Kandinsky defines art

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 color, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential. (Wassily Kandinsky)

What's your definition?

Kandinsky on art

While browsing 'The Blaue Reiter', by Hajo Duchting, about the movement that led to a more modern approach to art and the abstract movement, a number of quotes jumped out.
" Kandinsky here once again, and with great vehemence, stages the destruction of the old worldview, that concept of painting, out of which the new spiritual epoch is to be born. Out of this disintegration of times, he creates a new harmony consisting of contrapuntal pictorial processes, in whose conflicts and collisions - always balanced, never informal - the picture of the spiritual emerges."

Wassily Kandinsky, in 1912 describes the process that was absorbing his thoughts - "clashing discords, loss of equilibrium, 'principles' overthrown, unexpected drumbeats, great questionings, apparently purposeless strivings, stress and longing (apparently torn apart), chains and fetters broken (which had united many), opposites and contradictions - this is our harmony."

Under such contradictory circumstances and clashing thoughts, is it any wonder that abstraction as a solution, would emerge.

Quotes from Kandinsky

In my quest to better understand the radical shifts in the approach that some artists took, at the early part of the 20th century, I began to look a little closer at Wassily Kandinsky. In the "Blaue Reiter" by Hajo Duchting, there's a detailed account of the thoughts by Kandinsky and Franz Marc about the new direction and radical changes that led to the Blaue Reiter and later abstract art.

One quote exemplifies their thinking -

"clashing discords, loss of equilibrium
'principles' overthrown, unexpected drumbeats,
great questionings, apparently purposeless strivings,
stress and longing (apparently torn apart),
chains and fetters broken
(which had united many)
opposites and contradictions - this is our harmony"
Wassily Kandinsky, 1912

Naturally, when their almanac with their philosophy and exhibition finally saw the light of day, the initial reactions were 'negative and indeed even hostile. Favorable responses were limited: solidarity with the new aims extended no further than a small circle of artists, critics, collectors and museum directors. What is now recognized as a pioneering achievement by this small group of artists, as the advent of Modernism in Germany, in its own day appeared simply as a marginal event with no enduring influence upon the culture of Wilhelmine Germany.'

4 Abstract Drawings

Above are 4 Abstract Mixed media drawings. Derived from an intuitive process, with free flowing lines and acrylic colors, oil pastels and markers. They are entitled-

"Monolith"
"Necessary Elements"
"Night & Day Shift"
"Non-Specific Object"

I'm reminded of a quote from Wassily Kandinsky, considered the originator of abstract art-"painting is an art, and art in general is not a mere purposeless creating of things that dissipate themselves in a void, but a power that has a purpose.... it is a language that speaks in its own unique way to the soul..." - Wassily Kandinsky, 1912.

To view other Paintings, Drawings and Digital Prints, visit-
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Abstract Drawing- A new form emerges

A new form emerges from the barren plateaus of a blank paper. It is pen and ink that extracts it from the mind to the paper.

Notes from"Kandinsky"
Today, I'm reflecting on this quote from Kandinsky:
"The work of art must serve the development and refinement of the human soul: indeed, art is the "daily bread" of the soul. The artist, Kandansky continues, is no Sunday's Child of life. " He has a difficult task to fulfil, which often becomes a cross to bear. He must know that every one of his actions and thoughts and feelings constitutes the subtle, untangible, and yet firm material out of which his works are created, and that hence he cannot be free in life - only in art."

Such profound statements must be digested slowly. What are your views on the opinions of Kandinsky, the father of abstract art? Did his work reflect his words?

The drawing shown and others can be viewed at
http://www.yessy.com/emooyoung/
http://twitter.com/emooyoung
http://youtube.com/Emooyoung

Abstract Painting influenced by Science?

I just read an interesting theory about the radical shift in thinking and the conception of reality that took place at the turn of the 20th century in Modern Art.

To quote from 'Painting in the Twentieth Century' by Werner Haftmann, - " Dates seem to suggest that some kind of connection exists between science and painting. The radical changes in painting took place between 1900 and 1910. Significant dates are: 1905 Fauvism; 1907 Cubism; 1910 the first abstract painting. A concordance of of dates important in the history of science runs thus: 1900 Planck's quantum theory; and Freud's Interpretation of Dreams; 1905 Einstein's special theory of relativity; 1908 Minkowski's mathematical formulation of the dimensions of space-time."

Many artists such as Klee, Kandinsky, Delaunay and others have stated that their encounters with the discoveries of natural science often threw light upon their own intuitive and artistic activity.

What do you think? That there was a close connection between the new discoveries in science and the radical shifts in the way art was viewed by the prominent and well read artists of these early periods of the 20th century? I think so.