The Sound of Color: Art Inspired by Music

Whether visual or performing, creative connections naturally exist in all the arts. They lend themselves to a particular coexistence through expression. Leonardo Nierman explores this theory through his work, Sound of Color suite.

The term suite can apply to dance, music, and art. This exhibition will explore the relationship between art and music, specifically through the representation of seven well-known composers.

Nierman spent twenty years training and playing the violin but left it behind and entered the art world. He uses this work and his musical experience to explore pictorial representations of sound and music. Nierman develops a visual language to interpret what we hear, thus tying together the auditory and visual.

The Martin Museum of Art sincerely thanks Baylor School of Music and Baylor Libraries for sharing audio of Baylor performances by the composers featured in this exhibition. Their contributions have added depth and expanded understanding of Nierman's Sound of Color Suite. This collaboration has created a rich, vibrant interpretation of visual and performing arts.

About the Artist: Leonardo Nierman

Leonardo Nierman was born in Mexico City in 1932 and received his education at the University of Mexico. He holds a bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics and has further completed his studies in the Psychology of Color and the Harmony of Form in Space. 

Nierman has received wide recognition for his oils, murals, sculptures, and graphics as one of Mexico's most famous contemporary artists. He has been awarded many honors and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Nierman originated the enamel oil technique and amazingly transferred this complex textural style to the graphic medium. 

This suite's abstract sense of melting color seems to be a derivative of modern masters like Jackson Pollack, Monet, and Cezanne. Although it could be debated that Nierman has carried Surrealism to its furthest degree, many contemporary art historians feel that he has found his own school of art. For example, at the time of his creation of the work Sound of Color, it was remarked that no other artist was alive doing such work that even remotely resembles his sensitivity to color, form, and verve of his composition.