M.K. Ĉiurlionis: Sonata of the Stars – Allegro (1908); Ĉiurlionis Museum, Kaunas.

Synaesthesia is an interesting phenomenon. It is thought that about one in twenty five people experience some form of synaesthesia. Most commonly it causes people to associate letters, numbers and days of the week with certain colours. Thus, for instance, one could experience Friday as being light green. In more extreme cases people connect human characteristics to smells, or see images with sounds. It can even become quite a nuisance; just imagine hearing howling cries when tasting chocolate! Naturally, the implications of synaesthesia for art are fascinating. Many artists have claimed to have been inspired by their synaesthetic experiences.
One of these was the Lithuanian artist M.K. Ĉiurlionis, who was a prolific composer as well as an accomplished painter. For him painting and composing were closely related, since he saw colours and pictures when hearing sounds. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that he painted what he heard. He labelled his paintings as if they were parts of musical compositions, often creating series of four paintings which he called a Sonata, and naming the individual parts Allegro, Andante, Scherzo and Finale.
As a painter he was related with the German Symbolists, who also explored the possibilities of synaesthetic concepts. Because Ĉiurlionis was such an accomplished artist in music as well as painting, his art became more interesting and revolutionary the further he progressed in his exploration of visual art and music. Although his paintings belong to the Symbolist movement they are completely unique – which is not surprising considering how they were conceived.
A great example of his art is Sonata of the Stars – Allegro, a completely abstract painting (a remarkably early one, given it was from 1908). It is not hard to imagine to be looking at music when seeing this work – there is harmony, repetition and lines that resemble scales.
What else Ĉiurlionis could have achieved and discovered we will regretfully never know because he died of the consequences of severe depression and pneumonia when he was just 35 years old. Nevertheless, he left 300 pieces of music and just as many paintings.
(text: Edgar Foley)