The above painting is called Composition VII by Kandinsky, who's quoted to have said,Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.He supposedly saw color when he heard music. Not everyone's a synesthesiac, but I think there's value in understanding the relationship between color and music. I've doodled before with a song in mind, letting that song take over my hand. You may be familiar with the Windows Media Player visualization in which random bars or waves are generated based on the song you're listening to. *Questions* How do painters use color to add sound to their painting? Do you think this is effective? Between painting and writing, which is more effective for describing music? What elements would you emphasize if you were to paint a sound?
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ReplyDeleteI actually think this painting is absolutely beautiful! I'm not usual such a sucker for "abstract" art, but I'm a music lover so perhaps I may be a bit biased. I think it's really interesting to think of color as an aspect of sound. I actually wrote my color paragraph(s) on having a sort of synesthetic reaction to playing piano in a practice room. I don't actually have synesthesia, but if I did, I'm sure it would be triggered by sound. Anyway, now that I've thought about it, I actually think painting may be a better way to capture music. It's possible to run out of words, but it's never possible to run out of colors. There are so many things that I feel we cannot express in words that we can express through color, especially abstractly.
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