How Colour Affects Pricing: Why Art Collectors Pay More for Blue
Economists from HSE University, St Petersburg State University, and the University of Florida have found which colours in abstract paintings increase their market value. An analysis of thousands of canvases sold at auctions revealed that buyers place a higher value on blue and favour bright, saturated palettes, while showing less appreciation for traditional colour schemes. The article has been published in Information Systems Frontiers.
The valuation of artwork remains one of the mysteries of cultural economics: there is still no clear explanation for why some paintings sell for higher prices than others. Abstract art raises the most questions, since its value is not tied to realistic technique or recognisable subject matter. Until now, the culture of art pricing has relied primarily on traditional factors such as the artist’s name, the size of the canvas, provenance, and the reputation of the gallery. However, Valeria Kolycheva and Dmitry Grigoriev from the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences, along with Maksim Borisov from St Petersburg State University and Alexander Semenov from the University of Florida, have suggested that the colours used by artists may play an important role in determining the price of abstract paintings.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers analysed nearly 4,000 abstract paintings sold at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. The sample included works by 13 artists, ranging from Wassily Kandinsky and Joan Miró to Mark Rothko and Franz Kline, with the average lot selling for nearly $12 million. The researchers looked at 42 different features of the paintings, such as size, material, signature, exhibition history, mentions in the literature, and the number of previous owners. But their main focus was on colour: they considered how many distinct colour segments a painting contained, how saturated and bright the tones were, and mathematically calculated the palette’s complexity. This measure captured not only how many colours the artist used, but also how different those colours were from one another.
The authors also set out to test whether the value of a painting was influenced by its alignment with Itten's colour wheel—a well-known diagram of colour harmony used to create complementary palettes. A classic tool of painting, the colour wheel remains widely used today, including in the training of artists. There are several Itten palettes, each based on the relationship between colours positioned at different distances around the colour wheel.
The study found that traditional factors had the greatest impact on price: the size of the canvas, the use of oil paint, and the number of exhibitions. The influence of colour was less straightforward. For the most part, it had little effect on a painting’s value—except when the colour blue was involved.
Blue is the only colour that consistently correlates with higher artwork prices. This finding echoes earlier observations of Picasso’s work, as his Blue Period paintings commanded significantly higher prices.
Valeria Kolycheva
'In art, the colour blue is often seen as a symbol of the spirit. In 1911, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), an artistic group. Kandinsky later became a pioneer of abstract art, refining the theory of abstract painting and the role of colour in it,' says Valeria Kolycheva, Associate Professor at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences.
Interestingly, Itten’s colour harmony proves to be a weak predictor of price differences in abstract art. Of the six schemes, only the analogue triad proved significant—a combination of three colours positioned side by side on the colour wheel. The analogue triad avoids sharp contrasts and visual tension, instead creating a sense of harmony and tranquillity. All other schemes that create more complex colour palettes on the canvas—contrasting, classical, and complementary—proved to be statistically insignificant. The more intricate and 'noisy' the palette—the more colours a painter uses in small segments—the lower the price buyers are willing to pay.
Buyers also tend not to recognise or value Itten’s harmonious schemes. What matters more to them is visual diversity, achieved through vibrant, saturated colours and clearly defined colour segments.
See also:
Banking Crises Drive Biodiversity Loss
Economists from HSE University, MGIMO University, and Bocconi University have found that financial crises have a significant negative impact on biodiversity and the environment. This relationship appears to be bi-directional: as global biodiversity declines, the likelihood of new crises increases. The study examines the status of populations encompassing thousands of species worldwide over the past 50 years. The article has been published in Economics Letters, an international journal.
Scientists Discover That the Brain Responds to Others’ Actions as if They Were Its Own
When we watch someone move their finger, our brain doesn’t remain passive. Research conducted by scientists from HSE University and Lausanne University Hospital shows that observing movement activates the motor cortex as if we were performing the action ourselves—while simultaneously ‘silencing’ unnecessary muscles. The findings were published in Scientific Reports.
Russian Scientists Investigate Age-Related Differences in Brain Damage Volume Following Childhood Stroke
A team of Russian scientists and clinicians, including Sofya Kulikova from HSE University in Perm, compared the extent and characteristics of brain damage in children who experienced a stroke either within the first four weeks of life or before the age of two. The researchers found that the younger the child, the more extensive the brain damage—particularly in the frontal and parietal lobes, which are responsible for movement, language, and thinking. The study, published in Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology, provides insights into how age can influence the nature and extent of brain lesions and lays the groundwork for developing personalised rehabilitation programmes for children who experience a stroke early in life.
Scientists Test Asymmetry Between Matter and Antimatter
An international team, including scientists from HSE University, has collected and analysed data from dozens of experiments on charm mixing—the process in which an unstable charm meson oscillates between its particle and antiparticle states. These oscillations were observed only four times per thousand decays, fully consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model. This indicates that no signs of new physics have yet been detected in these processes, and if unknown particles do exist, they are likely too heavy to be observed with current equipment. The paper has been published in Physical Review D.
HSE Scientists Reveal What Drives Public Trust in Science
Researchers at HSE ISSEK have analysed the level of trust in scientific knowledge in Russian society and the factors shaping attitudes and perceptions. It was found that trust in science depends more on everyday experience, social expectations, and the perceived promises of science than on objective knowledge. The article has been published in Universe of Russia.
Scientists Uncover Why Consumers Are Reluctant to Pay for Sugar-Free Products
Researchers at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have investigated how 'sugar-free' labelling affects consumers’ willingness to pay for such products. It was found that the label has little impact on the products’ appeal due to a trade-off between sweetness and healthiness: on the one hand, the label can deter consumers by implying an inferior taste, while on the other, it signals potential health benefits. The study findings have been published in Frontiers in Nutrition.
HSE Psycholinguists Launch Digital Tool to Spot Dyslexia in Children
Specialists from HSE University's Centre for Language and Brain have introduced LexiMetr, a new digital tool for diagnosing dyslexia in primary school students. This is the first standardised application in Russia that enables fast and reliable assessment of children’s reading skills to identify dyslexia or the risk of developing it. The application is available on the RuStore platform and runs on Android tablets.
Physicists Propose New Mechanism to Enhance Superconductivity with 'Quantum Glue'
A team of researchers, including scientists from HSE MIEM, has demonstrated that defects in a material can enhance, rather than hinder, superconductivity. This occurs through interaction between defective and cleaner regions, which creates a 'quantum glue'—a uniform component that binds distinct superconducting regions into a single network. Calculations confirm that this mechanism could aid in developing superconductors that operate at higher temperatures. The study has been published in Communications Physics.
Neural Network Trained to Predict Crises in Russian Stock Market
Economists from HSE University have developed a neural network model that can predict the onset of a short-term stock market crisis with over 83% accuracy, one day in advance. The model performs well even on complex, imbalanced data and incorporates not only economic indicators but also investor sentiment. The paper by Tamara Teplova, Maksim Fayzulin, and Aleksei Kurkin from the Centre for Financial Research and Data Analytics at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences has been published in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences.
Larger Groups of Students Use AI More Effectively in Learning
Researchers at the Institute of Education and the Faculty of Economic Sciences at HSE University have studied what factors determine the success of student group projects when they are completed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Their findings suggest that, in addition to the knowledge level of the team members, the size of the group also plays a significant role—the larger it is, the more efficient the process becomes. The study was published in Innovations in Education and Teaching International.