Colour, and original colour

A great frustration I find with art in books or on the screen is that you can never be sure of the true colour.


It's essential to see the original, which is possible in only a few cases.


To the left is part of the result of searching for images of Barnett Newman's 1952 painting "Ullyses". Stella refers to it, discussing the blue in particular, but only prints a monochrome image.


These screen images are better, but I have no idea which blues Newman actually used and I have no chance of seeing the original which is in New York (or was in 1986).

Image after Mondrian

I recall seeing an original Mondrian, similar to my image here and after I had made this image. I was stunned to see how vivid the primary colours were in the original. Even more stunned to see how black was the black.


This problem occurs all the time. How can I know what colours I am going to achieve in a print, until I have made the print. They will be an imitation only of the original.