It’s Not Easy Being Green. The Challenge of Colour

This essay addresses the question of the relationship between “work” and “object” from a particular point of view: the problem of color, as part of the “object” that constitutes a picture. In doing so, it aims to build a bridge between “analytical” and “continental” philosophy in relation to the question of color and, possibly, to make some remarks on the idea of “object”, as it is formulated by Peter Lamarque. The discussion will be divided in three parts: I. The first part will give a short sketch of the debate on the concept of color that arose in the Anglo-American philosophy since the end of the 1980s until today, with a particular focus on the position called “naïve realism”. II. The second part will consider the question of color in painting through the works of two contemporary artists, not so well-known yet but chosen here for their way of using color to deal with some issues of today, in particular the tension between city and nature. III. The conclusion of the paper will consider a few problems that color raises to the idea of “object”, as it is articulated by Lamarque.