Abstract Art1910
First Abstract Watercolour
Wassily Kandinsky
Curator's Eye
"The total absence of an identifiable subject gives way to a choreography of spots and lines, where each pigment seems to vibrate according to its own musical frequency."
A historic birth certificate where Kandinsky definitively breaks with figuration to release the spiritual power of color. This watercolor marks the transition from art that describes the world to art that expresses the soul.
Analysis
Created in 1910 according to the artist's signature, this work is considered one of the first conscious gestures toward pure abstraction in the history of Western art. Kandinsky, influenced by his research on theosophy and the music of Schoenberg, sought to reach an "inner necessity" that no longer depended on the reproduction of the visible world. He postulated that color possesses its own autonomy, capable of directly touching the human soul without going through the intellect or the recognition of an object.
The work belongs to a period of transition where Kandinsky refined his expressionist landscapes of Murnau to keep only their emotional backbone. One can still sometimes guess, through persistence of vision, the shapes of hills or steeples, but here they are dissolved in a storm of liberated gestures. The artist does not paint what he sees, but what he feels in the face of cosmic forces, transforming the canvas into a psychological and spiritual experience.
The intellectual context of this creation is marked by the imminent publication of his treatise "Concerning the Spiritual in Art." Kandinsky explains his theory of synesthesia: for him, colors have sounds and textures. Yellow resonates like a trumpet, blue like a cello or a deep organ. This watercolor must therefore be understood as a visual score where the harmony and contrast of tones create a psychic resonance in the viewer.
This watercolor is also an act of courage in the face of the critics of the time who considered the absence of subject as mere decoration or madness. For Kandinsky, it is on the contrary an elevation of art toward its purest level, freeing it from the "prison of matter." It foreshadows his great series of "Compositions" and "Improvisations" that would redefine the limits of visual creation in the 20th century.
The greatest secret of this work lies in its actual dating. Although Kandinsky signed it "1910," many art historians suspect that it was actually painted around 1913. The artist might have backdated it to ensure historical primacy in the invention of abstraction, a place then disputed by other pioneers like Robert Delaunay or František Kupka. This minor chronological manipulation does not detract from the genius of the work, but it highlights the crucial importance Kandinsky placed on his role as the prophet of modern art.
Another secret concerns the nature of the medium itself. The use of watercolor, lighter and more fluid than oil, allowed for this almost automatic spontaneity. At the time, watercolor was often perceived as a medium for preliminary studies. By elevating this sketch to the rank of a major work, Kandinsky also broke the traditional hierarchy of artistic techniques, asserting that the intensity of the spiritual message takes precedence over the nobility of the material.
Legend has it that the enlightenment toward abstraction came to Kandinsky while entering his studio at twilight. He saw a painting of "indescribable beauty, radiating an inner light" leaning against the wall. On closer inspection, he realized it was one of his own canvases placed upside down. It was this visual shock, where the object disappears to leave room only for form and color, that triggered the creation of this first abstract work.
It is often ignored that Kandinsky preciouslly kept this watercolor throughout his travels and exiles. For him, it represented a talisman, the material proof of his spiritual "conversion" to abstraction. During the years of persecution by the Nazi regime, which labeled his art "degenerate," this work remained hidden, protecting the spark of the visual revolution it had initiated.
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What major historical controversy surrounds the handwritten "1910" date placed by Kandinsky on this watercolor?
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