Color Commentary: The Gods in Technicolor

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-15-2017

Publisher

Eidolon

Abstract

On November 28, 2017, we (Lissa Crofton-Sleigh, LCS, and Angela Holzmeister, AH) conducted an interview with Renée Dreyfus (RD) and Louise Chu (LC), curators at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, to learn more about the current “Gods in Color: Polychromy in the Ancient World” exhibit. In October, we had been invited to attend the opening symposium for the exhibit, entitled “The Pervasiveness of Pigment in Antiquity,” at which a select group of scholars shared their current research on color in the ancient world. After seeing the installation, we asked Renée and Louise to sit down with us to discuss further their motivation for bringing the exhibit to the Legion, the technologies involved in discovering and reconstructing the pigments, the issues of race and identity at stake in color, and the Legion’s visitors’ reactions to the exhibit.

The following is an edited transcript of this interview. You can listen to a longer version of the interview (approx. 30 minutes) by clicking HERE (or playing the embedded version below).

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