Kandinsky’s Compositions: Finding Beauty in Change

Alison Kessler

The art and life of Wassily Kandinsky provides inspiration that I did not know I needed to finish off my sophomore year at Juilliard. His art symbolizes the beauty in change, and is an example of how impactful it is to revisit things when you are truly ready for them instead of forcing yourself to comply with the standard that is expected of you. It gives permission to allow other people and things to influence one’s perception of art. To Kandinsky, making connections with people and finding peace within yourself is just as integral to an artist’s performance as is practicing or sketching.

Early in Kandinsky’s career, he was inspired by the works of Claud Monet, one of my favorite painters, which is why I took a liking to his art initially. A major theme in Kandinsky’s art is change, which is also true in Monet’s “Haystacks” paintings, because instead of emphasizing what remains uniform in each instance that he records the haystacks, our eyes are immediately drawn to what has changed in them. Monet’s emphasis on change may have given “permission” to Kandinsky to change his styles so radically. As the seasons change and time passes, so should one’s perception of themselves and the world around them.

It seems that change was what set apart the artists of Kandinsky’s time from classical and renaissance painters; whether it be creating new styles or building off of the work of other artists, the art seemed to be more about finding the beauty in one’s growth and the development of an artistic movement, rather than in the individual pieces themselves. These artists such as Kandinsky, Marc, Münter, Klee, and many more thought of themselves as part of something that was bigger than the individual. Kandinsky wrote about how it was more important for viewers to grasp one thing that impacted them from his paintings, that they connected to spiritually, rather than to internalize the entire work.

For these reasons it is important for developing and pre-professional artists of any medium to visit the works of Kandinsky and his contemporaries. In a conservatory setting in particular, it can be tempting to close off from the world and make practicing your only activity – aside from studying – in order to become the best musician in your field. However, worldly experience and deep connection to music is what separates the true artists. Sure, one may be able to play “fill in the blank” concerto better than anyone else at the school, but if there is no inspiration or interpretation behind their playing, it will not impact audiences in an effective way. Kandinsky believed that art is nothing without a spiritual reason for creating it. The same that is true for his non-representational paintings is true for our non-representational music: it may take someone three viewings of a painting to understand it for themselves, but whatever their artistic conclusion is, it is not correct or incorrect, it is their own.

These two paintings were painted around the same time, when World War I was brewing in the lives of both Kandinsky and Marc. Although Kandinsky’s composition was painted a few years before Marc’s, I think the difference between them is very interesting, and can provide insight into the artist’s different styles and their approaches to art.

Both of these paintings come at a time in the artists’ careers when their styles are changing. Kandinsky and Marc were friends, so I imagine that this was not merely a coincidence. Marc’s shift in style was rooted in the war having a great effect on him; previously he wanted to paint the innocence of animals, but this plummeted into painting their despair and violence. The colors in his paintings were no longer dream-like and his lines no longer flowing. He began exploring cubism, to emphasize the harsh effect that the war had on the creatures of the land. Kandinsky’s depiction of the war is somewhat confusing to me due to his connection to Theosophy. His composition is divided into two halves: the right represents peace and love, with a reclining couple enjoying the colorful landscape, while the left side represents the war. The blue mountain, entangled lines (supposedly representing horses), and boats are all signs of violence and war, and in the middle of all of them, Kandinsky paints a rainbow. One of the values of Theosophy is that in order to cleanse the world and have peace, a flood needs to wash it out, so we can start anew, just like the biblical story of Noah and the Flood. Kandinsky knows that rainbows can only come after rain, so he paints the evil “rain” and a rainbow. Kandinsky sees the war as an opportunity for change, while Marc sees it as death and destruction. This is tragically ironic, as Marc met his untimely death while serving in battle and Kandinsky survived. I believe that the war changed Marc’s style but Kandinsky’s was only enhanced.

Although this composition does not have recognizable figures, its chaotic nature reminds me of how the biblical creation story would have looked. The shapes represent aspects of the world that are not quite finished yet: heads of animals and other natural things are coming into their full form.

However, to Kandinsky, this is not the creation, but a “re-creation.” Theosophy teaches that in order for the world to be cleansed of sin, there must be a flood, bringing destruction, and only then can the world start anew. This interpretation also makes sense to me because rather than natural items taking form for the first time, they could be shifting forms. Half of the painting represents the garden of love, where everything works together in tandem. All of the colors in this painting already exist in the world, but are not usually found together in this context. Perhaps this is saying that Kandinsky wants us to find new harmony in this world, and we should learn to see creatures and life with a new set of morals.

The other half of the painting is supposed to represent the world of sin that is being cleansed by the flood. To Kandinsky, the color black represents death and emptiness. He only uses black on the edges of the painting, perhaps signifying that the darkness is fleeting, and that the flood was effective in eradicating evil from the world. In this painting, the color black is not meant to scare us, it is meant to make us more grateful for the colors, or the hope, in the painting and the world – but only once the flood has ridded it of the bad.

This painting has many of the same aspects as Kandinsky’s previous compositions: the blue mountain, black lines crossing the middle of the page, the canvas being separated in two halves, and use of vivid colors. The one aspect of this composition that sets it apart from the others is its organizational manner. Kandinsky painted his eighth composition significantly after his first ones, and during that time, he began teaching at the Bauhaus School – the center for design and avant-garde art.

Kandinsky created studies and sketches for his first seven compositions, yet they all have an improvisatory quality to them which, to me, makes them look seemingly more spiritual or ambiguous. They highlight the way that humans cannot truly understand how the universe works, just as we can never truly grasp the concept of God or every nuance in Kandinsky’s abstract compositions and paintings.

Number eight is spiritual in a different way due to Kandinsky’s use of shapes. A triangle is a stable shape – it is grounded by one side and the other two hold each other up. In a way, this represents nature and peak spirituality, as nothing can disrupt a triangle’s stability just as people believe that nothing can disrupt God’s power. Circles are also perfect shapes. They represent cycles, whether it be the cycle of life or the cycle of creation and re-creation.

I find it interesting how Kandinsky explores the spiritual as messy and chaotic, but also as perfect and rigid. He wanted every person to be able to grasp onto and connect with some aspect of his art, and having many different interpretations of spirituality allows him to reach a broader audience.