17 June 06

Wassily Kandinsky, the painter, had the ability to see sound and hear color.

This is an excerpt and link to The Daily Telegraph, U.K. article. It also mentions other artists with synaesthesia. In 1911 he founded "The Blue Rider" school in Munich, taking abstract painting to another level. Magic.

'Kandinsky: The Path to Abstraction 1908-1922' is at the Tate Modern Gallery in London June 22-Oct 1.

..."Synaesthesia is a blend of the Greek words for together (syn) and sensation (aesthesis). The earliest recorded case comes from the Oxford academic and philosopher John Locke in 1690, who was bemused by "a studious blind man" claiming to experience the colour scarlet when he heard the sound of a trumpet."

..."If Kandinsky had a favourite colour, it must have been blue: "The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural… The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white."

..."Despite his theories that the universe was in thrall to supernatural vibrations, auras and "thought-forms", many of which came from arcane, quasi-religious movements such as theosophy, Kandinsky's belief in the emotional potential of art is still convincing today. Our response to his work should mirror our appreciation of music and should come from within, not from its likenesses to the visible world: "Colour is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many strings."

Peace.

The man who heard his paintbox hiss