Vasily Kandisnky - the reality hidden behind the abstraction

February 28, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Vasily Kandinsky is known as THE Abstract Art artist of the early 20th century: his circles, his wavy, straight, colorful lines are the epitome of abstraction. During our last visit t to the Guggenheim museum I was absolutely amazed how much reality is really hiding underneath…

Art Neue Galerie: Robert FalkMan in a Bowler Hat (Portrait of Yakov Kagan-Shabshai) 1917 The magic discovery actually started long before. Kandinsky was always one of my favorites and last summer I was thrilled to head to the Art Neue Galerie for their fabulous Russian Modernism exhibition. The exhibition was absolutely fantastic: being of the Russian descent myself, having my own dear grandpas and grandmas suffer through its turmoils and terrifying history of the beginning of the century, I was surprised to see so many familiar faces looking back at me from the walls; to feel the pain or the joy, the fear or the hope, all the daemons the artists from the early twenties were facing.

Yet, it were the works of Vasily Kandinsky that genuinely surprised me.

First of all, I am not a professional art critic, art historian or museum collections specialist. My art-history minor contributed far less to my knowledge on the subject that my deep love for certain works, artists, even art-periods. Walking along the Met galleries, I usually feel surrounded by the old friends, winking at me from behind of their heavy frames or sighing with a disapproval over the time we haven’t seen each other. So the observations below are purely subjective, though I did find this discovery absolutely fascinating.

Neue Galerie New York: Vasily KandinskyBlack Form 1923 Right across the two adjacent rooms of Art Neue galerie rooms, it was easy to see the two vastly different directions Kandinsky’s art was undergoing: his famous later years of abstraction… and his far less known years of exploring impressionism, post-impressionism, expressionism while desperately searching for “Kandisnkyalism” - his own path, his own face, his own style.

Vasily KandinskyStreet With Horse-Drawn Carriage

Now, looking at his early works I couldn’t help but compare them to his mature and very abstract counterparts in the room, visible right across the hall.

Vasily KandinskyPanel for Edwin R. Campbell No. 1. 1914. Oil on canvas, 64 x 31 1/2" (162.5 x 80 cm). Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund.

That’s when the most amazing discovery started creeping in: while the abstract works did look so vastly different on a first look…

Wassily KandinskyStudie zu Improvisation 31909

the closer you look, the more similarities you’ll see: as if the abstract works are already part of his earlier, more realistic pieces: the colors, the lines, even the shapes of the abstract paintings are all already present among the more realistic objects!

It is as if you peel the realistic layer off, and the abstract painting from the later period would remain!

Vasily Kandinsky, Portrait of Nina Kandinsky. 1917. Trivium art history. Vasily KandinskyPortrait of Nina Kandinsky. 1917. Trivium art history.
This Sunday my kids were fortunate to join one of the most wonderful excursion by Boris Kuznetsov in Guggenheim museum in New York. My kids joined his tour - couldn’t say anything but the warmest and most excited comments about the unique rapport Boris and Lena have with kids, the kind and creative charisma that surrounds every lesson, every point, every topic they discuss.

In the meantime, our youngest grabbed daddy’s finger and lead him off to his own museum exploration trip. I had a unique chance to enjoy the museum all alone, without having anybody to rush, or slow me down, or to constantly feeling the need to remind my little companions how we are supposed to behave in a public place. I had a unique chance to read every single text accompanying the paintings from beginning to end, or just as I love it. And so I did.

Dream Come True Photo: Admiring the Kandinsky's artwork on display at the Guggenheim museum with Dad. Dream Come True PhotoAdmiring the Kandinsky's artwork on display at the Guggenheim museum with Dad. I’ve caught up with my little one right in the Kandinsky's gallery. He just convinced daddy that a cupcake from a museum cafe is making the museum trip far more enjoyable for both of them and was happy for some new entertainment. Kandinsky’s gallery was lucky enough to be adjacent to the cafe, so it was his paintings that attracted my three year old’s attention. My explanations, questions, my usual museum spiel was impatiently waved aside. It was daddy’s turn. My dear husband, the daddy, who is generally not as art-crazy as the mommy, delivered the first surprise, by jumping at the opportunity to offer my little one some explanations. Let me tell you: he did it again. Yep, my most amazing husband, while not the most artistic person in a world, managed to provide our spoiled little budding museum goer with the best possible and educational art-tour a three year old could wish. Ask him who Kandinsky was, he wouldn’t exactly remember. Ask him what he’s seen this weekend - you’d be amazed. Kandinsky would probably be too - I am not sure he ever realized how vivid and imaginative the explanations could be when someone as young as my son was finding something to appreciate about his paintings. Planet systems, ships, fire extinguishing…

Dazzled, I stopped silly admiring the pride of every mother - her dear little boy - and went back for a closer look at Kandinsky's paintings. Imagine my surprise, when the vivid imagery that inspired my three year old, started jumping right at me! The side notes explained, how the artists deeply believed that paintings should be moving into an abstract realm that was previously occupied only by music. He associated every note with specific hues, he named his works according to their musical counterparts. His paintings greatly resemble the slow or passionate, the sensual or wild, the gentle or grandiosze flow of the music with its changing imagery and feelings that we are going through. Did I say imagery? Yep, imagery it was. I suddenly was able to see the embracing couple; the long trembling in the wind like fire on the candles - Russian churches with their characteristic onion-shaped makovki tops; the ship (yep, my boy was right, the ship from his favorite fairy tale about a Flying Ship was slowly finding its way through the crowded space of lines and colors threatening it like the great wave of Hokusai Katsushika - all the linear motives the artist associated with the musical piece that he was listening to)! Like a mysterious puzzle, the new elements, the new hidden secretes were slowly appearing.

Vasily Kandinsky, Improvisation 28details

Vasily Kandinsky, Improvisation 28 details

Back when I was creating prints in the dark room, I was dipping a purely white sheet of paper into a special solution, and under the mysterious red light, magically, the faces of moms and their babies, dads and their kids, grandmas and their incomparable love, started to appear on paper, that was purely white just a second ago... Similarly, the reality of the images in Kandinsky’s paintings slowly are coming forward.

I was deeply impressed.

Did you really know it was there?

I am sorry to admit - in all those years - I never did! Actually, I am not sorry at all. Discovering this miraculous treasure suddenly opened a totally new artist for me, the one I only thought I knew.

Now, I am on a quest: I am going through every single painting of this period of Vasily Kandisky that I can find and searching, searching, searching, trying to discover the meaning of the mysterious dance of his lines and shapes… and the new magical world of new thoughts and feelings doesn’t hesitate to slowly emerge from the seemingly pure abstractions.

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Vasily Kandisnky - the reality hidden behind the abstraction

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