A good rule to keep in mind for color combinations is as follows: the greater the neutralization the less clash of otherwise antipathetic colors. As colors are neutralized they lose their positiveness of character and, becoming weakened, can no longer rebel against being placed in inharmonious surroundings. This same rule may also be applied to colors that have been lowered in tonality, while still keeping, as much as possible their full saturation.
Stanton Macdonald-Wright, A treatise on color, 1924, 23.
For myself, I regard black as a dissonant color, and dissonances are indispensable both in painting and in music to creating pleasing harmonies.
I. J. Belmont, The modern dilemma in art: Reflections of a color-music painter, 1944, 119.