What do Colors Sound Like? (According to Wassily Kandinsky)
An exercise in abstraction, the Russian painter describes the sound of each of the colors...
Can it be said what the colors of red, blue or violet sound like? Only a mind with an extraordinary capacity for abstraction, like that of Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), could possibly answer. During his career, as a pioneer of abstract art, Kandinsky developed an important theoretical body of written work. Among the most outstanding texts are Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911) and Point and Line to Plane (1926). And amongst his many explorations in the field of painting and of art in general (some of which might even be considered tips for better living) are, of course, important reflections on the composition process, and several works devoted to his own theory of color. It’s a theory, like Goethe’s, linked intimately to both the emotional and the intuitive.
If one were to define the Russian’s artist work in just two words, these might be “sound and movement.” Perhaps this is because of the melodies intuited in so many of his works. In a good number of his paintings, it’s possible (at least to the mind open to a revolutionary crossing of disciplines) to find ourselves confronted with a similarity to musical composition, specially in works made when Kandinsky was part of the Bauhaus and in many works thereafter.
In Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky defined the antinomies or oppositions of colors: “As a great circle, or a serpent biting its own tail, (the symbol of eternity and endlessness) these six colors stand before us, while forming the main antitheses of three pairs.” Of a sensibility both profound and visionary, Kandinsky seems endowed with a magical conception of the universe and an undeniable acceptance of a relationship between visible and invisible. The artist defined the sound of each color thus:
Red
Red is a fiery color of an immaterial and restless character. It recalls youthful joy, but in its dark tones it symbolizes manly maturity and resembles the light tones of a violin.
Orange
The color has a serious, radiant sensation which emits health and life. Its sound is similar to that of a bell announcing the Angelus, a baritone, or a viola.
Yellow
This color radiates from the center. It seems that it approaches the spectator, or that it leaves the picture. It’s disturbing and evokes delirium. Its sound is that of a trumpet or a bugle.
Green
Green lacks dynamism, as it evokes calm and passivity. Its sound is like the calm, deep tones of a violin.
Blue
This color moves concentrically, like a snail in its shell. It seems that it moves away from the viewer. A pure and immaterial color, its sound resembles that of a flute, a cello, or an organ.
Violet
Violet is conceived as a slow, dull color. It has a sick feeling associated with mourning and old age. Recall the sound of the English horn, the bagpipe, or the bassoon.
White
White represents a world where material color disappears. It gives a feeling of pure joy. It is a silence full of possibilities, a musical pause.
Black
It is the color of purest sadness, so it is dull and immobile. It evokes death, and nothingness after the sun goes down. It is silence, a complete pause after which another world begins.
Related Articles
Pictorial spiritism (a woman's drawings guided by a spirit)
There are numerous examples in the history of self-taught artists which suggest an interrogation of that which we take for granted within the universe of art. Such was the case with figures like
Astounding fairytale illustrations from Japan
Fairy tales tribal stories— are more than childish tales. Such fictions, the characters of which inhabit our earliest memories, aren’t just literary works with an aesthetic and pleasant purpose. They
A cinematic poem and an ode to water: its rhythms, shapes and textures
Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water. - John Keats Without water the equation of life, at least life as we know it, would be impossible. A growing hypothesis holds that water, including the
Watch beauty unfold through science in this "ode to a flower" (video)
The study of the microscopic is one of the richest, most aesthetic methods of understanding the world. Lucky is the scientist who, upon seeing something beautiful, is able to see all of the tiny
To invent those we love or to see them as they are? Love in two of the movies' favorite scenes
So much has been said already, of “love” that it’s difficult to add anything, much less something new. It’s possible, though, perhaps because even if you try to pass through the sieve of all our
This app allows you to find and preserve ancient typographies
Most people, even those who are far removed from the world of design, are familiar with some type of typography and its ability to transform any text, help out dyslexics or stretch an eight page paper
The secrets of the mind-body connection
For decades medical research has recognized the existence of the placebo effect — in which the assumption that a medication will help produces actual physical improvements. In addition to this, a
The sea as infinite laboratory
Much of our thinking on the shape of the world and the universe derives from the way scientists and artists have approached these topics over time. Our fascination with the mysteries of the
Sharing and collaborating - natural movements of the creative being
We might sometimes think that artistic or creative activity is, in essence, individualistic. The Genesis of Judeo-Christian tradition portrays a God whose decision to create the world is as vehement
John Malkovich becomes David Lynch (and other characters)
John Malkovich and David Lynch are, respectively, the actor and film director who’ve implicitly or explicitly addressed the issues of identity and its porous barriers through numerous projects. Now