The Works of Wassily Kandinsky - Essay Example

Kandinsky’s Works, How They Influenced Theatre Forms in the 20th Century & How They Commented on Wider Issues of Society, Arts Culture, & PoliticsIntroduction In the essay it will be discussing how the works of Wassily Kandinsky radically reformed theatre practice in the early 20th century; also, I will draw reader’s attention to how it commented on wider issues of society, arts culture and politics during the period they were created. Furthermore, I will put down some overall assertions on what bequest it leaves to artists today. About Kandinsky To begin with, Wassily Kandinsky was a painter and art theorist from Russia, and he was born in 1866. Although he is famed for his revolutionary paintings and theories, these were not the first choice for his academic studies as in 1886 he began to study Law and Economics at Moscow university. On the other hand, it wasn’t until 1886 that he decided to go to Munich to follow his artistic vision. Specifically, Munich was exactly the city to achieve what Kandinsky was looking for in the late 1880’s, because there took place the “Munich Sezession,” which hosted works of some of the most prominent artists of the time, such as Aldof, Hoelzel, Libbermann, and Franz von Stuck. Therefore, Kandinsky’s first decision was to rigorously learn the basics from Anton Ažbe’s school of art, where he studied for 2 years without publishing or producing notable works. Kandinsky’s works, how they influenced theatre forms in the 20th century and how they commented on wider issues of society, arts culture & politics Then, Kandinsky begun his career in Munich, 1896, publishing firstly a pamphlet, which summarized the idea of new art.1 During that pamphlet he claimed that art should not be simply the reproduction of nature, and this consideration related to the works of Herman Orbist, which was being inspired by the work of Claud Monet. W1 Accordingly, similarity could be discovered in the early works of Kandinsky and Monet, so regarding the aforementioned similarity the Old town II, 1902, by Kandinsky, was included into the text of essay. Old Town II, 1902 Evidently, Kandinsky is more widely known for his works in Expressionism & Abstract movements; however, Kandinsky’s published works did not go straight oils to abstract, and he first failed to be accepted into Franz von Stuck’s painting class, after which he was accepted alongside Paul Klee and Hans Purrman.1 Additionally, during this time in Munich Kandinsky came into contact with a multitude of artists, from studio assents to sculptors, and in this thorough study of art Kandinsky became disillusioned with how this scene was supplied and filled with academic scholars of art; subsequently, he considered them as narrow minded and politically coloured artists. On the contrary, it is in his later exhibitions which were named “Phalanx” he attempted to present impressionist and symbolist movements. Afterwards, by his second “Phalanx” Kandinsky devoted most works to the Jugendstil movement, this is why he found himself drawn into the abstract and nouveau movements, and we could see this in his later works with point and line to plane and break through to the abstract. However, even only one year on from Old Town II, Kandinsky produced The Singer, 1903, so within this you can see the beginning of synaesthesia, with its flowing lines and direct relation between paint and sound. [We included this image at the entrance of our Kandinsky Rover performance, to visually guide the audience into the aura they were about to experience; it is supposed that this was the best selection to have at the beginning as the overall performance related to the synaesthesia style encapturing the devised project. Furthermore, Kandinsky referred to this relationship between the work and the viewer as “Klang,” which is investigated deeper within his theory of concerning the spiritual in art.1 According to this, it was in 1904 that he produced a collection of woodcuts called Poems without Word, and during this period he also produced a dozen of xylographs. Actually, his final series appeared known as Klänge, a book of poems and woodcuts,1 which Kandinsky performed in 1916, with his inevitable notion to connect the ‘inner klang’ i.e. sound of soul and nature. So, he persevered to develop painting that acts on the soul in the same way music can affect it. Within our performance the audience’s experience following a distorted mask reading and painting was excerpts from Kandinsky’s poem ‘Sound’ from Sounds. The music playing in the background was the yellow sound a musical piece devised by Kandinsky, here we built upon Kandinsky’s existing correlations between image and sound and presented poetry, visual ascetics and music. We clearly wanted to offset the audiences comfort zone and subject them to something different as Kandinsky did at the Cabaret Voltaire Switzerland when he presented Klänge. Moreover, in the early 1900’s the works of the Impressionists such as Claude Monet & Felix Vallotton were inspiring the artistic industry, this along with the works being produced by the Symbolists artists like Akseil Gallen-Kallela, and all that innovations drove Kandinsky’s style rapidly forward into the phase commonly known as Der Blaue Reiter or Breakthrough to the Abstract. In fact, the exhibitions of Der Blaue Reiter were first opened at the Moderne Galerie in 1911.1 It was here where his work had been subjected to much controversy, in particular the piece known as Composition V, whereas some of his other works such as Picture with a Black Arch and Untitled were notably similar to Composition V: they were all abstract watercolours. It is here Kandinsky moved away from woodcuts and oils in his aspiration to speak to the soul through images, but, besides watercolours, he also showcased works in pen and ink. This is where this new spiritual in art was born, this new artistic age had drawn parallels between Kandinsky and Rudolf Steiner’ philosophical spiritual movement and both contemporaries meaningful abstract artworks. Specifically, in the aforementioned Composition V amongst the abstract there are references that distinguish the abstract from the very strict conventions, such as the use of primary colours. This is another element that was fundamentally and clearly captured in our devised Kandinsky project, here we used only primary colours amid the chaos and confusion of the Rover and puppeteer control, and it is this puppeteer reference that was intended to represent both a heightened state of social status from the Rover and the spiritual god like environmental control concerning the spiritual in art & Kandinsky. As we previously looked at the comparative between Picture with a Black Arch and Composition V, we will revisit these pieces to look deeper into the theme of Kandinsky’s abstract works; these expressionist prints for Kandinsky revelled not only in the mentioned colour creativity but the theme of conflict and struggle, in some ways also a violent struggle. This theme was subsequently unmistakeably represented in our devised performance in the later scenes where the puppet master was losing control of the puppets, this image was further dramatized by the performers use of water based paints controllably to express freedom and the covering of the all seeing eyes, at this point the performers repeated the word ‘eyes’ which was intended to not only confuse the audiences original perspective of the demonstration but also as they are described in many cultures as a window to the soul, this clear referencing should help any audience member relate the performance at multiple levels as not merely an abstract piece but a carefully constructed thought provocative Kandinsky spectacle. The final two phases of Kandinsky’s artistic passage the Russian Intermezzo, where “during the critical years of the Russian Revolution Kandinsky alternated between a tired, abstract idiom, post-Impressionist landscapes and naïve-romantic fantasy pictures.”1(Duchting) It was during this period where we found oil on canvas works to include in our performance for the carnival style scene (Inc. Moscow I, 1916), capturing both elements of Kandinsky’s work and presenting them through Aphra Behn’s medium the Rover. Finally, it is Kandinsky’s later work that I will draw particular reference to as this is possibly where he leaves his concluding legacy. Accordingly, Point to Line and Plane is an extension of the ideas developed in On the Spiritual in Art, it is these theories that create much more than an artistic legacy, and Kandinsky himself writes “these questions when developed pass beyond the boundaries of painting and finally of art altogether. Here I seek only to point the way, to establish certain analytical methods and, at the same time, to take synthetic values into account.”2(Kandinsky) In this passage Kandinsky highlights how his thoughts may be on the forefront of artistic theory, and this certainly is one of the most influential books of 20th century art, continuing his development of artistic terminology referencing the proto-element, continuing to discuss the role of music, art, visual language and nature. From the other perspective, Kandinsky also transforms multiple forms into linear expression, and it is these theories and the aforesaid On the Spiritual in Art that leaves Kandinsky a legacy in art, in addition to his theories his work in synaesthesia in art that was ground breaking. Although there were artists such as Georgia OKeeffe using the idea within her work using clever titles of works to influence the viewer, no one was documented to be genuinely presenting it within their work until Kandinsky and later Olivier Messiaen within music. Similarly, Kandinsky was a primary abstract expressionist; however, this was not new as Edvard Munch’s The Scream was already well renowned. Kandinsky did further develop works within this field of study with his theoretic philosophies being applied to his work by Composition V, along with his work was more than acknowledged as became inspiring. Then, his theoretical work with On the Spiritual in Art can be undoubtedly related to works in expressionist theatre, where the audience are subjected to a spiritual awakening or in the case of Artaud and his Theatre of Cruelty it is evidently a truth they do not wish to experience; thus, this legacy ripples today in contemporary plays pushing boundaries such as Mark Ravenhills, Shopping and Fucking, where even the title caused a stir within the box office. At the same time, in other literature expressionism can be seen and considered in relation to Kandinsky such as Kafka’s metamorphosis, where the subject of the novella Gregor Samsa undergoes a transformation that although many readers may not be able to relate to, being so deeply described as if we are Samsa through the journey, this correlates directly with the spiritual in art and allows for further philosophical discussion into our perception of existence and reality. To sum up, Kandinsky pointed out the relationships between elements of paintings and time and their relationship to the material plane on which we receive the context of the art; thus, these later artists such as Kafka continue this discovery artistically, removing the person receiving the art from the plane on which they are acknowledging it - and they, inner forms of spiritual art, are inviting us to discover something deeper. Conclusion To conclude with, after the thorough analysis we could assert that Wassily Kandinsky’s works influenced theatre forms and practices in the 20th century through predominantly his ideas being explicated in On the spiritual in art and in particular through his major concept of synaesthesia, which allows to unite representational means of visual art, music, poetry, and colour. Concerning how they (Kandinsky’s ideas on spiritual nature in art) commented on wider issues of society, arts culture, and politics, we can force a thesis that all Kandinsky’s lifestyle and artistic work within Expressionism and Abstract movements can be viewed as powerful recipes about how to synthesize such issues into a solid artistic background of “flowing music” full of crying and meaningful expression. Bibliography 1. Duchting, Hajo. Wassily Kandinsky A Revoluition in Painting. Taschen, Los Angeles CA USA. 1991 2. Kandinsky, Wassily. Point and Line to Plane. Dover Publications, New York N.Y. USA . 1979 3. Wolf, Norbert. Expressionism. Taschen, Los Angeles CA USA. 2004 4. Cardullo, Bert and Knopf, Robert (eds) Theater of the Avant-garde, 1890-1950: A Critical Anthology Yale University Press, 2001 5. Lechte, John Fifty key contemporary thinkers: from structuralism to post-humanism (2nd ed) London: Routledge 2008. 6. Kandinsky, Wassily. Sounds. Yale University Press; 1st Ed. Edition. 1981 W1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky 23.Dec.2011 W2: http://www.wendtroot.com/spoetry/folder6/ng64.html 03.Jan.2012 Read More