Ana Rodriguez Castillo

February 15, 2025
12pm Pacific Time (convert time zones here)
PIGMENTS TALK: "GREEN, AN (UN)NATURAL COLOR"
w/Ana Rodriguez Castillo
"GREEN, AN (UN)NATURAL COLOR"
Historically, colors –in the form of pigments and dyes– have been a challenge to produce and use for artists and craftsmen and many efforts have been made to overcome these deficiencies. There are few substances found in nature that produce a permanent and satisfactory green, and those that were available were fragile and subject to complications when used in artworks. Surprisingly, if we look at the pigments that have been incorporated into artists’ palette throughout history, we do not find any contribution of new greens in Europe until the 18th century.
Green has been a color almost absent on the palette of painters of the past and this is perhaps the key to its secondary role in the artistic, social and religious world in most European societies for many thousands of years.
To better articulate this problem, I produced each of these pigments and manufactured paints in different mediums to better understand the breakthrough of this color after the scientific revolution that began in the 17th century. We will see that far from being a natural and ready to use color, green had to be (re)invented in order to see it as we do today - as the color of nature.
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BIO
I am an artist, art historian and art educator, and currently a PhD student.
I study historical artists’ materials and techniques –especially pigments and paints–, and the social history of colors. My artistic practice is based in reproducing pigments and paints after historical recipes and traditional techniques.
I'm originally from Madrid, Spain, where I got an MFA from the Universidad Complutense, and a Masters in Research in Art History from UNED University in Madrid.
After years of working in Madrid as an art educator and cultural manager, I moved to Lima, Peru, where I worked at the Ministry of Education in the division of Art, Culture and Physical Education and coordinated several national educational initiatives. I moved to Pittsburgh in 2016 and was employed in the History of Art and Architecture Department at the University of Pittsburgh working as the coordinator for the Collecting Knowledge Pittsburgh (CKP) project and as part of the curatorial team at the university Art Gallery (UAG). Later I worked as the Arts Project Coordinator at The Frick Pittsburgh museum. Currently, I live in Orlando, FL where I'm focusing on my research on green pigments during the 18th and 19th century for my future PhD dissertation.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Ana Rodríguez Castillo
anarodriguezcastillo@gmail.com
(412) 354-2771
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tirana_banderas/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-rodriguez-castillo/
