WLADIMIR DAVIDOVICH BARANOFF-ROSSINE was a sculptor, artist, designer, inventor, organizer of the world’s fi rst optophonic concert and author of the world’s fi rst cubist sculpture that was exhibited at the New York Museum of Contemporary Art in the same room as Picasso’s works. It was thanks to him that the term “music of color” and modern military camoufl age came into being.
The fairy of the lake. Vladimir Baranov-Rossinet, 1910
FROM THE OPTOPHONIC PIANO TO “CHAMELEON”
Then, there was his techniques: Baranoff-Rossine patented an opto-phonic (color-musical) piano (called an optophone), a device with a key system that allows the projection of more than three thousand shades of color on a screen (the original one is at the Paris Georges Pompidou National Art and Cultural Center); and then he organized the world’s first “colored” music concert.
But the boundaries of high art were too tight for Baranoff-Rossine, and he became an inventor. For example, Wladimir created a “chromophotometer”, a device to determine the quality and purity of precious stones. He also invented the “multiperco”, a device for the production, sterilization, and dispensing of carbonated liquids, in fact – the prototype of the automatic soda machine.
And, perhaps, the most famous invention of the Ukrainian is the so-called chameleon method for disguising troops. It became the basis of “colorful camouflage”, a special kind of pattern that is still used by almost every army in the world.
Vladimir Baranov-Rossinet's Adam and Eve, 1912.
INTERESTING FACTS
- He was born under the name Shulim Wolf Leib Baranov. After moving to Paris, he adopted the name Daniel Rossine, and in 1917 changed it to Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine.
- While studying at an art school, the future Parisian got a constant “C” grade in French.
- In 1913 Baranoff-Rossine presented the sculpture “Rhytm” at the Salon des Indépendants (Society of Independent Artists in Paris). It was made of wood, cardboard and eggshell.
- Baranoff-Rossine was not mentioned in any edition of the “Great Soviet Encyclopedia”, as well as in the sixvolume “Artists of the Peoples of the USSR”.
- Baranoff-Rossine is the creator of graphic portraits of the composers Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, decorated with autographs.
- When Baranoff-Rossine’s sculpture “Symphony No.2” which was made of metal pipes, wires and springs, was criticized by critics as “radically incomprehensible,” the angry artist gathered his friends and solemnly cast it into the river Seine, where it still lies.
- He refused to leave Paris with the outbreak of World War II, saying to a friend: “I love Paris and I’m not afraid of anything.” Subsequently, the Gestapo arrested him and never released him.
- The world’s only Museum of the Music of Colors, which operated in Kazan (Russia), was closed in the early 1990s, as its premises were rented out to a banking institution.
Self-portrait with a brush. Vladimir Baranov-Rossino, 1907
This article by Nadiia Avramchuk and Mykola Sukhomozsky is reprinted with the publisher's permission from the book (UN)Celebrated Ukrainians Who Changed the Course of History, SAMIT-KNYHA, Kyiv, 2020.