Chapter 7. Kandinsky’s colour-form correspondence theory: A cross-cultural re-investigation

Sebastian Walter

Chapter

Chapter 7. Kandinsky’s colour-form correspondence theory

A cross-cultural re-investigation

Sebastian Walter

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This chapter is in the book Progress in Colour Studies

Abstract

About one hundred years ago, Wassily Kandinsky (1912) put forward a theory of aesthetically better or less fitting colour-form combinations, postulating that yellow corresponds with the triangle, red with the square, and blue with the circle. The present cross-cultural study, in Germany and Vanuatu (Melanesia), re-investigated the possible associations of triangle, square and circle with four colours – yellow, red, blue and green. The methodology was also extended to examine associations from the opposite perspective – of the four colours with the three forms. Results confirm the existence of non-arbitrary colour-form associations, but these are different from those posited by Kandinsky. For both German and Ni-Vanuatu participants, significant associations were found for the circle with yellow, and the square with blue. The two groups differed though in their choices of the form associated with red. The results complement findings in other recent investigations of colour-form associations and are explained by exposure to natural (and man-made) objects in the environment.

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Abstract

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Chapters in this book

Prelim pages i
Table of contents v
Preface x
Contributors xii
Abbreviations xviii
Emeritus Professor Christian J. Kay 1940–2016 xx
Section 1. Colour perception and cognition
Chapter 1. The colours and the spectrum 5
Chapter 2. Ensemble perception of colour 23
Chapter 3. The role of saturation in colour naming and colour appearance 41
Chapter 4. Spanish basic colour categories are 11 or 12 depending on the dialect 59
Chapter 5. Diatopic variation in the referential meaning of the “Italian blues” 83
Chapter 6. A Color Inference Framework 107
Chapter 7. Kandinsky’s colour-form correspondence theory 123
Chapter 8. Cross-modal associations involving colour and touch 147
Section 2. The language of colour
Chapter 9. Is it all guesswork? 167
Chapter 10. ColCat 179
Chapter 11. Unifying research on colour and emotion 209
Chapter 12. Divergence and shared conceptual organization 223
Chapter 13. Colour and ideology 241
Chapter 14. B lack and white linguistic category entrenchment in English 269
Chapter 15. Colour terms in the blue area among Estonian-Russian and Russian-Estonian bilinguals 285
Chapter 16. The journey of the “apple from China” 301
Section 3. The diversity of colour
Chapter 17. A theory of visual stress and its application to the use of coloured filters for reading 319
Chapter 18. Does deuteranomaly place children at a disadvantage in educational settings? 341
Chapter 19. Common basis for colour and light studies 357
Chapter 20. Identifying colour use and knowledge in textile design practice 371
Chapter 21. An empirical study on fabric image retrieval with multispectral images using colour and pattern features 391
Chapter 22. The effects of correlated colour temperature on wayfinding performance and emotional reactions 405
Chapter 23. Colour in the Pompeiian cityscape 419
Chapter 24. Mapping the Antarctic 441
Subject index 463

https://doi.org/10.1075/z.217.07wal

Chapters in this book

Prelim pages i
Table of contents v
Preface x
Contributors xii
Abbreviations xviii
Emeritus Professor Christian J. Kay 1940–2016 xx
Section 1. Colour perception and cognition
Chapter 1. The colours and the spectrum 5
Chapter 2. Ensemble perception of colour 23
Chapter 3. The role of saturation in colour naming and colour appearance 41
Chapter 4. Spanish basic colour categories are 11 or 12 depending on the dialect 59
Chapter 5. Diatopic variation in the referential meaning of the “Italian blues” 83
Chapter 6. A Color Inference Framework 107
Chapter 7. Kandinsky’s colour-form correspondence theory 123
Chapter 8. Cross-modal associations involving colour and touch 147
Section 2. The language of colour
Chapter 9. Is it all guesswork? 167
Chapter 10. ColCat 179
Chapter 11. Unifying research on colour and emotion 209
Chapter 12. Divergence and shared conceptual organization 223
Chapter 13. Colour and ideology 241
Chapter 14. B lack and white linguistic category entrenchment in English 269
Chapter 15. Colour terms in the blue area among Estonian-Russian and Russian-Estonian bilinguals 285
Chapter 16. The journey of the “apple from China” 301
Section 3. The diversity of colour
Chapter 17. A theory of visual stress and its application to the use of coloured filters for reading 319
Chapter 18. Does deuteranomaly place children at a disadvantage in educational settings? 341
Chapter 19. Common basis for colour and light studies 357
Chapter 20. Identifying colour use and knowledge in textile design practice 371
Chapter 21. An empirical study on fabric image retrieval with multispectral images using colour and pattern features 391
Chapter 22. The effects of correlated colour temperature on wayfinding performance and emotional reactions 405
Chapter 23. Colour in the Pompeiian cityscape 419
Chapter 24. Mapping the Antarctic 441
Subject index 463

Chapter 7. Kandinsky’s colour-form correspondence theory

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