Kandinsky's Paris Years 1906-1907: Radical Transformation from the Concrete to the Abstract from the Material to the Spiritual

Mountain (Berg), 1909

Oil and tempera on canvas, 109 x 109 cm

Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich , Gabriele Munter-Stiftung, 1957

Riding Couple (Reitendes Paar), 1907

Oil on canvas, 55 x 50.5 cm

Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhuas, Munich, Gabriele Munter- Stiftung, 1957

Colorful Life (Motley Life) (Das Bunte Leben), 1907

Tempera on canvas 130 x 162.5 cm

Bayerische Landesbank, on permanent loan to the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

What is fascinating and of primary interest in this discussion is the transformation and metamorphosis of Kandinsky from an artist depicting the interaction of Russian religious and secular life -- with strong bold colors-- to an abstract interpreter of the human spiritual experience in more muted soft hues.

In Kandinsky's Colorful Life (Das Bunte Leben, 1907) we can see a profusion of images and motifs that will be repeated throughout his career: the horseman with drawn sword was perhaps influenced by an earlier painting of the same year, Riding Couple. where the elegant, stately, regal 'prince' and his embraced lady dominate this river scene. The dark romantic serenity of this couple is contrasted to the vibrant illuminated Russian city. There is a gradual transition from the placid shrouded mystery of the couple on their steed--whose limbs are stripped of skin to the bone-- to the vibrant Moscow River and then to the Kremlin in the background

Let's go back to the Colorful Life and focus on a few images that we can make out: there is the spiritual icon of the saintly mom with flowing chalk-like hair (front, left), the lover's embrace (center right), the solitary rower on the river, the other- worldly intertwined brothers (front center).

In the Mountain (Berg), 1909, painted just 2 years later, Kandinsky's once recognizable profuse images have vaporized, so to speak, and definitely have dematerialized, so that now we have two figures who dominate front and center at the base of triangular mountain- motif (suggestive of the Trinity) with a strong bold black zig zag line serving as a lead-in to some religious melodrama; one image is an abstract figure with red gown, blank face and long flowing blue hair atop a horse barely recognizable in its pastel cut- out blue form. This figure looks across a truncated tombstone to another etherialized brother with a prayer book in hand. At the top of the triangle is a floating representation of 'City of God', the Kremlin of earlier paintings.

The author is much indebted to The Greenwich, Connecticut Library for their recent acquisition of the Guggenheim Museum volume on Kandinsky, published in 2009 by the Solomon R. Guggenhim Foundation, New York. This book is so beautifully laid out and the plates are of the highest quality. The book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Kandinsky which was shown in New York City from September 18, 2009-January 13, 2010. For my blog on this amazing exhibit see Picasso and Kandinsky at the Guggenheim's 50th Anniversary Exhibit.