Orchestra to the Eyes, Music for the Soul

“…the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays.” Kandinsky

Creating tone with the stroke of a brush, rhyme with the flick of the wrist, and pitch by juxtaposing rich hues alongside one another, Vasily Kandinsky created harmony in his works. Born in Moscow in December 1866, the artist developed a fascination with color at an early age, citing that upon entering cathedrals and houses in Northern Moscow the deep colors and elaborate ornamentation inspired feelings of walking into a painting.

His maturation as a creator of pure abstract form was achieved after a long period of development and chronicled in tomb and canvass throughout artistic periods beginning in the late 1890’s and ending around the early 1940’s. As he matured so did his mind and his talent. A fascination of color symbolism and psychology lead to paintings that evoke emotion by playing on the human psyche’s perception of color and shape.

Kandinsky most lovingly referred to his works as compositions: musical revolutions where, “color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul,” vibrations which could be felt in his works. Canvasses from later periods in Kandinsky’s maturation take on boisterous form that, from a viewing standpoint, inspires thoughts of a great orchestra coming alive. Kandinsky believed that art is created from an artist’s inner necessity, a sentiment that was fueled by his spiritual appreciation of form, inner beauty, and music, which in turn led to creation.

Evidence of his influence can be seen at the Guggenheim Museum. Now celebrating its 50^th anniversary, the museum has dedicated an exhibit to the artist, Kandinsky. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation describes the exhibit; “This retrospective retraces the painter’s oeuvre, focusing on key events that informed his life and work. Marked by two world wars and the 1917 Russian Revolution, Kandinsky’s abstraction did not develop in unworldly detachment; rather, this exhibition, the first full-scale retrospective of his career in the United States since 1985, reveals the complex background to his artistic advancement.”

Kandinsky’s works not only exemplify the essence of the Guggenheim’s archive, they also helped to inspire the creation of the Frank Loyd Wright crafted building. Solomon R. Guggenheim was a collector of Kandinsky’s art by way of artist Hilla Rebay. In 1939, ten years following his first delve into Kandinsky’s artwork, Solomon, being highly enthused by Kandinsky’s, and artists alike, non-objective style of painting, opened the Museum of Non-Objective Painting in New York. This development was amplified four years later when Guggenheim commissioned Frank Loyd Wright to create what some would argue as his greatest masterpiece, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Although Kandinsky promoted freedom of form through abstraction and Wright, the promotion of organic architecture connected to the natural world, both artist and architect’s support a life lead by aesthetic and spiritual pursuits.

Kandinsky is now on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and will conclude on January 13, 2009

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street)
New York, NY 10128-0173

-devin morris

images: © Artist Rights Society