From the smooth silhouettes of black-figure pottery in Ancient Greece to the dark enveloping veils of the Rothko Chapel three and a half millennia later, this anti-colour has signified the transformation of fleeting flesh into enduring emblem. Unlike more emotive reds or sombre blues, black is the default tone we give to words and fonts. It’s a shade we read more than feel.

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- The insect that painted Europe red

- The toxic colour that comes from volcanoes

- When the Parthenon had dazzling colours

Associated superficially with melancholy and mourning, the macabre and malevolence, black seals within itself an unexpected paradox of optimism. Every origin story, from Genesis to the Big Bang, is predicated on a pre-existing blackness as the foundation for the effulgence that follows. Black isn’t simply where we start, it was before we started. Without black, neither the stars nor soul would have anything to kick against.