The Blue That Upended the Art World

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Cultural historian Kassia St. Clair tells the stories of two highly prized colors that are linked to specific places in the world: an exquisite, extremely expensive blue that crossed the globe and upended the European art world… and a shade of purple that possibly wouldn’t have ever come to exist in a different place and time.   

Learn more about color history in Kassia’s book, The Secret Lives of Color

Plus: We always want to hear from you! If you have a question or story for us, give us a call at at 315-992-7902 and leave a message, or send an email to hello@atlasobscura.com.


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Cultural historian Kassia St. Clair tells the stories of two highly prized colors that are linked to specific places in the world: an exquisite, extremely expensive blue that crossed the globe and upended the European art world… and a shade of purple that possibly wouldn’t have ever come to exist in a different place and time.   

Learn more about color history in Kassia’s book, The Secret Lives of Color

Plus: We always want to hear from you! If you have a question or story for us, give us a call at at 315-992-7902 and leave a message, or send an email to hello@atlasobscura.com.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

2026-03-19 26 min
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