Fine Art: Wassily Kandinsky: Compositions

[Walter Michael Sumper]

KANDINSKY, Wassily

Wassily Kandinsky was one of the most original and influential artists of the
twentieth-century. His "inner necessity" to express his emotional perceptions
led to the development of an abstract style of painting that was based on the
non-representational properties of color and form. Kandinsky's "Compositions"
were the culmination of his efforts to create a "pure painting" that would
provide the same emotional power as a musical composition. The exhibition
"Kandinsky: Compositions", organized by Magdalena Dabrowski and now on
display at the Los Angeles County Art Museum, presents these monumental
works together for the first and possibly last time and provides an opportunity
to witness the creative process of Kandinsky.

Kandinsky viewed the Compositions as major statements of his artistic ideas.
They share several characteristics that express this monumentality: the
impressively large format, the conscious, deliberate planning of the composition,
and the transcendence of representation by increasingly abstract imagery. Just
as symphonies define milestones in the career of a composer, Kandinsky's
Compositions represented the culmination of his artistic vision at a given
moment in his career.

Regrettably, the first three Compositions were destroyed during World War
Two. They are represented in the exhibition by full-scale, black-and-white
photographic reproductions. One of the strengths of the exhibition is the
accumulated preliminary studies for most of the works in oil, watercolor, ink
and pencil. These attempt to convey a sense of the three lost Compositions, but
cannot hope to replace the actual canvasses. The viewer is left with a profound
feeling of loss for the destroyed works.

This feeling provides a contrast that enhances the impact of Composition IV, a
maelstrom of swirling colors and soaring lines. The painting is divided abruptly
in the center by two thick, black vertical lines. On the left, a violent motion
is expressed through the profusion of sharp, jagged and entangled lines. On the
right, all is calm with sweeping forms and color harmonies. We have followed
Kandinsky's intention that our initial reaction should result from the emotional
impact of the pictorial forms and colors. However, upon closer inspection the
apparent abstraction of this work proves illusory. The dividing lines are
actually two lances held by red-hatted Cossacks. Next to them, a third, white-bearded
Cossack leans on his violet sword. They stand before a blue mountain crowned
by a castle. In the lower left, two boats are depicted. Above them, two mounted
Cossacks are joined in battle, brandishing violet sabers. On the lower right,
two lovers recline, while above them two robed figures observe from the hillside.
Kandinsky has reduced representation to pictographic signs in order to obtain
the flexibility to express a higher, more cosmic vision. The deciphering of these
signs is the key to understanding the theme of the work. An awareness of
Kandinsky's philosophy leads to a reading of Composition IV as expressing the
apocalyptic battle that will end in eternal peace. Composition IV works on
multiple levels: initially, the colors and forms exercise an emotional impact
over the viewer, without need to consider the representational aspects. Then, the
decoding of the representational signs involves the viewer on an intellectual
level. I find that I can no longer view Composition IV without automatically
translating the imagery to representational forms. Yet this solving of the
work's mysteries does not draw the life from it; rather, the original emotional impact
is strengthened in a new way.

Later in 1911, Kandinsky produced Composition V, a much more abstract work.
Here, the theme is the Resurrection of the Dead. The iconography is much more
difficult to discern. Comparison must be made to more representational works
done by Kandinsky around the same time that treat this theme. Reference to
these more literal depictions of the motifs allow us to perceive their
abstracted forms within Composition V. Several angels blowing their trumpets are included
in the upper portion of the canvas. The strong black line crossing from right to
left can be felt as a representation of the blowing of the trumpets. Above this
line, the towers of a walled-in city are visible. Below the line, the thin application
of paint produces a luminescence that affects our perception of space in that
portion of the canvas. The luminescence conveys a sense of infinity through the
lack of volume and the absence of perspectival illusion. Out of this void, the
viewer can sense the rising of the dead.

Standing below the six by ten foot expanse of Composition VI, the viewer cannot
help but brace himself against the impending crash of a tidal wave of colliding
forms and colors. And, in fact, the theme of this work is The Deluge. Kandinsky
defined three centers to this Composition, which are discerned sequentially by
the viewer. Initially, the eye is drawn to the pink and white vortex in the left
center. The multiple lines representing torrential rain carry the focus to the
right
section, where a darker center of discordant forms and stronger rain lines adds
to the tumult. From this second center, the eye slides to the lower center,
where a
blue form outlined in black cowers below the torrents of rain and crashing
waves. In this work, Kandinsky has pushed further beyond representation to the
very limits of abstraction.

Composition VII is the pinnacle of Kandinsky's pre-World War One artistic
achievement. The creation of this work involved over thirty preparatory
drawings, watercolors and oil studies. Each of these is included in the
exhibition,
documenting the deliberate creative process used by Kandinsky in his
Compositions. Amazingly, once he had completed the preparatory work,
Kandinsky executed the actual painting of Composition VII in less than four
days. The exhibition includes a series of four photographs taken between
November 25 and 28, 1913, offering a fascinating record of Kandinsky's artistic
procedure. Through all of the preparatory works and in the final painting
itself,
the central motif (an oval form intersected by an irregular rectangle) is
maintained. This oval seems almost the eye of a compositional hurricane,
surrounded by swirling masses of color and form. In Composition VII's final
form, Kandinsky has obliterated almost all pictorial representation. Art
scholars,
through Kandinsky's writings and study of the less abstract preparatory works,
have determined that Composition VII combines the themes of The Resurrection,
The Last Judgment, The Deluge and The Garden of Love in an operatic outburst
of pure painting.

The viewer receives quite a shock in moving from the apocalyptic emotion of
Composition VII to the geometrical rhythm of Composition VIII. Painted ten
years later in 1923, Composition VIII reflects the influence of Suprematism and
Constructivism absorbed by Kandinsky while in Russia prior to his return to
Germany to teach at the Bauhaus. Here, Kandinsky has moved from color to
form as the dominating compositional element. Contrasting forms now provide
the dynamic balance of the work; the large circle in the upper left plays
against
the network of precise lines in the right portion of the canvas. Note also how
Kandinsky uses different colors within the forms to energize their geometry: a
yellow circle with blue halo versus blue circle with yellow halo; a right angle
filled with blue and an acute angle colored pink. The background also works to
enhance the dynamism of the composition. The design does not appear as a
geometrical exercise on a flat plane, but seems to be taking place in an
undefined
space. The layered background colors - light blue at bottom, light yellow at top
and white in the middle - define this depth. The forms tend to recede and
advance within this depth, creating a dynamic, push-pull effect.

It was another ten years before Kandinsky completed another canvas that he
would call a Composition. Composition IX reflects Kandinsky's exposure in
Paris to Surrealist imagery. Although he denied any Surrealist influence in his
work, the biomorphic shapes distinctly recall the pictorial language of Miro in
particular. There is only one preparatory drawing for Composition IX and none
for Composition X. According to Nina Kandinsky, the artist at this stage of his
development was able to visualize a painting entirely in his head and then
translate it directly to the canvas. This explains the paucity of studies for
the late
Compositions. Composition IX is possibly the least impressive of the series. The
wide diagonal colors serve as a solid background for the biomorphic and
geometrical shapes that seem to float in front of it. There is an almost
dream-like
quality to the rhythm and unfurling of the forms. In the final analysis,
however,
Composition IX has a tangible decorative feel to it that makes it pale in
comparison to the emotional intensity of the earlier Compositions.

Five years before his death in 1944, Kandinsky completed the final work in the
series. The outstanding characteristic of Composition X is obviously the stark,
black ground. The colors and forms appear particularly sharp against the black
background. The brilliance of the colored shapes brings to mind the cutouts
done by Matisse over a decade later. The movement of the forms is distinctly
upward and outward from both sides of a central axis running through the
book-like form near the top of the canvas. This movement enhances the
evocation of hot-air balloon forms rising into an infinite space. The round form
between the book shape and the brown balloon shape has a lunar feel to it that
even conveys a feeling of literal "outer space". Kandinsky had always expressed
a strong dislike for the color black and it is significant that he chose it as
the
dominating color of his last major artistic statement. Kandinsky in 1911:
"(Black)
is like the silence of the body after death, the close of life."

"Kandinsky: Compositions" will be on exhibit in Los Angeles until September 3,
1995.

repmus leahcim retlaw
"This is not a bug, it's a feature :-)"
Walter Michael Sumper mailto:sum...@vops2.avl.co.at