Sensory Crossovers: Synesthesia in American Art

The Albuquerque Museum of Art & History organized the exhibition Sensory Crossovers:  Synesthesia in American Art in collaboration with the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Synesthesia refers to the phenomenon when one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as in sound influencing the visualization of color.  Its influence on early- to mid-20^th century artists had a profound effect on the modernist art movements in Europe and the United States.  After premiering in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Synesthesia exhibition was presented at the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York.

The exhibition and accompanying scholarly catalogue provide an unprecedented opportunity to consider synesthesia through the work of the 20th century’s most significant artists—luminaries such as Charles E. Burchfield, Arthur Dove, Max Weber, Joseph Stella, Georgia O’Keeffe and Adolph Gottlieb. In a vibrant exhibition that presents examples of distinct sensory crossovers—some celebrated, some previously unacknowledged— Sensory Crossovers addresses the art-historical gap dating from the ideas of Pythagoras, to its resurgence in the early 20^th century, to the relationship of sound to contemporary art.  

The exhibition traveling to Buffalo is comprised of 51 works by 26 artists represented by major paintings, and an additional 10 illustrations, plein-air studies, preliminary sketches or drawings, letters and photographs. Guest curator for the exhibition is Sharyn Udall, Ph.D., noted art historian and author. Nancy Weekly added 25 works by Burchfield and eight other artists in the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s collection.

The full-color catalogue includes the exhibition title essay by Dr. Udall and “Color and Sound: Charles E. Burchfield and the Question of Synesthesia” by Ms. Weekly, who first published on the subject in 2008 for the exhibition catalog Synesthesia: Art and the Mind, produced to coincide with an exhibition presented at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario and an international conference of artists, art historians, synesthetes, and neuroscientists organized by McMaster University’s Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour and the American Synesthesia Association, Inc.