Color, as the core visual language of exhibition design in museums and memorial halls, plays an irreplaceable role in information transmission, atmosphere creation, and audience experience. This article takes the first-class museums and memorial halls in China as the research object, starting from the theoretical basis of color aesthetics, and combining cases such as the Palace Museum, the National Museum of China, and the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Army, analyzes the aesthetic characteristics, functional roles, and application strategies of color in exhibition design, explores the practical path of color in the implementation of curatorial concepts, and provides theoretical reference for the exhibition innovation of museums and memorial halls.