The tips of these cells are filled with photosensitive pigments known as opsins. There are three types of cone cells, each type sensitive to wavelengths of either blue, green, or red light. These millions of cells are concentrated at the center of the human retina in a region called the fovea. Of these, six to seven million are cone cells that support color vision in humans. Its outermost layer is made up of more than a hundred million light-sensitive cells known as photoreceptors. It is this layer of tissue that begins processing visual information in the eye. When light from an object or scene enters through the pupil, it is focused on the retina, a wisp of nervous tissue that is actually an extension of the brain. To a large extent, we see what’s reflected to our eyes: red light from the men’s trousers, yellow from the glistening sand and churning sea foam. When light shines on Launching the Curragh, a work by the Irish painter Paul Henry, the differently colored pigments in the paint absorb light of differing wavelengths in the visible spectrum. Yet artists, some working before Sir Isaac Newton revealed that colors were physical and quantifiable parts of what he described as light’s spectrum, have managed to feel their way into the visual system, the way a jazz musician might feel his way through an improvisation. Those explanations developed over years of reductionist thinking, meticulous experimentation, and systematic exploration. Today, science can explain most, but not all, of how color vision works. They are simply there, produced by the inner workings of light-sensitive cells in the eye, the complex wiring of the retina, and the trunks and branches of the computational tree that forms the visual cortex.
One does not have to strain to experience these effects. Over millennia, artists have learned to use color and other tools of their trade to stimulate the brain’s visual circuitry in ways that create illusions: depth on a flat surface, movement on a static plane, emotion in an empty space. It synchronizes smoothly with how our visual system works, thanks in large part to the astute observations and skills of artists. Visual art is quite simply made for the human eye. Celebrating 50 Years of Diversity and InclusionĬlaude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872, 48 x 63 cm., oil on canvas.
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