12. Dresdner Farbenforum“freieFarbe – ist doch logisch“

Famous names such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Ostwald and Manfred Richter bear witness to Central Germany's leading role in the development of colour theory and colour theory to this day. The teaching staff there recently completed „FARBAKS“, a publicly funded scientific project on colour worth millions. Over the course of time, the Dresden University of Technology has also amassed an extensive collection of current and historical materials on colour theory.

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In addition to the conference of the German Colour Science Society, the annual „Dresden Colour Forum“ must be considered the highlight of the colour world, where leading representatives from science, art and architecture gather to present and discuss the latest trends in an informal atmosphere. The lectures were not about mathematical and physical approaches (which tend to be the focus of the DfwG), but rather, for example, about modern forms of printing (which no longer only takes place in print shops), colour theory over the centuries, lighting design and media architecture or new approaches to imparting colour knowledge in primary schools - in other words, a colourful scientific kaleidoscope.

The Life's Work and the Collection of Harald Küppers

Over the past decades, Harald Küppers has played a key role in the development of the printing industry and colour theory. He was just as successful as an entrepreneur as he was as the author of numerous specialised books. He was active in standardisation committees and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit. Out of purely private interest, he researched the subject of colour, taught, developed his colour theory of the „Rhomboeder“ and compiled an extensive private library of materials on colour. At the age of 91, he bequeathed these to the TU Dresden in order to preserve them for posterity and make them accessible to the public.

The conference was largely dedicated to Harald Küppers, with a laudatory speech from the printing industry and a report by Andreas Kraushaar, the head of Fogra, on how much Küppers is involved in our current printing technology. The lecture by Harald Küppers himself was particularly moving, in which he presented his theory of the „colour hombohedron“ once again in a nutshell, and which he concluded with the words: „I suspect that this is the final solution to the problem of colour theory.“

FreeColour

In this environment, it was a great honour to be invited to report on the reasons and perspectives of free colour and on our association. „Logic of colour“ was the motto of the conference, and „free colour - is logical“ was the answer. During the conference and the many interesting topics, it became clear once again that the „free colour“ approach has enormous potential. In addition, good new contacts and ideas for projects were made.

Wilhelm Ostwald

A visit to Großbothen, the country estate „Energie“ and today's museum of the chemist, colour researcher, Nobel Prize winner, universal genius,... Wilhelm Ostwald (1852-1932) provided further interesting insights.

At this point a big thank you to the organisers of the Dresden Colour Forum for the invitation!

Holger Everding