Wassily KANDINSKY (1866-1944), Study of Color, (1913)

color heliogravure, heavy vellum paper, 37 x 45 cm (plate imprint visible);
numbered in pencil 34/300, signed from plate under composition facsimile of Kandinsky's signature;
publisher's dry stamp l. d. : letter K surrounded by the words "EDITION LIMITED CERTIFIED ARTS USA EUROPE SINCE 1998".
original certificate.
Vassily Kandinsky's painting titled "Study of Color" (German: Farbige Studien), which shows
multicolored circles, is one of his most recognizable works. It is also often referred to as "Circles in a Circle"
or "Color study: squares with concentric circles" ( Farbstudie - Quadrate mit konzentrischen Ringen).
For Wassily Kandinsky, music and color were inextricably linked. This relationship was so pronounced that
Kandinsky associated each note with a particular hue. He once said: "the sound of colors is so clear that
it would be difficult to find someone who would express bright yellow with bass tones or a dark lake with treble tones."
In fact, after an extremely visual reaction to a performance of Wagner's composition Lohengrin at the Bolshoi Theater,
abandoned his legal career to study painting at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Later
described this life-changing experience: "I saw all my colors in the spirit before my eyes. Wild,
almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me."
This painting is in the collection of the Lenbachhaus Museum in Munich (Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus), which
has one of the largest collections of works by Kandinsky and other artists associated with the Der Blaue Reiter group.
Lenbachhaus in Munich is a very significant institution for modernist art, especially Expressionism and the
the work of Kandinsky, who was associated with the city for many years.
The neurological phenomenon Kandinsky experienced is called synesthesia (or "combined perception," from the
Greek word syn meaning "to combine" and aisthesis meaning "perception"). It is a very rare, but
real condition in which one sense, such as hearing, simultaneously activates another sense, such as sight.
Kandinsky literally saw colors when he heard music and heard music when he painted. To honor
Kandinsky, the Centre Pompidou in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture decided to "read" the sounds hidden on the
canvas. Musicians Antoine Bertin and NSDOS, with the help of artificial intelligence, used the theoretical texts of
Kandinsky to translate the compositional components into melody. On the project's website, we can
discover what the different parts of the painting would sound like and what emotions they carried for them according to Kandinsky.