"Colored Pencil and Ink Drawing"

I have always been struck with the way that Wassily Kandinsky used color. I mean really in my eyes he revolutionized the use of color in painting. He launched an all-out assault on objectivity you could say even. So it's no wonder I consider his artwork an influence on my own.

"Colored Pencil and Ink drawing" by Ed T. ©

Here we have yet another entry from an old sketchbook of mine; just an abstract expressionist style doodle really. I am going to be presenting a lot of these as I continue to go through my old work and digitize it. Speaking of Kandinsky though, let's hear his thoughts on the psychic effects of looking at color:

"They produce a corresponding spiritual vibration, and it is only as a step towards this spiritual vibration that the elementary physical impression is of importance."

-Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1911.

This quote makes me think of Mark Rothko's paintings; his style of large layered color fields meant to evoke emotion in the viewer. I of course think he accomplished this brilliantly, and am a huge fan of Rothko's work. But what I am trying to say though is that - of course color has a kind of spiritual resonance, or at least a reaction from the psyche. It is with the process of painting, especially non-objective painting; that we can further explore the relationship between color and the viewer.

Discussing Wassily Kandinsky's Essay: "Concerning the Spiritual in Art"

I was reading an essay recently by that most famous of early abstract painters (at least in my book) Wassily Kandinsky, published in 1914 as: The Art of Spiritual Harmony, (translated by Michael Sadler). I was particularly struck by the second part of it entitled; "The Movement of the Triangle". It describes a diagram that is a simile for the life of the spirit. I didn't see a diagram anywhere so I thought I would make one, because I don't know about you, but I am a visual learner. Sometimes I can read something twenty times and not really get it, until I map it out for myself. Along with my diagram, I have also selected what I consider the most vital elements of Kandinsky's "The Movement of the Triangle" and presented them below: (Click above for full essay.)

"The life of the spirit may be fairly represented in diagram as a large acute-angled triangle divided horizontally into unequal parts with the narrowest segment uppermost. The lower the segment the greater it is in breadth, depth, and area.

The whole triangle is moving slowly, almost invisibly forwards and upwards. Where the apex was today the second segment is tomorrow; what today can be understood only by the apex and to the rest of the triangle is an incomprehensible gibberish, forms tomorrow the true thought and feeling of the second segment."

And then here is my diagram:

(Note: the article is in the public domain, but the diagram is © by Ed Tajchman 2008.)

Kandinsky goes on to say:

"At the apex of the top segment stands often one man, and only one. His joyful vision cloaks a vast sorrow. Even those who are nearest to him in sympathy do not understand him. Angrily they abuse him as charlatan or madman. So in his lifetime stood Beethoven, solitary and insulted."

and a paragraph later....

"In every segment of the triangle are artists. Each one of them who can see beyond the limits of his segment is a prophet to those about him, and helps the advance of the obstinate whole. But those who are blind, or those who retard the movement of the triangle for baser reasons, are fully understood by their fellows and acclaimed for their genius. The greater the segment (which is the same as saying the lower it lies in the triangle) so the greater the number who understand the words of the artist. Every segment hungers consciously or, much more often, unconsciously for their corresponding spiritual food. This food is offered by the artists, and for this food the segment immediately below will tomorrow be stretching out eager hands."

Wassily Kandinsky

You can see from diagram a. above the artists and their vision; they create spiritual growth; spiritual food as Kandinsky says for the artists on the level below them, and thus move the whole of understanding forward. You can also see in diagram b. the ones on the bottom, inhibiting the growth of knowledge and understanding.

One modern example of the latter is, (I won't name any names) but think about the work of several of those very successful commercial 'painters', (you know who I mean). The ones who create overly-cheesy, 'safe', repetitious, massively reproduced work. I too If I so desired, could paint pictures of puppy dogs and sunsets and cottages and sell them for profit.

By giving in to the temptation to create solely for money though, and not taking risks, you limit your vision and growth as an artist. And therefore impede the progress of our understanding of reality as a whole, by not fully exploring the gifts you have been given. I'm not saying success is bad of course, but I prefer risky work; ones who create out of a desire to express themselves in a new and unique way; broadening the nature of our understanding of this world.

But that's just one aspect (from my perspective) of a very broad dynamic that Kandinsky is speaking of. So, hopefully I was able to offer up a little bit of spiritual food today for you with this post. If you read this much you might as well read the whole article, (link is at the top) it is a very fascinating read.

Wassily Kandinsky on Abstract Painting

I've honestly often felt like sometimes that I am truly a poet at heart and not a painter, and have come back to writing poetry more often, recently. Reading some of my past work is always interesting, especially when I don't remember writing half of it. So, The following quote from Kandinsky fits me and my art, very well:

"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential."

-Wassily Kandinsky

If I do say so myself, I have a natural sense of composition, enhanced from years of being a professional picture framer, and designer involves things like helping people pick the best shade of white from twenty choices, for example. (If the customer needs 20 choices, I know what colors I would use.) That ability to look at a stack of colors and instantly know which few you need to work with, is developed. What I really loved about the work was absorbing the thousands of different pieces of work by various artists that I came in contact with every day for years. So anyways, I guess my point is I agree with Kandinsky wholeheartedly.

Music, Art, and Mysticism

The following quotes are from Evelyn Underhill's book Mysticism published in 1911. (Considered a classic by many in the realm of the study of spiritual consciousness.) What's interesting, is that in 1910 Wassily Kandinsky wrote his theoretical study, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, in which he examines the psychological effects of color with analogies between music and art. Music was a strong influence in his art, having learned piano and cello at an early age.

"The Earthly artist, because perception brings with it the imperative longing for expression, tries to give us in colour, sound or words a hint of his ecstasy, his glimpse of truth. Only those who have tried, know how small a fraction of his vision he can, under the most favourable circumstance, contrive to represent. The mystic too, tries very hard to tell an unwilling world his secret. But in his case, the difficulties are enormously increased. First, there is the huge disparity between his mind and the mind of the world. His audience must be bewitched as well as addressed, caught up to something of his state, before they can be made to understand."

(-Evelyn Underhill, p. 76 - Mysticism, London: Methuen, 1911.)

Another paragraph and a half down the page she goes on to say -

"Yet of all the arts music alone shares with great mystical literature the power of waking in us a response to the life-movement of the universe: brings us - we know not how - news of its exultant passions and its incomparable peace."

To Underhill, music was the closest form of expression to mystical literature, so it makes sense that Kandinsky, a painter heavily influenced by music, created the first formal nonrepresentational painting. (The same year he wrote his aforementioned study.)

My point is that abstract expressionism is a valuable form of mystical expression, more closely in tune with musical expression than classic painting depicting physical reality. Had Evelyn Underhill wrote her book a few decades later has abstract expressionism really begins to take root, I feel she would be inclined to agree with me.