The Secret History of the Color Black

"I’ve been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colors was black," said Pierre-Auguste Renoir. But what makes black reign over all other colors?

Black has a wide range of associations. It can be linked with death, mourning, evil magic, and darkness, but it can also symbolize elegance, wealth, restraint, and power. As the first pigment used by artists in prehistory and the first ink used by book printers, black played an important role in the development of art and literature. Today, there is even a black so black that looking at it makes it seem like you are looking at a void. Read on to discover more amazing facts about the history of the darkest color.

1. Prehistoric black

Black was one of the first colors used in art. Prehistoric artists used black charcoal and iron minerals to create a black pigment that they then used to paint on cave walls. This steer from the Lascaux Caves in France was painted more than 17,000 years ago, although it was only discovered in 1940 by an 18-year-old French boy who was exploring the nearby countryside. The 2,000 paleolithic drawings found in the cave represent humans, abstract symbols, and animals, like this black ox.

2. The Greeks paint it black

The Greeks developed a highly sophisticated technique for painting black silhouettes on clay pottery. Later, they inverted the technique to paint red figures on black backgrounds. These “red figure” and “black figure” vases were signed by their makers, making them the first signed pieces of art in history. In this black-figure vase, Dionysus, the god of partying, is enjoying a large glass of wine!

3. Black devils

In Latin, the word for “black”, ater, is associated with cruelty and evil. “Atrocious” and “atrocity” are derived from this Latinate stem. It is no surprise, then, that in Medieval paintings the devil was often painted in black.

4. Monks at war

The Benedictine monks wore black robes as a sign of humility and penitence. In the 12th century, the “Black monks,” as they came to be called, were challenged by the Cistercian monks, who wore white. The Benedictines accused the Cistercians of being prideful, as demonstrated by their white robes. The Cistercians prepared their comeback: black, they responded, was the color of the devil, death, and sin, while their own white symbolized purity and innocence.

8. Little Black Dress

The birth of the Little Black Dress has been ascribed to Coco Chanel, who, in 1927, created a series of simple black suits and dresses that were photographed in American Vogue. Audrey Hepburn’s minimalist black Givenchy dress, worn in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, made the style wildly popular. Easy to wear and always elegant, the Little Black Dress has become a wardrobe staple.

9. The Blackest Black in the World

In 2014, an English high-tech company announced that it had made the darkest black ever seen. Made by growing carbon nanotubes on a metal surface, Vantablack, as the scientists called it, traps light to such an extent that the surface looks like a void. The company licenses exclusive use of the technology to the artist Anisk Kapoor, who uses it to give the viewer the impression that they are looking into a black hole.

10. Black Friday

Going shopping the day after Thanksgiving is nothing new, but the term used to describe the phenomenon as “Black Friday” has gone through several variations since it was first documented in the 1950s. The first-ever use of “black friday” was in reference to the fact that many workers took the day off; in the 1960s, police officers talked about traffic being so bad that it was “black”. Afraid that talking about traffic problems would dissuade shoppers, businesses in the 1980s took the matter into their own hands and rebranded “black friday” as the day when their profits were “in the black,” or profitable.

Is orange really the new black? Not if you take into account the rich history of the color black. From prehistoric caves to Greek vases to medieval devils to dueling monks to Coco Chanel, black is one of art and design history’s most powerful and interesting colors (or non-colors). “Paint it Black,” the Rolling Stones sang, and we’d have to agree!

Explore more artworks in shades of black here.