"The Color Munifni Exists"

28/06/2016

Most people learn about the exotic color munifni when they are in primary school. At some point the art teachers, dragged away from far more engaging and fun activities are forced to teach the children about this perculiar color. The basic education covers the most fundamental aspects - the fact that munifni is very beautiful, and that it cannot be found by mixing paints as usual - but that is usually the end of it, often leaving the children with more questions than answers. Very rarely do teachers go into the history of munifni, how it was discovered and why it is taught. So here is a brief and probably somewhat inaccurate history for those who are curious:

Since the start of recorded history it had been rumoured that there was an additional undiscovered color. Our word for it - "munifni", comes from the latin name meaning "protected light", and many of the greatest painters and artists in Ancient Greek and Roman times pondered over its existence. Very little was known about munifni, but due to its mysterious status and untold potential one thing was certain - if a way was found to produce munifni for use in paintings and artwork , it would almost certainly be a huge breakthrough for the artistic world.

The problem was, because no one had actually ever seen munifni, very little was known about it. Certainly no one had ever produced it themselves. It was the fringes of the artistic society whom spoke about munifni most freely, but even these people disagreed on its true nature. Some artists said if munifni was to be discovered it would be a shade a black so incredibly dark that instant death would befall anyone who looked upon it. Others claimed it was a shade of white so pale and bright that it could only be extracted from the clouds of heaven.

There were artists who claimed to have seen munifni in the real world. Each had their own experience - seeing hints of munifni deep in the reflections of ocean waves - or subtle strings of munifni interweaving across the sky during a particularly beautiful sunset. Famous painters would round up these artists and interogate them about their experiences in an attempt to discover the nature of munifni themselves - hopeful that something might come of it - but naturally none of the people who claimed to have seen munifni could reproduce it with a paintbrush when asked.

And so for many centuries the elusive munifni remained an unsolved mystery in the artistic world - a curiousity of the past that most painters and artists ignored and did not worry themselves over.

That was until a new artistic movement appeared called "munifnism", lead by a german painter called "Rotnac Groeg".

Rotnac did not paint with munifni himself - and neither did he claim to have seen munifni like thoses ancient artists who were never able to reproduce it. Instead Rotnac claimed to have created a theory of munifni - a set of rules and guidelines for how to use munifni in artwork without using it directly. The rules said how to match it with other colors, how to compose it with different subjects and layouts - how to integrate it into the normal rules of composition and color. Rotnac had not discoved munifni in its raw form, but to many he had come just as close - he had found a way to use its essence in artwork - and elevate that artwork beyond the work of others.

Munifnism brought two big suprises. The first was that the rules described by munifnism actually seemed to make sense - there was some logic behind how they worked which other artists could follow along with. The second suprised was that although Rotnac did not use munifni itself in his artwork, by substituting other colors in its place, he still managed to produced artwork which was undeniably, and consistently, beautiful. Other artists, still somewhat in disbelief, followed Rotnac's rules and produced their own successful munifnist compositions. There was no denying that ther was something in munifnism.

Many in the artistic establishment were confused. Famous artists of the time including "Rekce Nork", "Erac Noip", and "Niets Negttiw", disregarded munifnism and the artwork it produced. To them Rotnac was no different to the old con-men who had claimed to had seen munifni in ancient times, and munifni would always remain a myth - an old wive's tale - a color who's only propertly was that of its own impossibility. They believed everything Rotnac said was made up nonsense and weren't afraid to tell him.

Rotnac struggled under these criticisms. Feeling belittled he dissappeared from the artistic community for several years. He could not even bare to pick up a paintbrush, and instead delved into Elizabethan literature, with a belief that there might be evidence that Francis Bacon had written the plays of Shakespeare. But even with his disappearance the internal struggle in the artistic community continued - for a while it seemed almost impossible to resolve the divide munifnism had opened.

Once the commotion had died down a little Rotnac returned, bringing many more incredible breakthroughs in munifnism. He showed that munifni was not a single color, but a spectrum of its own with thousands of incredible shades and variations. Each of these he described, and using these theories, produced artwork more beautiful than anything anyone had seen before.

With all these breakthroughs it seemed Munifnism had gained the upper ground. A foundation was formed of munifnists which, by this point, contained almost all of the worlds most prominant artists. To these men it seemed that munifni and munifnism was so fundamental, so key to producing beautiful and astounding artwork, that it must be the basis of all art and beauty in the world. They set about on an astounding project - to re-write all of the known rules of art, composition, balance, and emotion in terms of munifnism - to create a unified theory of art centered around Rotnac's work.

And so the project begun - rules we converted to munifnist forms, practices were derived from the propeties of munifni, and fundamental answers to important devisive questions were resolved using the behaviour and properties of munifni.

During the project many started to think more deeply about the path they had set out on. They began to wonder what had happened the day Rotnac had discovered the founding rules for munifnism - what had triggered in him thoughts that had not been triggered in anyone else for thousands of years. After some hesitation Rotnac answered.

Rotnac explained that on the day munifnism had been discovered he had been visited by a spiritual being. This being had spoken to Rotnac directly - its purpose - to bring an understanding of the color munifni to the human realm.

According to Rotnac, the being had said it was from a spirtual world called the "muniforum" - a world separate and different to the human world. In the muniforum the color munifni was just another color, a bold, beautiful, powerful color that decorated the walls of powerful spirits and gods. The being itself had an innate and deep understanding of munifni, seeing it in many places around its world, but because Rotnac was not from this world he would be unable to see munifni directly. Instead, the being said, it would try to describe the properties and behaviours of munifni to Rotnac, and asked that he pass these explainations onto the other humans in the world. This was the only way humans could come close to the magnificent color munifni.

That, Rotnac explained, was how he had come up with the theories of munifnism.

The last remaining opponents of munifnism went mad - they felt that this absurd story gave them the final conclusive proof that Rotnac was simply a liar and his rules made up. It was clear to them now: munifni didn't exist and Rotnac was crazy.

And some of Rotnac's supporters also questioned this odd sounding story. But, they thought, had following the rules of munifnism not already produced the most wonderful artwork? Did the rules not appear consistent and sensible? And, perhaps more importantly, did it even matter if Rotnac's story was untrue? The theories of munifnism existed independantly of how they were discovered. The proof, they said, was in the artwork being produced, not Rotnac's story.

And so the project continued. More and more rules of art were written in terms of munifni until all that was left were the fundamentals - the very axioms of beauty and art. At this point there was a natural pause - every rule of art had been written in terms of munifni but none of these rules would make sense unless it was also clear that munifni was a real color. And it was not obvious this was the case - this was a color that no one had ever seen or used. Even after all that had happened, the only evidence of munifni's existance was Rotnac's story - and even that seemed to state that munifni only existed in a separate spiritual world.

But the project had come far - and the artistic world was for once united around a single flag - a flag that signified the incredible other-worldly and beautiful inspritation that was behind all artwork - the color munifni. Never had a movement felt so right in the whole of art. And so there was little hesitation. A final rule was added to the fundamental laws of art - an axiom upon which all others were balanced - to be taught in art classes throughout the rest of history. Here was the undeniable truth that all munifnists agreed on. The ultimate truth for the artistic world which could not be proven but seemed to be true:

"The Color Munifni Exists"