The Mystery of Color

Autumn in Bavaria, Wassily Kandinsky

You’ve heard it often enough – we all see color differently, right? Well sort of. A more accurate view would be to say that we all perceive color differently. The actual science of seeing is relatively constant, however complex.

When light enters the eye, the lens focuses it onto the retina. There, it is absorbed by pigments in light-sensitive cells, called rods and cones. We humans have three different types of cones (about 6 million) which are sensitive to short, medium, and long wavelengths. The 125 million rods are sensitive only in dim light and are monochromatic – black and white.

Lying in front of the cones in the retina are three different types of cells, one being the bipolar cells which transmit information to the retinal ganglion cells of which there are about 1 million in each eye. The purpose of the ganglion cells is to compare signals from many different cones adding and subtracting signals from these different cones. For example, by comparing the response of the middle-wavelength and long-wavelength cones, a ganglion cell determines the amount of green-or-red. A signal is then sent to the brain which incorporates three different attributes of color – the amount of green or red; the amount of blue or yellow; and the brightness.

All of this physiology just so we can appreciate an artist like Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter born in 1866. His devotion to abstract work he called inner necessity, a passion for color symbolism. In his latter writings Kandinsky compared the spiritual life of humanity to a large triangle similar to a pyramid; the artist has the task and the mission of leading others to the top by the exercise of his talent.

The Kandinsky Prize, named after Kandinsky is a newly-created award, sponsored by the Deutsche Bank, AG and the Art Chronika Culture Foundation. It was organized in hopes of developing Russian contemporary art and to reinforce Russian art’s status within the world. In total, $72,000 is awarded to the artist.

Just paint it!