André Derain (1880-1954)
His bold, unnatural colours and compositions were hugely innovative when they were exhibited alongside those of Matisse at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. The critic Louis Vauxcelles dubbed them les fauves (wild beasts), thus engendering Fauvism.

Yves Klein (1928-62)
Klein often worked in monochrome, and even patented his own colour, International Klein Blue. He saw painting as in need of rescue from “line” and described it as a “prison window, with the lines, contours, forms and composition determined by the bars”.

Dan Flavin (1933-96)
The American artist Flavin was a minimalist who created installations and sculptures from coloured fluorescent light fixtures. His works bathe the room in which they are installed in carefully configured blocks of coloured light, completely changing the surrounding space.

Mark Rothko (1903-70)
The Latvian-born Rothko emigrated to the US in 1914. In an uncompleted book, he mused on the similarities between the art of children and of modern painters: “The fact that one usually begins with drawing is already academic. We start with colour”. The drama of his work lies in the contrast of their colours.

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