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Jan Kolata: Colour over stroke

In my imaginary art museum, three paintings stand out for their colour combinations: The Deposition from the Cross (1526–1528) by Jacopo Pontormo, White Center (1950) by Mark Rothko, and Spearfishing (2013) by Peter Doig. (You will easily find them in good monographs of these artists—or on the Internet, of course.) The raiment of the figure in the foreground of the first painting associates pale pink, straw yellow, and sky blue. The second work sets abstract swaths of yellow, pink, and lavender against a background of red transitioning to orange. The third …