Art History Terms to Know: Non-local and Local Color

 Local and non-local color are both used in art, but they are used by artists for very different reasons. 



     Local color is when an artist uses natural and true-to-life color to depict their subject matter. For example, the two works above are by firstly Paul Cezanne and secondly Mary Cassatt. Cezanne uses local color to depict this landscape. Color-wise, he paints this image for the audience in the way it would be seen were the viewer to actually be there. He does use irregular brushstroke (click HERE to learn more about that form of expression). Mary Cassatt (click on the name to learn more about her as an artist and this work) uses local color once more in this portrait. 



    Non-local color is used by an artist to convey a message. Non-local color is color that is used, but in real life, the subject matter would not appear this way. For example, above Andy Warhol uses non-local color in this screen-print portrait of Marylin Monroe. 



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