Mapico Yellow Dark Orange Special (Yellow Ochre) c. 28 - 41

Curator: This is a sample of Mapico Yellow Dark Orange Special pigment, manufactured by Magnetic Pigment Co. in 1941. It’s a small metal can alongside a color chart. Editor: The ochre label immediately gives me a sense of history, connecting to ancient earth pigments used for millennia, especially given the date. Curator: It's interesting to consider the industrialization of color. Yellow ochre has strong associations with the earth, but here, it's a manufactured product, a commercial item. Editor: Right. The label itself becomes a cultural artifact. What does it tell us about early 20th century production, trade, and the commodification of artistic materials? How was this color marketed? Who was buying it? Curator: Also, the color chart included—it's a kind of key, isn't it? A way of cataloging the world into measurable units. Editor: It speaks to this tension between natural sources and manufactured precision. A constant negotiation in art. Curator: Absolutely. It's a reminder that the history of art materials is also a history of science, industry, and trade. Editor: It encourages a dialogue about how we assign value to the "natural" versus the "synthetic," and who profits in the process.