Synaesthetics

Paul Gordon is Professor of Comparative Literature/Humanities at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. He is the author of four books, including Art as the Absolute (Bloomsbury, 2015).

'All art touches us with a music that is as visual as it is aural.' This quote from Paul Gordon’s book Synaesthetics: Art as Synaesthesia captures the essence of the author's intriguing assertion that all art is inherently synaesthetic. Drawing on research in artistic, philosophic, and scientific fields, Gordon argues convincingly that the general response to art shares common underpinnings with the blended perceptions of neurological synesthesia (where hearing sounds, for example, might also induce a visual experience), as any work of art will stimulate senses other than the one it touches directly. By referencing such diverse works as the writings of Henry James and Charles Baudelaire, paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe and Joan Mitchell, and films by Steven Spielberg, Gordon proposes that ‘synaesthetics’ is at the basis of art and our response to it. A carefully thought-out and thought-provoking read.

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction. Synaesthetics: Art as Synaesthesia 2. “Deep Down”: Metaphor as Synaesthetic 3. The Synaesthetic Origin of the Work of Art4. Baudelaire’s Poetry of Synaesthetic Correspondences 5. Plastic Fantastic: Paul Klee’s Synaesthetic Word-Images 6. Rouault’s “True Icons”: A Synaesthetic Unveiling of the Miserere’s Veronicas 7. Feeling/Hearing Picasso: The Synaestheics of Cubism and the Vollard Suite 8. Georgia O’Keeffe and the Music of Flowers9. Joan Mitchell and the Power of Blue10. Rock and Roll as Synaesthesia: Why Rock Lyrics (Don’t) Matter11. Hearing Images: Movie MusicEpilogue. Tasting Art: Art as SynaestheticNotesBibliography Index