Inspiring Art: Kandinsky

To those of you have read before or know me well, it's not a surprise to see art included in this blog. And for me, pausing to see art is something that brings me to that transcendent place of  being both in the present moment and all over the world at the same time.

In March of this year, Matt and I had a great NYC weekend that included a full day at the Museum of Modern Art. It was a luxurious day.  I was inspired by many paintings, and this particular print by Kandinsky gave me pause.  Kandinsky intrigues me because of what I feel is his wildness and his precision.

He reminds me of my brother Mat.  It happens that Mat is a musician, so perhaps Kandinsky's quote about music, found at the end of the description below, is what struck me and made me stop to linger. 

Panel for Edwin R. Campbell No. 4 - Wassily Kandinsky. 1914. Oil on Canvas

Vasily Kandinsky (French, born Russia. 1866–1944)

(From MoMA) This series of four canvases was commissioned by Edwin R. Campbell, founder of Chevrolet Motor Company, for the entrance foyer of his Park Avenue apartment. In 1913, Kandinsky coined the expression "nonobjective painting" to refer to painting that depicted no recognizable objects. Although preliminary studies for one of these paintings suggest that Kandinsky had a landscape in mind when he conceived it, he ultimately envisioned these works as free of descriptive devices. Kandinsky stressed the impact of color and its association with music, explaining that "color is a means of exerting direct influence upon the soul. Color is a keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its many strings."

A little extra...


Speaking of brothers, another brother of mine, Jim, just returned from a trip to London for a world scrabble tournament (indeed, there is such a thing and my genius brother is part of it all.  Link to more info after you read this).  This time around, two bonus things occurred.  First, he had more extra time to enjoy the city so he got to see many great things in London.  Second, I got to pick him up from the airport and hear about all of it.

One of the stops Jim got to make -- I think somewhat unexpectedly because he just happened to be near it -- was another museum I would like to one day see, the Tate Modern.  I didn't even know he was interested in modern art, so that was exciting to realize. When I asked him what really stood out, he mentioned three artists. 

Stay with me here, but when I work through the blog, I actually start these entries in October and November, because to load everything in, write the intros, organize it all -- it takes time to do well, and I don't have that time every morning.  So, I had just pre-loaded this entry the night before I picked up Jim from the airport.

The first artist he mentioned was Kandinsky.  He described one of the prints he saw, and I was so excited!  I had just written the first part of this blog and I couldn't believe it.  The works sounded so similar (Kandinsky's work really does vary).  So I looked it up - this is the print that Jim saw:

Swinging.  Wassily Kandinsky.  1925.  Oil paint on board.

I opened this entry by saying I liked Kandinsky because of his wildness and his precision.  It's the precision here in the piece that Jim liked...and the wildness in the print above that I liked.  Jim is the oldest, I am the youngest.  Mat, the brother I first thought of with Kandinsky is the exact middle of our birth order -- #4 of 7.  He is wildly precise.  Or precisely wild.

Jim mentioned two other artists he saw at the Tate that stuck with him. One, who I love and I have mentioned before in a past entry about Alice was Picasso The next artist he mentioned is the next artist I will profile, Dali.

You would think that he is my brother and this shouldn't be so surprising - the fact that we would both end up in museums of modern art and be attracted to the same things.  But, Jim and I are different in many ways.  It is such a treat to remember how much alike we really are.  

I know some of you may be secret scrabble lovers.  So you can read more about Jim here.  It's a bit out of date, but interesting none the less. 

I hope for you that today, in whatever activities are before you, you can find a little art and linger just a bit.  Maybe you'll see something in that art that reminds you of a loved one.  And maybe, in the moment when you are present to the art, you'll bring that loved one into the moment with you.

Enjoy the day.  Find some art.