Moderator: Ginny O’Brien, UB Art Galleries
Nancy Weekly, Burchfield Penney Art Center, “Color and Synesthesia”
October 3, 2014
Scott Lyall, Artist, Toronto
Jacob Kassay, Artist and Instructor, Visual Studies, UB
Color and Synesthesia
Synesthesia refers to the rare neurological phenomenon that occurs when one type of stimulation simultaneously evokes the sensation of another, as in sound influencing the visualization of color. Its influence on early- to mid-20th century artists had a profound effect on the modernist art movements in Europe and the United States, now recognized in the work of some of the 20th-century’s most significant artists—luminaries such as Charles E. Burchfield, Arthur Dove, Joan Mitchell, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Nancy Weekly, the leading authority on Burchfield, will share some of her research about his synesthetic perceptions that have been validated by synesthetes—including SUNY Buffalo graduate Carrie C. Firman— and other artists, art historians, and neurologists.