The discourse around color in art has long moved beyond the realm of decoration. For artists of modernism and the avant-garde, color was never merely an embellishment of form but a language in its own right — a means of articulating inner states: tension and silence, impulse and fear, faith and transformation.

Today, this question returns with renewed urgency. In an age of visual overload, accelerated rhythms, and an endless stream of images, the viewer increasingly turns to art not for narrative or representation, but for state. A painting begins to function as a space capable of slowing perception, redirecting attention inward, and creating a rare moment of concentration. It is precisely for this reason that contemporary art increasingly turns to color as a medium for constructing emotional environments.

This interest is supported by research in psychology and neuroscience. Studies suggest that color categories are consistently linked to emotional responses: warmer tones are often associated with heightened activity and stimulation, while cooler hues tend to evoke calm and reduced tension. Yet this is far from a mechanical relationship. Color operates within a complex perceptual system shaped by context, scale, cultural associations, and personal experience. In this sense, color becomes not merely a visual element, but a psychological force.

And yet, the connection between color and emotional experience predates scientific inquiry. Already in the early twentieth century, artists intuitively understood that color could affect the viewer on the level of feeling and association. For the Expressionists, color became a direct conduit of emotional intensity.

This idea finds one of its most refined articulations in the work of Wassily Kandinsky. In his theoretical writings, particularly On the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky proposed that color possesses an inner resonance capable of producing spiritual and emotional responses. Painting, for him, functioned analogously to music: color relationships generated rhythm and harmony, acting not through representation but through pure sensation. It is here that the idea of the painting as a space of emotional resonance first takes shape.

A more radical trajectory emerges in the work of Kazimir Malevich. His Suprematism sought to free painting entirely from representation, reducing it to what he described as “pure feeling.” In works such as Black Square and White on White, color and form become elemental structures of perception. These paintings do not depict the world — they condense experience, pushing painting toward the threshold of philosophical abstraction. For Malevich, color becomes the carrier of a purified perceptual experience.

This lineage continues in American Abstract Expressionism. In the work of Jackson Pollock, painting transforms into a field of energy and movement. His drip technique captures gesture and bodily dynamics, turning the canvas into a trace of action — a map of internal impulse. Even when color is not the primary theoretical focus, it participates in constructing an intense emotional field.

Thus, within modernist traditions, a crucial idea emerges: painting can function not only as representation, but as an environment of experience.

Light and Space: The Contemporary Condition of Perception

By the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, this exploration evolves further. Artists begin to treat light and color not as elements within a composition, but as immersive environments capable of transforming the viewer’s bodily perception of space.

A key figure in this shift is James Turrell, whose practice exists at the intersection of art, architecture, and perceptual psychology. Unlike traditional painting, where color resides on the surface, Turrell turns color into a medium one inhabits.

His Skyspaces — architectural chambers with apertures open to the sky — alter the perception of natural light through carefully calibrated artificial illumination. The boundary between natural and constructed light dissolves, destabilizing the viewer’s sense of color and space.

In his Ganzfeld installations, this effect intensifies. The environment is saturated with uniform colored light, eliminating spatial reference points. Depth disappears, and color becomes almost tactile — an experience felt rather than seen.

This approach resonates with the work of Olafur Eliasson, whose large-scale installations manipulate light, atmosphere, and color to create environments that resemble natural phenomena. Similarly, Yayoi Kusama constructs immersive infinity spaces where repetition, reflection, and color generate hypnotic perceptual rhythms.

Artists such as Anish Kapoor and Anselm Kiefer explore color and light through material density. Kapoor’s deeply saturated surfaces evoke spatial voids, while Kiefer’s use of lead, ash, and gold engages light as a structural force within the work.

Among younger artists, this trajectory continues through investigations of perception and memory. Spencer Finch, for instance, treats color as a record of subjective experience, reconstructing precise light conditions tied to specific moments. In his work, color becomes a document of perception.

In all these practices, the artwork ceases to be an image. It becomes an experience-space.

Color and the Psychology of Perception

Alongside these developments, another direction emerges — one directly aligned with psychology. Here, the focus shifts from spatial immersion to the impact of color on emotional and physiological states.

At the intersection of art and science lies neuroaesthetics, a field examining how the brain responds to visual stimuli. Research shows that color perception activates both the visual cortex and brain regions associated with emotion and cognition. At the same time, neuroscientists investigate how light influences circadian rhythms and hormone production, including melatonin and serotonin — key regulators of mood and attention.

In this context, color is no longer merely aesthetic. It becomes a factor in shaping psychological and physiological states.

It is precisely within this intersection that the practice of Anastasia Schipanova develops. Unlike artists working with immersive environments, Schipanova operates within the field of painting, treating color as a tool of emotional modulation.

Color is not just a visual impression. Light and color interact with our perception on a deeper level. We can experience them not only emotionally, but physically, because light is directly connected to biological processes in the body.

– As the artist states.

With a background in psychology, Schipanova’s work emerges from a sustained engagement with the relationship between perception, emotion, and visual structure. Her paintings function as what might be described as emotional fields, where color organizes experience rather than merely depicting it.

Soft transitions generate states of calm and introspection, while more saturated compositions heighten attention and emotional intensity. The viewer is no longer a passive observer, but an active participant in the perceptual process.

Her concept of Energy Abstract can thus be understood as an attempt to synthesize abstract painting with contemporary knowledge of perception. Here, the artwork becomes a mediating space between visual form and inner state.

This approach inevitably raises a broader question: can art have a therapeutic effect?

Within psychology, the field of art therapy — first introduced by Adrian Hill in 1938 — has long demonstrated that artistic engagement can support emotional processing, reduce stress, and foster psychological resilience. While a painting is not a medical instrument, research increasingly suggests that interaction with art can influence emotional well-being and cognitive focus.

In this sense, contemporary practices that engage color and perception extend the legacy of the avant-garde into a new domain — one shaped by scientific insight and a deeper understanding of the human mind.

The Evolution of Color

Looking back across the past century, one can trace a clear transformation in the role of color. For early modernists, it was a means of liberating painting from representation. For artists of the late twentieth century, it became a tool for constructing spatial experience.

Today, informed by advances in neuroscience and psychology, color is increasingly understood as something more: a force that shapes attention, emotion, and even physiological processes.

We find ourselves at a moment where art exists at the intersection of intuition and knowledge. Color is no longer simply a visual phenomenon — it is part of a complex system linking image and perception.

Contemporary painting, therefore, turns inward. It explores not how the world appears, but how it is felt.

Color becomes a language of experience.
And the artwork — a space in which the viewer encounters their own perception.