The man who heard his paintbox hiss: Kandinsky and synaesthesia

Telegraph.co.uk ^ | 6/10/06 | Ossian Ward

[Republicanprofessor]

One might expect some standardization out of these people, like virtually everybody agrees what red and green is.

That's always intrigued me: the fact that artists and others have such different ideas on what colors should sound like and what sounds might look like. Kandinsky felt that yellow was a 'sharp' color like a triangle, but I always see yellow as round like a sun.

Then again, if you think about other issues in life, we all see the same event from multiple perspectives: politically, in relationships. Think of the variances in divorce alone.

So maybe the fact that we might 'see' or 'hear' some senses differently transferred to other senses shouldn't surprise us.

[The Red Zone]

Looks like someone slammed a stained glass ball into the sidewalk.

[Frank T]

I suggest that a great piece of art is self evident.

[Charles Martel]

"Personally, I like the Boy with a Knapsack painting. This is one in which you see the title and say "ah ha," but not one in which you would guess the title first."

Okay, I acknowledge that my knowledge of abstract artwork is limited. So, let me just come right out and ask the obvious question. Is the black square supposed to be the boy, and the smaller red square the knapsack? Please let me know, 'cause I don't feel an "Ah hah" coming on.

No, I'm not trying to be sarcastic. Well, not entirely. :-) I do appreciate some abstract work that I've seen, but this is *way* out there.

[The Red Zone]

Overhead view of cubist rendering, I guess.

[MineralMan]

"I suggest that a great piece of art is self evident."

OK. I have no problem with that. A small image of a painting on the internet is not the piece of art. Further, the definition of what is "a great piece of art" is very subjective.

I have not seen "The Black Square," so I don't know what its impact is on the viewer. It might actually surprise you. I know that a number of paintings I wouldn't have given a second thought to, after seeing them reproduced in a book, had a very strong impact when seen in person.

Art is a subjective thing. Few generalizations apply.

[akorahil]

Well, their last tasteless cover was a good indication of the lack of musical invention within.

but I could just be nitpicking too...

[BenLurkin]

I often wonder if these big dollar "art" transactions aren't simply a cover for large dope deals.

[The Red Zone]

Give the artist lots of dope and he will paint for you a triangle and a square, slightly off kilter. Yup, definitely a cover for large dope deals.

[Gondring]

hehehe

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

OUCH! My ears!

[gcruse]

What the robotic one says to me is that the light source illuminating the neck up comes from the left, and the light from the shoulders down comes from the right. It's a contradiction that, sadly for me, points to nothing in particular.

[savedbygrace]

Cacophonies.

[The Red Zone]

Couple of spotlights? But it looks like it's under an open sky.

[gcruse]

"I suggest that a great piece of art is self evident.'

Yes, well, then I won't point out the plinth and support piece mistaken for art in the absence of the missing sculpture that was intended to be there. Mistaken by art museum curators themselves. Self-evident?

[Xenalyte]

This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, "What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn't He have rested on that day too?"

[AnnaZ]

Post-reading the article, it's the discordant symphony of war that does that to the viewer, I guess. (I find it to be Kandinsky's most powerful. A lot of his paintings, to me, always just seemed silly. But I saw VII at MOMA once, and was blown away.)

[Gondring]

Nothing was more abstract to me than the 'Black Square" at the Hermitage that cost $1 million.

Sure that's not just where Andy Jackson's outhouse was? ;-)

[Psycho_Bunny]

One should be careful when talking about "visual" music.  The linking of key to colors is common amongst composers and musicians not because they actually see color associated with the key, but because it's an easy way to describe the overall feeling of the key based on it's natural overtones.

This is especially true with people possessing relative or, as I have - perfect pitch.

When I write music that is happy or playful I usually write it in D-Major, because the overtones of D give it a bright quality like vivid blue or bright yellow.  B, on the other hand, tends to be more solemn and lifeless, like a dull black while E tends to be unremarkable, like grey.  B-flat is a key that's good for most anything, like white.

One of the best examples of key-coloring is the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th.  It's one of the reasons the work is so highly regarded by hardcore musicians.  As Beethoven worked through his variations on the "Ode to Joy" theme, he modulated the composition to the key that best complimented the flavor of the variation:  moving from the joyful, vivid F-sharp major in the initial exposition, to the key best suited for portraying contradictory feelings - B-flat major - in the tenor solo, which is a goofy musical joke at the start, but changes to serious power when the tenor and eventually, the male half of the chorus, comes in.

While I won't totally discount people seeing "musical color", I think it's probably far more rare than this article implies and I'm inclined to categorize this writing as the overblown mental masturbation that art reviewers usually engage in.

 

[dmz]

I will never, nor do I want to ever, appreciate modern "art".
___________

Why on earth would one express pride in intentionally keeping one's mind closed to something new?

The word appreciate, in this context, is not synonymous with "like", as in liking modern art.

I don't particularly care for "free jazz", a la Ornette Coleman, but I can certainly appreciate it for what it is - a musical movement that evolved out of something that came before.