cadmium red

noun

1. a pigment used in painting, consisting of the sulfide and the selinide of cadmium, characterized by its strong red or reddish color, excellent film-forming properties, and slow drying rate.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cadmium red¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

“I made it in my garden shed with a bag of cadmium red and some linseed oil. It’s probably really toxic. I shouldn’t have done it. It still uses cadmium to this day, which is why it carries such a strong warning when artists use it. But honestly, I can’t find a better pigment,” he said.

From Seattle Times

The works from her “Chimes at Midnight” series, which form her sensational show in Chelsea, deftly layer references to Richard Serra’s rusted hot-rolled steel, John Chamberlain’s crumpled car bodies and Donald Judd’s perfectionism as well as his signature color, cadmium red light, to name just the most obvious.

From New York Times

It means those 400 broken treaties aren’t your concern; they’re just a line in an old textbook as you wave a pennant and wear your old cap with Chief Wahoo on it, that beaked-nose grinning cartoonized face in livid cadmium red.

From Washington Post

These strange, clunky pictures, in a palette dominated by cadmium red, also included bare lightbulbs, the soles of shoes, buildings and bricks.

From Washington Post

We sat in the center of the space where Blinky Palermo’s “To the People of New York City” was on view, surrounded on all sides by the series of black, cadmium red, and cadmium yellow panels, like methodically rearranged German flags.

From The New Yorker