The Red Balloon, Director: Albert Lamorisse 

Born in Paris in 1922, Albert Lamorisse began making films in the late 40s. He quickly achieved international recognition for the poetic quality of his short and medium-length films about children and the imagination.The Red Balloon, emulating this, received the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1956 and an Oscar the following year. As an adult watching The Red Balloon, we can all relate to those moments in our childhoods… the feelings of hope, goodness, friendship and love. 

The countless simplities of youth that a basic round Red balloon can represent for all of us. 

The Red Shoes, Directors: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

The 1948 film tells the story of a young ballerina who joins an established ballet company and becomes the lead dancer in a new ballet called The Red Shoes, based on the fairy tale of Hans Christian Anderson. Unlike the original story, in which her feet are amputated, eventually Vicky, under great emotional stress, must choose to pursue either her art or her romance, a decision that carries serious consequences.

The Red shoes symbolize being rich, or comfortable financially, since the color Red universally through history signifies lust, luck, passion and magic.

Schindler’s List, Director: Steven Spielberg

Roma Ligocka, the girl in the Red coat, was born into a Jewish family in Kracow in 1938 and was 10 months old when the Germans marched into Poland. When she was two, the Nazis rounded up her family and then locked them up in the ghetto. Ligocka was one of the "hidden children" of the ghetto who, unlike most other children, survived when the ghetto was emptied and its inhabitants shipped to the death camps. She remembered the Red coat that her grandmother had made her and which she wore during her life in the ghetto. It was as a survivor of the ghetto that the mayor of Kracow invited her, twenty seven years ago, to attend the world premiere of Steven Spielberg's film. Ligocka froze when she saw the little girl in the Red coat."Dear God, that's me," she thought, unable to speak.

The Red coat is the only color object, exemplifying Spielberg’s intent on the innocence of the genocide.

The Royal Tenenbaums, Director: Wes Anderson 

This is Anderson’s third film made in 2001. In the context of the film, Chas (the father) is paranoid about the safety of his children. The stimulation of the bright Red color reflects Chas's overly heightened senses, and the matching Red suits that Ari and Usi wear emphasize Chas's influence on his children. Anderson chose to color the suits Red to not only unify the family together but to show his paranoia for his kid’s safety and for the future. It expresses the weight from Chas’s past that is still being carried on his shoulders.

The Red colored jumpsuits act as a symbol of bitterness and denial of Chas’s childhood.

1858-1924

Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii, first half of the second century B.C.

Located beneath the surface of Pompeii’s most famous house, the Villa of Mysteries covered 40,000 square feet.

The unknown Roman artists used Cinnabar Red - the name of the mineral which it’s made of - common ore of mercury.  Discovered in 1909, today, the wall art of Pompei, still exists.  

Le Café de nuit, Vincent van Gogh, September 1888

132 years ago next month, Vincent van Gogh created Le Cafe de nuit.

Beyond what’s known about the painting - the scene of a cafe with five customers late at night -  the upper walls are Red, reinforcing the idea he was trying to express - the “terrible passions of humanity”.*

*words from a letter to his brother

Piet Mondrian, Compositions, 1930

Mondrian’s style of painting influenced many later artists, including home interior and fashion designers.

He is most well known for his abstract art, but was most passionate about dancing. 

The primary colors usage, with Red square that dominates the painting, takes his style out of the realm of pure abstraction.

Alexander Calder’s Red Flamingo, was unveiled in 1974 in Chicago’s loop.

A combination of art and architecture, this was the first work commissioned by the US General Services Administration under the federal ‘Percent for Art’ program, allocating a percentage of the project’s budget to public art.

This type of Red art is referred to as the constructivist movement, first popularized in the 20th century in Russia.

Roman Soldiers Tomb in the city of Petra  200 BC – 200 AD

During the time of the Egyptians and Phoenicians, a love for color began to develop. Various associations with Red began to surface, ranging from a representation of danger to being a symbol of power and prosperity.

Similar to Egyptians, the Romans were among the first to adorn their villas and tombs with Red to symbolize wealth and power.

In historically accurate terms, "barn Red" is not the bright, fire-engine Red that we often see today, but more of a burnt-orange Red. As to how the oil mixture became traditionally Red, there are two predominant theories. One theory was that farmers added blood from a recent slaughter to the oil mixture. As the paint dried, it turned from a bright Red to a darker, burnt Red. Another was that farmers added ferrous oxide, otherwise known as rust, to the oil mixture. Rust was plentiful on farms and is a poison to many fungi, including mold and moss, which were known to grow on barns. These fungi would trap moisture in the wood, increasing decay.

As European settlers crossed over to America, they brought with them the tradition of Red barns. In the mid to late 1800s, as paints began to be produced with chemical pigments, Red paint was the most inexpensive to buy. Red was the color of favor.

The Forbidden City of Beijing 

The color Red grew prevalent in global cultures and art styles dated from its establishment in 1925. Symbolizing a wide variety of notions: luck and happiness in China, good fortune in Iran, or mourning in South Africa.

The strength around the globe is evident, as Red is the most common color across the 196 world flags.

Pacific Design Center (PDC)

A build that began in West Hollywood in 1975 to house the West Coast’s premiere ateliers, continued to expand with the marquee architecture in 2013, the Red Building, making the enter PDC 1,6 million square feet. Its strategically located on San Vicente Boulevard and Melrose Avenue.

The unique Red look and feel was birthed by Argentina-born architect Cesar Pelli, who died six years after the completion, at 92.