What do you hear when you see this? These figures at the bottom left- is this a murmuring crowd,or a group waiting quietly for something to happen? What about this black monolith? A dead, empty, space or an instruments -a piano maybe? If it's a piano, what is it playing? Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy or maybe even Schoenberg or Scriabin? But what do you hear when you see this color? Anything? For the artist- for Wassily Kandinsky- this color sounded like loud, sharp trumpets. He had what's called "synesthesia" A condition where people experience the activation of one sense as the result of experiencing another. For Kandinsky, this meant that when he heard sounds, he saw color, and when he saw color, he heard music. and this painting - "Impression III (Konzert)" -is his visual response to the experience of hearing a concert of music by his contemporary and friend the composer, Arnold Schoenberg. What this painting tells us. Is that color and its relationship with sound and music are very important to him, but it also shows us Kandinsky's drive to make his paintings more abstract, to make art that lacks any representation of objects or anything in nature. Kandinsky believed that "the more abstract the form, the more clear and direct its appeal." He felt that music was the pinnacle of abstraction. He wrote the following: "Music has been the art which is devoted itself not to the reproduction of natural phenomena, but rather to the expression of the artists' soul." You can listen to Debussy's La Mer, for example, in the knowledge that it's an impressionistic depiction of the sea:waves, storm, and wind. But, you can also listen without knowing anything about the composition, and it can still have a profound effect. Music is inherently abstract. And this is what Kandinsky was aiming for in art. He wanted his paintings to be an expression of an inner need: an expression of his soul. Kaminsky was born in Moscow, in 1866, and he began his career studying- and eventually teaching- law and economics. It was only through two formative experiences that he would eventually abandon his teaching career to become an artist. One was an exhibition of Monet's work in Moscow in 1896, where he saw one of his haystacks. He was struck by the thought that it was the color and form that was triggering his emotional response and not the objects- the haystacks-themselves. And the second experience was the performance of Wagner's opera "Lohengrin" at the Bolshoi Theatre, also in 1896. He spoke about the experience later on: "I saw all my colours in spirit before my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me." A pretty amazing statement when you think that he painted this later in his life. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The challenge in 1896 for Kandinsky was how to both developed the abstraction that he saw in Monet's haystacks But also had to match in art the freedom of expression He felt music had already achieved. Over the next few years, He moved to Munich to study, traveled extensively, was exposed to Symbolism, Neo-impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism; read and absorbed the principles of Theosophy, and began experimenting with color and form. You can see his moves towards abstraction appearing very early on. In 1903, he paints this: "Der Blaue Reiter" The Blue Rider. It's clearly representational, but color is becoming more important. The rider is made up of a series of colors, and the objects themselves seem like a secondary consideration Blue is clearly an important color for Kandinsky. In 1909, He finishes this canvas, "The Blue Mountain" There's clear influence of Fauvism here: Flat plains and blocks of color; where each color is treated as equally important Kandinsky was obsessed with experimentation and drawn into increasingly progressive surroundings. In 1911, He formed Der Blaue Reiter - a new artists collective named after his 1903 canvas - that was designed to bring together the best artistic talent in Munich. This was a group that didn't conform to a single style, and through publishing an almanac in 1912, they showed that they wanted to embrace all forms of art as well as music. with contributions from composers like Schönberg, Feininger, and Marc. It was during this period that Kandinsky not only began to radically shift his approach to painting, but also to distill his ideas in written form. In 1912, He published one of the most influential essays on painting: Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Here, he laid down his ideas on the de-materialization of art but alongside this, he also gave significant insights into how he thought about color. For Kandinsky, every color had a feeling, a sensation, and a sound. Green is the most restful color that exists. In music, the absolute green is represented by "the placid middle notes of a violin." White has the harmony of silence, which works upon us negatively "like many pauses and music the break the melody." A total dead silence has the inner harmony of black In music, It is represented by one of those "profound and final pauses." After which any continuation of the melody seems like the dawn of another world. Black is the color of least harmony at all. Light warm red is the sound of" trumpets- strong, harsh, and ringing." Cool red -Madder- is the" sad, middle tones of a cello." Orange's note is that of an" Angelus, of an old violin." Violet is" an English horn, or the deep notes of a wood instruments." such as the bassoon. And Blue. Blue is the heavenly color: "a light blue is like a flute, a darker blue a cello, darker is a thunderous double bass. And the darkest blue of all, an organ." Kandinsky wanted to find a means of communication that was universal through perception of color. "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." But color can't stand alone. If you try and imagine something red, you can experience a never ending color in your mind. But as soon as you try and represent it on a material, It's limited by the canvas or screen that you're seeing it on. This is the form. It can be Abstract or Representational but it always has a boundary. And it's the way different forms are combined in a painting that determines the overall Composition. Simple compositions, according to Kandinsky, are paintings that are constructed in a clear and obvious way. Kandinsky called these melodic. Think of Cézanne's "Bathers", which is constructed around triangles. According to Kandinsky, Each of these geometric forms has its own intrinsic melody. And the way they cause our eyes to move across the canvas creates an internal rhythm in the painting. So, when multiple, more complex forms are combined, you create a much more intricate composition. Kandinsky called these symphonic and perhaps the best examples of these a Kandinsky's own Groundbreaking works that he dedicated 19 years of his life to. Ten paintings, entitled appropriately "Composition I-X" Kandinsky viewed his Compositions as the most important works in his output, and, in making these paintings, He set out to achieve his most important goal: to reach the level of abstraction that he experienced when he heard music. This is Kandinsky setting color in motion; using overlapping forms, rhythms, and motifs to create pure art. Which, on first viewing, seems completely lacking in any form of representation. Nothing in our natural world seems to be present here. But if you look closer, these paintings are actually full of objects. Like the reclining figures in "Composition IV", The Boat with figures and oars in "Composition V", or the angel holding a yellow trumpet at the top of the canvas in "Composition VII" "Composition VII" is a particularly interesting example of a symphonic work: Multiple motifs overlapped simultaneously to create a massive color that's incredibly, rhythmically complex. Your eyes dart across the canvas, This feels like a perfect artistic representation of the dissonant, free, chromatic music written by Schoenberg and his contemporaries at the same time "Composition VII" was painted. But it could be argued that Kandinsky's next work in the series- "Composition VIII" was the closest he ever got to music in art. It's constructed around a number of geometric forms. Circles, Semi circles, Open-ended acute angles, Squares, and Rectangles. Some colors taking on the off-white color at the background. Colors in his canvas combine like musical chords: consonant and dissonant harmonies are heard Simultaneously, one followed by another without resolution On top of this, Lines and shapes create forms and melodies that run and bleed into each other, creating long, drawn-out motifs. Viewing "Composition VIII" is like listening to a piece of music in the blink of an eye , with the harmonies and rhythms all been played at the same time. "And so the arts are encroaching one upon another and from this will rise the art that is truly monumental." "Every man who steeps himself in the spiritual possibilities of his art is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid. "Which will someday reach to heaven." So, the next time you're looking at a painting, just ask yourself, "What is this sound like?" Thank you so much for watching. I really hope you enjoyed this essay, And if you did, please do consider subscribing to my channel I've got lots of videos already up there, and Lots planned as well including some more about music and art So, do let me know in the comments below if you'd like to see more of this type of content. See you next time.
