groups today, and is a symbol for the end, and the heralding of the coming Messiah, “Mahdi” in Islamic scripture. But long before these cultural uses, in ancient Egypt, black was a more positive colour.
For the Egyptians, black was the colour of fertility, referring to the dark and rich soil by the Nile, and also the colour of Anubis, god of the underworld, who offered protection against evil for the passed. Black was also an important colour for another ancient civilisation: the Greeks. For whom the colour also symbolised the underworld, but played a more practical role in society and the arts. Black-figure pottery and later red-figure pottery, the artists would paint on the clay with a clay slip, which would later turn black in the firing process, making the decorations and figures made by the artists turn into a rich black colour contrasted against the red clay. Red-figure pottery is the reversal of this technique and makes red decorations on a black background. Other than practical use and visual storytelling, black’s symbolism also extends into linguistics and has given rise to several words and expressions.
The Latin word “ater” was associated with cruelty and brutality and still lives on in English today in words like “atrocious” and “atrocity”. Some noteworthy English idioms and expressions containing black as symbolism include:
- “In the black” - meaning profitable and refers to the colour accountants would use to note profits, the opposite expression “in the reds” refers to loss, as red ink was used for financial loss.
- “Black market” - an illegal market. Symbolically, about both the mysterious and hidden attributes of darkness, but also the selling of ‘blacklisted’ goods.
- “Blackmailing” - the threat of causing harm to someone to coerce them, usually about revealing sensitive information.
- “The black sheep (of the family)” - An outlier, and usually somebody who doesn’t do well.
- “Black budget” - A government budget which is used for secret or classified operations of a country.
With these and more, it’s easy to see that in a literary context, black is often associated with evil and bad things, but also secrets and the hidden aspects of the dark. There are some more positive associations, and of course, they are unique and depend on cultural and historical contexts. As with all symbolism, it’s unique to the individual what their association with the symbol is. With some historical and cultural context, let me explain how I’ve come to see black in my work.
In My Work
As mentioned previously, black is one of my favourite colours, in case you couldn’t tell by the website design. For me, there’s one important interpretation of black that stands above the rest: void. Black as nothingness and empty space allows it to be a blank canvas for expression, it’s a symbolic silence which allows for speech and all expression. It’s the other side of the same coin as white, and they play off one another, but for me white on black is easier to see and understand than vice versa. Black has this quality that brings light and colour to the forefront, in my opinion. Because of this, I often paint on a black background.
I’ve always liked black, not for its own sake and the elegance the colour brings with it, but rather its ability to bring forth the light around it, and as encompassing as darkness can feel, it also shows you clearly your path - lighthouses only work in the night. I’ve always found some comfort in black as a colour, and I’ve never found it oppressive, scary or even depressive. But it has invoked the feeling of the underworld and the subconscious. Nocturnal landscapes have this quality to them that almost feels unreal, especially if you experience them outside of the electric lights provided by cities. It’s not a scary darkness, but it is a profoundly creative space that lets your imagination run wild. Even a familiar place can become something completely new, conjured up by your mind in the darkest night.
This highlights the creative aspect of black. To me, it allows for almost anything, and just like white, it is a blank canvas. Something waited to give space to some form of expression. Another creative aspect of it, and a recurring form it takes in my work, is as outlines.
Admittedly, a little cartoonish, thick and dark outlines have been a part of my art since I began painting. The first canvas I ever painted on was with a black marker and is completely in black and white. My art still often features these clear outlines, distinguishing objects, figures and etc from each other and the background. They’re not always black these days, but sometimes it does occur. These mark clear lines and distinctly separate things from one another, providing a clarity which isn’t always present in life. Our perspectives are often muddled and unclear, morality is relative, and our own subjective perspectives can’t differentiate between two different things; they appear the same to us, and sometimes these clear and thick outlines can provide clarity.
As a more physical symbolism, it represents the empty space between all things; you can clearly tell yourself apart from the chair you sit on, or the floor you walk on. We discern not only ourselves from things but things from other things, and it helps us navigate and understand this world. It can also represent the darkness present around us or in us at all times. Everyone has a bit of that; few people are pure enough to only emit a perfect white light. While to me personally, my association with black is more positive than negative, there are negative associations as well. It can represent the void as a complete absence of light and good, and that can be a very dark place.
The mystery and intrigue of night can be magical, but it can also be scary, and it’s when a lot of bad actors come out. Some secrets that only the moon knows would drive us to madness. The black night is a place of dreams, but also loneliness and sorrows. The dark sky allows us to see the stars, and their distant light reaches us only then. For me, it’s a good sign if the black is in the background and not the foreground; it’s best to keep it at bay and let it reinforce the light rather than drown it out. To me, black is both powerful and humble; it’s a rather humble power, it’s the authority of silence and the might which exists in stillness. It’s easy on the eyes, and its biggest strength is giving space to other colours.
