Painter of Sound

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Autumn in Bavaria 1908 Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was one of the most colorful artists in his time and perhaps still is today. His fascination with color began early in his childhood in Russia and extended throughout his life living in Russia, Germany and ultimately France, both in his work as a teacher of color theory and in the creation of his vibrant paintings.

Kandinsky may have been a true synesthesiac, with a great sensitivity to music, experiencing colors from the musical compositions he listened to and hearing notes and sounds correlating to colors—grapheme-color synesthesia. He called his paintings, “improvisations” and “compositions”. He believed that combining tones of color was creating visual “chords”. He wrote, “ . . . the sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with bass notes or dark lake with treble.”

After listening to a performance of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” …