Synesthetic Elements in Impression 3 (Concert)
Hans Roethel writes*: Completely lacking in depth, yellow is a (cold) color of
rabid strength, a typical "worldly color" as Kandinsky described it. He went on to write:"
Black, on the other hand, sounds like a nonentity without any possibility for a new beginning, like a dead nothingness after the sun has set, like an eternal silence without future or hope. Musically speaking, it is like a completely conclusive pause after which any continuation would appear like the beginning of another world. ... It is the most soundless color to which any other, including the weakest one, would therefore resound more powerfully and more precisely. . . . Bright yellow con- trasted with black has such an effect that it appears to free itself from the background, to hover in the air and to jump at the eyes."This painting may describe Kandinsky's impression to a concert by Arnold Schönberg. Roethel* seems to feel the same since he places it in connection with the reproduction of a postcard by Schönberg. (R. Gross)
*
Hans K. Roethel and Jean K. Benjamin: Kandinsky, Hudson Hills Press, 1979, page 84