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Synaesthesia,HarmonyandDiscordintheWorkof
WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg1909-1914
ThesissubmittedforthedegreeofMasterofArtsinHistoryofArt
totheSchoolofHumanitiesintheUniversityofBuckingham
NicolasNelson
September2015
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Abstract
Thisprojectsetsout to investigate theearly twentiethcenturycrossoverbetween
paintingandmusic,with specific reference to theworkofWassilyKandinskyand
Arnold Schoenbergbetween1909and1914.Broadly speaking, to appreciatehow
two different artistic entities in art andmusic could be intertwined to produce a
unified marriage of aesthetic principles and concerns sets the stage for a more
detailed focus on the two aforementioned pioneers of abstraction. The synthesis
between art and music is indeed a rich area, particularly during the first two
decades of the twentieth century, when artists were searching for newmeans of
expression.Insurveyingtheamalgamationofthesedualdisciplines,theephemeral
butintenseartisticworkingrelationshipbetweenKandinskyandSchoenbergbefore
theFirstWorldWarisasuitableparadigmforstudy.Bothpractitionerssharedthe
samepath toabstraction in theirpursuitof that interestingcocktailofdissonance
and, paradoxically, hidden structure. The atonal and minimalist music of
Schoenberg and The Second Viennese School found an equivalent in Kandinsky’s
early abstract canvases, and both avant-garde experiments met with ubiquitous
outcry.Therearemanyvalidparallelsbetweenabstractmusicandabstractpainting,
and this proves ever the more fertile given Kandinsky the painter was an
accomplishedcellistandSchoenbergthemusicianwasanamateurpainter.
ThroughoutKandinsky’swritings,itbecomesclearthathereally‘felt’coloursmore
thanothers,inakindofhypersensitive,spiritualandcross-sensorymanner.Infact,
he purported to be a synaesthete. This neurological phenomenon of synaesthesia
has been given greater attention in recent years, not least via Dr Clifford Rose’s
(ProfessorofNeurologyatUniversityCollegeLondon)researchon ‘neurologyand
the arts’. This growing yet renewed interest in the phenomenon has led to
experimental and scientifically investigative live painterly responses to music by
synaesthetes,suchasattheCheltenhamScienceFestivalin2014,forexample.
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ExtantonlinedocumentationfromtheexcellentTateModernexhibition‘Kandinsky:
ThePathtoAbstraction’of July2006and the ‘FromRussia’ exhibitionat theRoyal
Academy inApril 2008, spotlightsKandinsky’s ‘heroic period’ in particular as the
richest source in establishing the painter’s parallelswithmusic and synaesthesia.
Similarly, archive material from the ‘Eye-Music: Kandinsky, Klee and all that Jazz’
exhibition of 2007 at Pallant House, Chichester and the University of East Anglia
respectively provide further insight into the realm of ‘painting sound’ during this
period.
Thezenithofthisearlytwentiethcenturyexperimentininvestigatinganequivalent
ofmodernpainting inmodernmusicculminates inthedemi-decadeprecedingthe
First World War – notably Kandinsky’s ’heroic period’. It was at this point, that
Kandinskyendeavouredtosharehismultiplicityofcross-sensoryexperienceswith
fellowmembersofDerBlaueReiter and,moreclosely, theexperimental composer
ArnoldSchoenberg.Furthermore,thetopicofsynaesthesiainmodernartwasvery
much ‘in the air’ at the time, thus making this artistic-musical unification ever
stronger.
The Introduction to this thesis provides a broader overview of the crossover
between art and music up to the early twentieth century as a contextual scene-
setter,stemminglargelyfromWagner’sconceptofthegesamtkunstwerkor‘totalart
work’ as an experience. The idea of the multi-sensory experience became more
prevalent in the late nineteenth century with the Post Impressionists; an era of
improved scientific colour theory which coincided with progressive, modern
philosophicalthinkinginNietzsche,FreudandJung.
In the early twentieth century, Matisse, Klee and his contemporaries’ colouristic
musicalworkssetthestageforKandinsky’svirtuosoperformances,whichreacheda
pinnacleinwhatGrohmanndubbed‘theheroicyears’ i.e.1909-1914.Thus,forthe
purposesofthisdissertation,afocusonselectedworksofthisperiodwasessential
inendeavouringtosolvehowandtowhatextentmusicmanifestsitselfattheheart
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ofKandinsky’smostcomplexcreations.Kandinsky’sownquest, in thewordsofT.
Phillips,was‘howtopaintasymphony?’ItisatthistimethatKandinskysparkeda
dialogue with the avant-garde composer Arnold Schoenberg, whose musical
innovations were as radical as Kandinsky’s painterly abstractions. Their artistic
relationshipwas intenseyet fugitive– theproductofwrittencorrespondenceand
sharedpassions.The fervour for subversion inboth is checkedby theirdualityof
desiretoretainasenseofdecoruminthefaceoftheestablishment.Thusa‘hidden
structure’ is inherent inbothpractitioners’worksbetween1909and1914, in the
form of ‘order out of chaos’. There aremany natural parallels that can be drawn
betweenthetwo‘performers’atthistime,thustheprocessofforginganumberof
links in their shared set of ideals is an entirely natural one. As explosive as their
artisticcreationsthenwere,thetwomodernistsjarredunexpectedlyafteraperiod
of prolific activity. This was marked by a bitter attack on Kandinsky following
Schoenberg’s accusations of anti-Semitism during Kandinsky’s early spell at the
Bauhaus.
The chapters within chart chronologically, Kandinsky’s investigation into ‘the
spiritual inart’ through to thegloryyearswhenworking inpsychological tandem
withSchoenberg,endingwitha‘calltoorder’whenKandinskyissummonedtothe
Bauhaus, subsequentlyseveringhis friendshipwithSchoenberg. Investigation into
thequestionofwhetherKandinskyisdrivenbydissonanceordisciplinehasproven
that Kandinsky’s desire for said discipline usurps his more experimental urge to
create.Hencethemorespontaneoussymphonicworksinhisoeuvregivewaytothe
molecularmatrixesofhislatteryears.
Paul Robertson’s theory that musical responses are built into us as part of our
ability to communicate before we have language skills, resonates in the work of
Kandinsky. They arewhat he refers to as the syntax of emotional communication
andaccountforwhyweunderstandmusicbetter.Linkedtothis,itistowhatextent
Kandinsky’s responses to music are entirely instinctive that I have set out to
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investigate in this study. Moreover, a chief quest is to investigate the artist’s
purportedsynaesthesia.
The question of Kandinsky’s synaesthesia is a complex and interesting one, with
theories supporting and refuting evidence of his perceived neurological gift.
Inevitablyfirstandsecondhandsourcessupportsuchaquestuponwhichtodeduce
one’sowntheoriesconcerningthismatter.Variousfindings,evidenceandpersonal
conjecture suggest that Kandinskywas not inherently synaesthetic, rather he felt
colour more than others. His desire to be a synaesthete far outweighs the
neurologicalevidence,itseems.
ThereisawiderangeofsourcesavailableontheissueofKandinsky’ssynaesthesia,
which is invariably and inextricably linked to his relationship with Schoenberg.
Amidstarticles, letters,monographsandperiodicals, themostdirectarterialroute
tothismatter,however,isbothKandinsky’sownwritingsonartandthelettersthat
KandinskyandSchoenbergsharedwitheachother.Whilstbuildingacase,thishas,
inthecaseofKandinsky’smagnumopus ‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt,’provided
greaterinsightintothemindofthepioneerofabstraction.Hisdietwasindeedarich
one,fromthemysticartsandmusictoJapaneseZencalligraphyandchildren’sart.
Kandinskydrewuponamyriadofsourcestofuelhisever-imaginativebrainwitha
plethoraofstimuli.
Whilst Kandinsky’s endeavourswere supported through the auspices of theNeue
Künstlervereinigung,DerBlaueReiter and theBauhaus,hecomesacrossmoreasa
mostlynomadicShaman,savethebriefsymbioticartisticalliancewithSchoenberg
for a select few years. Via the backdrop of theosophy, occultism, mysticism and
Zyrian iconography, Kandinsky emerges as a true pioneer of modern thought,
determined to capture his penchant for abstract art and music onto canvas. His
worksareparadoxicallybothorderlyanddisorderly,reflectingthedualdemeanour
of the great man himself: a bookish and bespectacled precisionist drawn to
apocalyptic abstractionismand atonalism. It is this dichotomyof character I have
triedtoinvestigateinthelatterstagesofthisthesis,mostnotablyintheConclusion.
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Contents
Introduction–ArtandMusicinHarmonyinWesternCulturefromtheRenaissance
totheearlyTwentiethCentury(Page1)
Chapter1–SynaesthesiainArtbeforeandduringKandinsky’speriod(Page17)
Chapter2–ThePathtoAbstraction(Page27)
Chapter3-Serialism&Dissonance,TheMusicoftheFuture:Kandinsky’searlier
worksandencounterswithSchoenberg(Page39)
Chapter4-Kandinsky’sMatureAbstractionsandSchoenberg’sMusic:The
SymphonicWorks,1909-14(Page53)
Conclusion(Page81)
Postscript(Page91)
Appendices1-6(Pages94-103)
Bibliography(Page104)
OtherSources(Page109)
Webliography(Page113)
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ListofFigures
(SeeseparateBookletofIllustration)
Figure1 P.ORungeDieFarbenkugel(TheColourSphere),1810
Figure2 C.Blanc,ColourStar,fromGrammaire,1867
Figure3 J.A.M.Whistler,NocturneinBlueandGold,BatterseaBridge,1872-5
Figure4 A.Scriabin,CircleofFifths,1910
Figure5 ProfessorRimington,DemonstrationoftheColourScale,1895
Figure6 H.Matisse,TheDance,1909-10
Figure7 L.Russolo,ArtofNoises,1913
Figure8 R.Delaunay,ASeasoninHell,PoemIllustration,1914
Figure9 S.Delaunay,LaProseduTranssibérienetdelapetiteJehanedeFrance,
CouleurssimultanéesdeMmeDelaunay-Terk,1914
Figure10 J.Itten,ColourSphere,1917
Figure11 Thepatternofsoundwaves,photographedbyscientistsatBell
TelephoneLaboratories,1950(LibraryofCongress)
Figure12 E.Munch,TheScream,Lithograph,1895
Figure13 W.Kandinsky’sColourOrchestra,N.Nelson’stranscriptionof2015
Figure14 W.Kandinsky,Impression111,1911
Figure15 W.Kandinsky,WallPanelforEdwinCampbellNo.4,1914
A.Schoenberg,SechsKleineKlavierstücke,1911
Figure16 W.Kandinsky,RowsofSigns,1931
Figure17 W.Kandinsky,CompositionV,1911
Figure18 CavePaintingatLascaux,Francec.15,000BC
Figure19 W.Kandinsky,ImprovisationGorge,1914
Figure20 W.Kandinsky,Improvisation26,1912
Figure21 W.Kandinsky,Improvisation19,1911
Figure22 W.Kandinsky,StudyforCompositionV11,1913
Figure23 W.Kandinsky,CompositionV1,1913
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Figure24 W.Kandinsky,CompositionV11,1913
Figure25 W.Kandinsky,CompositionV111of1923
Figure26 W.Kandinsky,LandscapewithaBlackArch,1912
Figure27 W.Kandinsky,BlackLinesNo.189,1913
Figure28 W.Kandinsky,Fugue,1914
Figure29 W.Kandinsky,VariegatedCircle,1921
Figure30 P.Mondrian,BroadwayBoogieWoogie,1942-3
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DeclarationofOriginality
I hereby declare that my thesis/dissertation entitled ‘Synaesthesia, Harmony andDiscord in the Work ofWassily Kandinsky & Arnold Schoenberg 1909-1914’ is theresultofmyownworkandincludesnothingwhichistheoutcomeofworkdoneincollaborationexceptasdeclaredinthePrefaceandspecifiedinthetext,andisnotsubstantially the sameasany that Ihave submitted,or, is concurrently submittedfor adegreeordiplomaorotherqualification at theUniversityofBuckinghamorany other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface andspecifiedinthetext.Ifurtherstatethatnosubstantialpartofmythesishasalreadybeensubmitted,orisconcurrentlysubmittedforanysuchdegree,diploma,orotherqualification at the University of Buckingham or any other University or similarinstitutionexceptasdeclaredinthePrefaceandspecifiedinthetext.Signature:
PrintedName:NicolasNelsonDate:30/09/15
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Introduction
Themanthathathnomusicinhimself,
Norisnotmov’dwithconcordofsweetsounds,
isfitfortreasons,stratagems,andspoils.TheMerchantofVenice,Actv,Scene1.
This section examines the tradition in the arts of fusing music and art - an
established practice upon which Kandinsky and his contemporaries later built.
Origins of this dualism can be traced back to the ancients, the Greeks. What
Kandinsky refers to as “the deep relationship between the arts, and especially
betweenmusicandpainting”1bynomeansbeginswithWassilyKandinsky, infact,
as far back as Aristotle, Sophists believed that “colours may mutually relate like
musical concords for their pleasantest arrangement, like those concordsmutually
proportionate”.2
TheconceptofthepolymathduringtheRenaissanceencouragedanopendialogue
acrossthearts-thearchetypal‘Renaissanceman’possessingmanytalentsorareas
ofknowledge,whichwerevaluedinaccordancewithilparagone.3Thearthistorian
Kenneth Clark called Leonardo da Vinci “the most relentlessly curious man in
history”.4Whilsthe is known tousprimarily as an artist, inpresentinghimself to
LudovicoSforza,theDukeofMilan,Leonardodescribedhisprowessinmusicfirst,
“withartbeingalmostanafterthought”.5
1WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page272Bishop,B.‘ASouveniroftheColourOrganwithsomesuggestionsinregardtotheSouloftheRainbowandtheHarmonyofLight’(NewRussia,N.YTheDeVinnePress,1893)Page3.(Thetextisreproducedonlineathttp://RhythmicLight.com)3Paragone(Italian:paragone,meaningcomparison)isadebatefromtheItalianRenaissanceinwhichoneformofart(architecture,sculptureorpainting)ischampionedassuperiortoallothers.LeonardodaVinci'streatiseonpainting,notingthedifficultyofpaintingandsupremacyofsight,isanotedexample.4KennethClark,‘Civilisation:APersonalView’(London:JohnMurray,1969)Page1355ProfessorMartinKemp,UniversityofBuckinghamMASeminar,28thOctober2014,London.Leonardo’sletterdetails10pointsofmeritunrelatedtoartinsecuringthecommission,beforehestates:“Icanfurtherexecutesculptureinmarble,bronzeorclay,alsoinpaintingIcandoasmuchasanyoneelse,whoeverhemaybe.Moreover,Iwouldundertakethecommissionofthebronzehorse,
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2
Merechowski writes that the many-sided genius of Leonardo da Vinci devised a
systemoflittlespoonswithwhichdifferentcoloursweretobeused,thuscreating,
“akindofmechanicalharmony”.6
BeyondtheRenaissance,theGermanpolymathAthanasiusKircherwroteaboutthe
possibilityofvisualisingamusicallanguagebasedonananalogybetweentoneand
colour, in his ‘Musurgia Universalis’of 1650. More broadly, Baroque art and
architecture of the seventeenth century was motivated by the desire to evoke
emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramaticways.7Someof the
qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous
richness,drama,vitality,movement,tension,emotionalexuberance,andatendency
toblurdistinctionsbetweenthevariousarts.8Thisapproachencouragedthe ‘total
experience’intheBaroqueviewer,tantamounttoRobertWagner’slaterconceptof
thegesamtkunstwerk.
In 1725 the French Jesuit monk Father Louis Bertrand Castel devised the ocular
harpsichord;aneccentriccontraptionconsistingofsixtysmallcolouredglasspanes,
eachwith a curtain thatopenedwhenakeywas struck.Castel thoughtof colour-
musicasakintothe‘lostlanguageofparadise,’inwhich“evenadeaflistenercould
enjoymusic”.9
Sir IsaacNewton’s analogy between the seven notes of themusical scale and the
seven colours of the colour scale”10was a source of inspiration for Casteletal, in
terms of what Baudelaire later referred to as a ‘Doctrine of Correspondences’.11
whichshallenduewithimmortalgloryandeternalhonourtheauspiciousmemoryofyourfatherandoftheillustrioushouseofSforza”.(LetterfromLeonardoDaVincitotheDukeofMilanApplyingforaPosition,1484.http://www.lettersofnote.com/p/archive.html6JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage767www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-periodBaroqueartandarchitecture|art|Britannica.com8HelenLangdon,UniversityofBuckinghamMASeminar,11thNovember2014,London9JamesPeel,‘TheScaleandtheSpectrum’,Issue22,Summer2006(Article)Paragraph410HajoDuchting,‘PaulKlee-PaintingMusic’(Munich:Prestel,2002)Page1911KathrynOliverMills,‘ThePoetryFoundation’,poetryfoundation.org(Article)Paragraph42
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Newton thought that the spectrum had seven discrete colours, corresponding in
someunknownbutsimplewaytothesevennotesofthediatonicscale.12
Simon Shaw-Miller rightly identifies that “there is certainly a deep link between
music and painting – the proportions of time - the geometry of rhythms and the
divisionofspaces.”13Thiscouldbe found in theworkof theGermanphysicistand
musician Ernst Chladni (1756–1827) hailed as the “father of acoustics”. 14 He
undertook key research into various modes of vibration, through speed-sound
resonances, sound impulses and sonorous frequency. Through sonic vibrations,
Chladni could determine the path of propagation. This early charting of sound
provedinfluentialtothe‘musicalists’15thatfollowed.
In theoretical terms, Phillip Otto Runge (1777-1810), a man with a ‘mystical,
pantheistic frame of mind’16 paved the way for that Wagnerian concept, the
gesamtkunstwerk. In his work, Runge attempted to express notions of harmony
through symbolism of colour and form in a vision of a total work encompassing
painting, music, poetry and architecture. Achieving the gesamtkunstwerk was a
commonaspirationforGermanRomanticartists.
In the year of his death, Runge published ‘Die Farbenkugel’ (The Colour Sphere,
Figure 1) in which he describes a three-dimensional schematic sphere for
organising all conceivable colours according to hue, brightness and saturation. It
wastheresultofyearsofresearchandcorrespondencewithJohannWolfgangvon
12O.Sachsreferstothisinhis‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page27113SimonShaw-Miller,‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page4414http://9waysmysteryschool.tripod.com/sacredsoundtools/id19.htmlParagraph2151940sFrancegroupcalled‘Musicalists’weredevotedtointerpretingmusicalcompositionsinpaintBlanc-Gatti(Swiss)hadthegiftofSynopsia–hecould“hear”colours.TheycreatedvisualtranslationsofStravinsky,Bach.O.MessiaenownedBlanc-Gatti’s‘Brilliance’andMessiaenmadechord-colourtablesbasedonsynaestheticresponses16RobertWBerger,‘TheArtBulletin’,Volume58,No.2,June1976(Article)Paragraph4
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Goethe.17Runge’s ‘Farbenkugel’ was adopted 150 years later by the legendary
German Bauhaus teacher, Johannes Itten, in particular in relation to colours and
their different emotional associations. Similarly, Blanc’s Grammaire of 1867
presented amap of “the entire complicated realm of colour as a six-pointed star
(Figure2)….itwasawonderfullyorderlysystem….Butthestarwaslikethemusical
scale; starting from it, you could plan harmonic effects resembling musical
chords”.18ThiswastosubsequentlyhaveaprofoundimpactonBauhuastheoryand
pedagogyalso.
InWagner’s1852essay, ‘OperundDrama’19hedescribesthewayinwhichpoetry,
musicandthevisualartsshouldcombinetoformwhathecalled‘theartworkofthe
future.’ These ‘music-dramas’ were a multi-sensory experience for spectators,
delving into many creative and artistic sources, including opera, theatre, music
(orchestra), mime and literature. In this sense, Wagner’s ‘The Ring Cycle’ is the
paradigm of the gesamtkunstwerk. Subsequently, as Lynton outlines, “It was
KandinskywhogreatlyadmiredWagnerandsawhisfusingofmusic,textandstage
intoaseamlessgesture”.20Earlier,however,CharlesBaudelairesupportedWagner
and his ‘theory of correspondences’ by writing how “it would be surprising if a
musicaltonecouldnotelicitacolour.”21
GivenMiller’s theory that “Musicwas foundedonbalanceandharmony forwhich
artists tried to find visual equivalents in the form and colour of their own
paintings,”22in this vein, the nineteenth century French Impressionist composer
17JohannWolfgangvonGoethe(1749-1832)wasaGermanpoet,dramatistandscholarinvolvedwiththeSturmandDrangmovement18MartinGayford,‘MusiciansinColour’from‘TheYellowHouse’(London:PenguinBooksLtd.2007)Pages198-19919‘OperaandDrama’isabook-lengthessaywrittenbyRichardWagnerin1851,settingouthisideasontheidealcharacteristicsofoperaasanartform.20NorbertLynton,‘StoryofModernArt’(London:Phaidon,1995)Page8221DrHugoHeyrman,Reflectionon‘ArtandSynaesthesia:InSearchoftheSynaestheticExperience’(Article)Paragraph422SimonShaw-Miller‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page43
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Claude Debussy explored Baudelaire’s theories further. As Kandinsky himself
expressed,“mostmodernmusicianslikeDebussycreateaspiritualimpression”.23
Debussy wrote ‘L’Apres-midi d’un Faune’ in 1894 in what has been called the
Impressionist style, based on one of Mallarmé’s poems. Through a myriad of
kaleidoscopiceffects, thecomposersuggestsclimaticchange(clouds,water)anda
‘newpalette.’Hisnewdiscoveriesculminatedinhis ‘TroisNocturnes’ofthe1890s,
whichencouragedthelistenertobecomeimmersedintheartist'sexperience-more
specifically J.A.M Whistler’s ‘Nocturnes’ of the 1870s. In this exploration of
instrumentaltone-colour,Debussytreatedharmoniesandorchestraltimbresasthe
artiststreatedlightandcolour.Heusedchordsfortheirexpressive ‘colour-effects’
rather than obeying traditional rules of harmony. Using allusion and
understatement Impressionist music eschewed the emotional excesses of the
Romanticerawithsuggestionandatmosphere.Debussyusedshortmelodicmotifs–
theNocturne,Arabesque andPrelude; theequivalentwouldbe thequickly-worked
smallcanvasesof‘labandaManet’.
The American painter Whistler adopted musical titles for paintings, such as
SymphonyNo.1 - theequivalentofwhich is thecomposer’suseofOpusnumbers;
the artist believing “As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of
sight”.24Whistler’sNocturnesofthe1870sdirectlyinspiredDebussy’sNocturnesof
1897-9, inwhicha single instrumentalgroup isexploited suchas thestrings, ina
similarwaytotheartistexploringthesubtlegradationsofasinglecolour;theuseof
blue in his largely monochromatic canvas, Nocturne in Blue and Gold, Battersea
Bridge25(Figure3)beingacaseinpoint.Theabstractnatureofthisreductivistwork
23W.Kandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page1624TheNationalGalleryofArt,WashingtonDC,http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg69/gg69-1241.0.html,Paragraph225Ruskinattackedthework,shockedbytheabsenceofsubjectmatterandlackoffinish,andfor“throwingapotofpaintinthepublic’sface”promptingWhistlertosuehimforlibel.Aprotractedcourtcaseensued–aresultofwhichWhistlerwonafarthingbutlefthimbankrupt,soitwasamoralvictoryratherthanafinancialone.Whistlerhungthecoin(thesmallestcoininUKcurrency)fromhiswatchfob
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promptedOscarWildetostatethatitwasworthlookingatfor‘aboutaslongasone
looks at a real rocket; about 15 seconds’.26Whistler called these haunting and
elusivecrepusculareffectsNocturnes,deliberatelycomparingtheirlackofnarrative
content to music. “His greys pulsate with imprisoned colours”27was an epithet
coined by Frederick Leyland. Equally StephenMallarmé’s phrase “to suggest is to
dream”28 seems applicable here, as Whistler’s use of atmospheric perspective
promptedthecomposerVaughanWilliamstocreatehisWhistler-inspiredopening
totheLondonSymphony;anotionsupportedbyStephenConnock,Chairmanofthe
Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and Michael Kennedy and friend of Vaughan
Williams.Thiswork contained the instruction to thedouble-basses towinddown
thebottomstringforanextension,adevicefordeeporsonoroussounddesignedto
mirrorthetenorofWhistler’saforementionedseries.
As“Debussyisdeeplyconcernedwithspiritualharmony”,29hismusicaldissonances
areunpreparedandunresolvedlikethecanvasesoftheImpressionists,prompting
theRegistraroftheParisConservatoiretochallengethecomposer."Soyouimagine
thatdissonantchordsdonothavetoberesolved?Whatruledoyoufollow?""Mon
plaisir!" 30 Debussy replied. Debussy’s new chord-combinations of whole-tone
chords,Major7ths,chromaticinflectionsandparalleldescending7ths&9thsprefigure
jazz,whilstalsopre-emptingtheatonaldissonanceofArnoldSchoenberg.Hismost
unusual harmonic wanderings and the suppression of conventional progression
resultin ‘polytonality’(simultaneoususeofmorethanonekey)throughhisuseof
super-imposedchords.Thisdevicehasaparallelwiththetechniqueofpolychromy
inpainting.
26Source:TateGallerywebsite:http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/whistler-nocturne-blue-and-gold-old-battersea-bridge-n01959,Paragraph727Source:OwenEdwards,atSmithsonian.com,http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/arts-culture/the-story-behind-the-peacock-rooms-princess-159271229/28R.Lloyd‘Mallarmé,ThePoetandhisCircle’(UKCornellUniversityPress,2005)Page3229SimonShaw-Miller‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page4330EdwardLockspeiser,‘Debussy’,TheTablet,InternationalCatholicNewsWeekly,Page291
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InhisNocturnes,Debussyinstructsthestringstoplaytremoloonthefingerboard,or
sur latouche to produce a light ‘airy’ quality, incorporating stipplednotes (asper
‘taches’inpainting)generatedby‘fluttertongue’ontheflute,tappingontheviolin
(col legno) andusing themuteon the trumpet.He also introduced a3rd pedal, so
thatthebassnotecouldbesustainedyettheothertwopartswouldnot,generating
aneerieandunsettledatmosphere.ChopinandDebussybothentitled theirworks
‘arrangements’ or ‘harmonies’ and ‘nocturnes’, which further strengthens the
parallelsbetweenartandmusic.
AsSimonShaw-Millerhasnoted,“thetwentiethcenturyhasseentheproliferation
ofmusical andartistic languages”,31aphenomenonwhich really gainsmomentum
with the work of Matisse around 1909, when patronised by Sergei Shchukin. A
dynamicengagementbetweenmusicandthevisualartswasacriticalfactorinthe
emergence of abstraction in early 20th century art in general.32For example, the
LithuanianpainterMikalojusCiurlionisposesthecomplexquestionofwhetherand
towhatextent thepowerof thecreative imaginationhelpstheartistperceiveand
transformrealityintoartisticimages.Hispaintingsandcompositionswereasone.
“They were trying to interlink and reference each other, stirring up images or
creating harmonious effects”. 33 Ciurlionis’ imagination turned polyphony and
rhythmintovisualsymbols,promptingtheFrenchwriterRemainRollandtohailthe
artist as the “Christopher Columbus of the new continent of the spirit”. 34
Subsequently,“thenaturalresultofthisstrivingisthatthevariousartsaredrawing
together.TheyarefindinginMusicthebestteacher”.35
31SimonShaw-Miller,‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page2932JudithZilczer,‘MusicfortheEyes:AbstractPaintingandLightArt’,KerryBrougher,JeremyStrick,AriWisemanandJudithZilczer,‘VisualMusic:SynaesthesiainArtandMusicSince1900’(NewYork:Thames&Hudson,2005)Page7733www.ciurlionis.net/articles/sepetis.htm.Ciurlionisfeltthathewasasynesthete,inthatheperceivedcoloursandmusicsimultaneously.Manyofhispaintingsbearthenamesofmusicalpieces:Sonatas,FuguesandPreludes34WilliamBParsons,‘TheOceanicFeelingRevisited’(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1999)Page2135WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page20
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AleksandrScriabin(1872-1915) independentlyofArnoldSchoenberg,developeda
substantially atonal dissonant musical system. Scriabin was influenced by
synaesthesia,36pairingcolourswith the tonesofhisatonal scale.His colour-coded
‘Circle of Fifths’ (Figure 4) influenced by Theosophy, was “Scriabin’s attempt to
intensifymusicaltonebycorrespondinguseofcolour”,37whilststrikingachordin
theyoungKandinsky.InAlexanderScriabin’s‘Prometheus:ThePoemofFire’of1910,
thetoplineisfor ‘luce;’acolourorganwhichflushesascreeninamannerakinto
Alexander Rimington’s ‘Colour Organ’ of 1895 “from which we can paint with
instantaneous effect upon the screen the colours being atwill combined into one
chord,orcompoundtintuponitssurface.”38(SeealsoFigure5)
“Themood among the avant-garde, was thatmusic and art were closely aligned,
whichisahelpfulinsightintounderstandingtheworkofthesepioneersofabstract
art”.39This is entirely correct, to the extent that believing art and music were
inextricably linked made one avant-garde in those bohemian circles of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century. Moreover, with the explosion of ‘Isms
during the first quarter of the twentieth century, European artistic circles
“witnessedtheadventandpracticeofabstractpaintingatthebeginningofthe20th
centuryasthetranslationofmusic.”40
Withintheclimateof thecolour-lightshowsofScriabinandRimsky-Korsakov, the
‘pure painters’ Wassily Kandinsky, Frank Kupka,41 Piet Mondrian and Kazimir
Malevich took this correspondence between the arts to a new level. However,
PatriciaRailing, inher2005essay ‘WhyAbstractPaintingisn’tMusic’,conteststhat
36ScriabinwasatheosophistwhohaddiscoveredhissynestheticabilityataconcertinthecompanyofRimsky-KorsakovwhentheybothagreedthatthepieceinDmajorappearedyellow.37WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page5138JamesPeel,‘TheScaleandtheSpectrum’,Issue22,Summer2006(Article)Paragraph1139WillGompertz,‘Whatareyoulookingat?’(AudioSeries):Kandinsky/Orphism/BlueRider40PatriciaRailing,PhilosophyNow,‘AbstractArt&Music’,2005(OnlineArticle)Paragraph141TheCzechartistFrankKupkaexploredthe‘kineticdimension’plussynestheticandtheosophicalideas.Heabandonedthetraditionalworldoffiguresandobjectsandsetoutintotheunexploredunknown,wheretheleadingroleisplayedonlybycolours,theirstrengthandshapes,movement,mutualrelations,harmonyandcomposition
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“theirpaintingswerenotmusic,norweretheypaintingmusic.Rather,theyclaimed
thatpaintings’colourshaveaneffectonthehumanbeingjustasmusic’stonesdo.”42
This,Iwillargue,isamootpoint,giventhecomplexityofKandinsky’seitherinnate,
congenitalorcontrived‘condition’ofSynaesthesia.
Akeyprotagonistinstrengtheningthechannelofcommunicationbetweenartand
music was the painter Henri Matisse, who exerted considerable influence on
Kandinsky.EarlyworkssuchasLuxe,CalmeetVolupté,basedonaBaudelairepoem,
featureseupepticbrushworkwhichanimatesanabstractedArcadia,heightenedby
anon-naturalisticuseofcolour.Indeedthecolourclasheswere“adeliberatemeans
of expressing emotion”,43as Matisse put it. A lifelong chromoluminarist, Matisse
claimedthat“FromthemomentIheldtheboxofcoloursinmyhands,Iknewthis
wasmy life. I threwmyself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it
loves”.44
InMatisse’swork,arhythmic feel issought, inspiredbymusic.This, coupledwith
histheoriesoncoloursymbolism;blueforthevirginalandspiritualhealing,yellow
forinspiration,forexample,impactedonKlee,KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter.And
justasMatissealwaysplayedhisviolin foranhourbeforepaintingwhilst feeding
hiscatspiecesofbrioche,PaulKlee’sregimentedroutinewastoplayhisviolinand
stamphisfeet inastaccatorhythmfortwohoursbeforehepainted.Matisse’sThe
Danceof1909-10(Figure6)withits‘triad’ofthethreecoloursred,blueandgreen
arguably represents amusical chord. Claiming “colours are forces, as inmusic”,45
Matisse in fact devoted his ‘Dance’ piece to the composer Shostakovich, thus
strengtheningtheartisticalliance.
42PatriciaRailing,PhilosophyNow,‘AbstractArt&Music’,2005(OnlineArticle)Paragraph2843‘WildBeastsandColours’VisionScienceandtheEmergenceofModernArt,webexhibits.orgParagraph844HilarySpurling,UniversityofBuckinghamMASeminar,10thMarch2015&IllustratedChronologyonline,Paragraph445HenriMatisseininterviewwithPierreCourthion,‘TheLostInterview’of1941,GettyMuseum
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GeorgesBraque’sCubistworksaretheinstrumentalisationofpainting.Inspiredby
the canonic compositions of Bach, Hajo Duchting in ‘Paul Klee - Painting Music’
theorises that the multi-layered interweaving of objective and spatial structures
representsthemultiplepartsofthemusicalscoreandpolyphonyofBach’s‘musical
architecture.’ In a Bach Fugue, the theme is stated successively as canonic, with
various staggeredentries.This links to the repetitionofmotifs and limitedcolour
palette of Cubist painting, along with the contrapuntal system (counterpoint); a
relationship between two independent parts, which are harmonically related.
Incidentally, Cézanne, a progenitor of Cubism, always claimed that colours should
modulate,‘asinmusic’.
The Futurist artist Luigi Russolo’s manifesto The Art of Noises 1913 (Figure 7)
journeyedfurtherintotherealmsofstrivingforanabstractpictorialequivalentfor
amusicalchord.AlsotheFuturists’soundmachines,calledIntonarumori,46provided
thebackdropfortheir‘musicalhappenings;’aformofexperimental,surrealmusical
theatre, somewhere between the Italian opera of their homeland and the Cabaret
Voltaire.47
The characteristic stippled Futuristic brushwork emulates staccato and pizzicato
techniques in music. The artist Giacomo Balla created an abstractmise en scene
(theatricalarrangement)forStravinsky’sFireworks,Opus4performedinRomein
1917.Thekinetic-acousticsculpturesandlightingeffectstookovertheactors’roles.
Parallelscanbedrawnbetweenthesecontemporaryartisticperformances,andthe
more established tradition of their native Italian opera; simultaneous happenings
fromthecountrywhichgaveusMonteverdi,RossiniandPuccini.
46IntonarumoriareagroupofexperimentalmusicalinstrumentsbuiltandinventedbytheItalianFuturistLuigiRussolobetween1910and1930.Russolo’sPhonographrecordingmadein1921includedworksentitledCoraleandSerenata,whichcombinedconventionalorchestralmusicsetagainstthesoundofthenoisemachines.ItistheonlysurvivingcontemporaneoussoundrecordingofLuigiRussolo's‘noisemusic’47CabaretVoltaire,anightclubinZurich,Switzerland,foundedbyHugoBallasacabaretforartisticandpoliticalpurposes.EventsattheCabaretprovedpivotalinthefoundingoftheanarchicartmovementDada
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The Delaunays, with their colour-sound analogies of harmony and rhythm,
developed simultaneity and light, sound synchronism and Grapheme, or colour-
graphemic synaesthesia.48This naturally chimed with Kandinsky; most notably
SoniaTerk’s2metrelongaccordionfoldedbook49(Figure8)inwhichsimultaneous
coloursevokethemovementoftraintravelasacontinuumorflux(apathalsobeing
exploredbytheFrenchphilosopherBergson50at the time),andRobertDelaunay’s
1914watercolour illustration inwhichArthurRimbaudassignscolourstothe five
vowelsof thealphabet51inhis1873poem ‘ASeasoninHell.’52Here, (Figure9) the
poet describes his visions, which link to the condition of grapheme-colour
synaesthesia;possiblyRimbaud’sownneuropsychologicalcondition?SarahBestat
the University of Chicago challenges this theory, claiming both Baudelaire and
Rimbaud seized upon it as a means of innovation; both wished to change
fundamentallythewaythatpeopleread,understood,andexperiencedpoetry,thus
steeringawayfromthefactthateitherwereinherentlysynaesthetic.
ThepainterR.Delaunayratherdescribes “movementsofcolour”andalsorhythm,
stating:“Seeingisinitselfamovement.Visionisthetruecreativerhythm”53which
takes us into the realms of cross-sensory experiences, yet not necessarily
synaesthesiaperse.Simultaneity,aspioneeredbytheDelaunaysandF.Kupka,saw
experimentationwithmulti-sensorydiscsinsimultaneousmotion,chimingwiththe
48Colour-graphemicsynaesthesiaisacommonformofsynaesthesiainwhichlettersornumbersareperceivedasinherentlycoloured.SeeAppendix3491913collaborationwithBlaiseCendrars;callingtheircreation"thefirstsimultaneousbook,"Delaunay-TerkandCendrarsdrewontheartistictheoryofsimultaneity,espousedbytheartist'shusband,thepainterRobertDelaunay,andmodernpoets.(www.moma.org)50Henri-LouisBergson(1859-1941)exploredthetheoryoftimeasafluxoracontinuum.Atthecoreofhisphilosophyishistheoryof“duration”.Hisconceptofélanvital,‘creativeimpulse’or‘livingenergy’wasdevelopedinCreativeEvolution,hismostfamousbook.Élanvitalisanimmaterialforce,whoseexistencecannotbescientificallyverified,butitprovidesthevitalimpulsethatcontinuouslyshapesalllife.51PodcastDocumentary:‘Synaesthesia:thehiddensense’BUFTA,BondUniversity201352Source:LeahDickerman,‘InventingAbstraction’,1910-1925:HowaRadicalIdeaChangedModernArt’,MuseumofModernArt,2012,(Article)Page1953R.DelaunaytoA.Macke,1912:http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/delaunay.html,Paragraph5
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tuition of E.P Tudor-Hart54in terms of the correspondences between colour and
musicaltones,leadingto‘synchrony.’
Ineffect, “Delaunaywas trying tomakeapicture thatvibratedwithharmonyand
tone,notunlikeapieceofmusic,whichwas theaimofOrphism,alludedto in the
movement’snamesake,theGreekpoetandmusicianOrpheus.”55SoniaDelaunayis
considered a “pioneer of abstraction; her dynamic forms and vibrant colour
capturedthedancecrazessuchasthetango.”56By1907,herconsciousshifttowards
abstraction, partly reflects the influence of the chemist M-E Chevreul. Both were
developing a theory of simultaneous colour-contrasts, which they called
‘simultaneism.’SoniaDelaunay’s“vibrantchromaticfields,harmonioustotheeye”57
and often chart her interest in light, dynamism and colour, as is evinced in the
whirling colourmusicofVitrineSimultané–Jazzno.1 of1924. “Her canvases flirt
withforcefulabstractpatterns,transmittingtheverveofacreativepersonality.”58It
is strongly felt thatSoniaDelaunay’sFauvisteruptionsmustbeconsideredwithin
theculturalbackdropmadenewbyMarx,Freud,SchopenhauerandNietzsche.59
Givenhissentimentthat“onedayImustbeabletoimprovisefreelyonthekeyboard
of colours,”60in terms of his investigations into the synaesthetic and the abstract,
Kandinskywasarguablymost‘intune’withhissoulmatePaulKlee.61
54ErnestPercyvalTudor-Hart(1873-1955).Canadianpaintingprofessorwhotaughtaboutthecorrelationbetweencolourandmusic.Macdonald-WrightandRusselladvancedTudor-Hart'stheoriesandcreatedastyleofpaintingtheycalledSynchromism.Theygavetheirpaintingstitlessuchas"SynchromyinBlue"or"SunriseSynchromyinViolet".Theword'synchromy'intentionallycallstominditsmusicalequivalent:symphony55WillGompertz,‘Whatareyoulookingat?’150YearsofModernArtintheBlinkofanEye(London:Viking,PenguinGroup,2012)Page15356JulietteRizzi,‘SoniaDelaunay’TheEyExhibitionhandout,TateModern,April152015,Page157RogerCardinal,TLS,May2015(Article)Page1858RogerCardinal,TLS,May2015(Article)Page1859‘ModernPainters’magazinearticle,May2015,Page4560SimonShaw-Miller,‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page11261PaulKlee(1879-1940)theSwisspainter,residentinGermany1906-33,joinedKandinsky’sDerBlaueReitergroupin1912andlatertaughtattheBauhaus(1920-31)Kleewasanaccomplishedamateurviolinist,andhisimagesarerifewithmusicalsymbolism,assuggestedbytitlessuchas‘OrganTones,’‘Blue-OrangeHarmony’,and‘PolyphonicArchitecture’
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LikeKandinsky,Kleewasanaccomplishedmusician, in factaconcertviolinist.He
explored musical notation, the treble clef, stave, structural rhythms, and linear
counterpoint,usingtheword‘polyphonic’,aspertheFuturists.Throughhisloveof
opera, or the combined experience, Klee built upon Wagner’s concept of the
gesamtkunstwerkand,inhisownwords“studiedthetonalvaluesfoundinmusic.”62
However, unlike Kandinsky with his penchant for the contemporary composer
Arnold Schoenberg, Klee admired the great composers of the eighteenth century,
mostnotablyJ.SBachandWolfgangAmadeusMozart.
Klee’sexpectationsfromaworkofartwerethatitshouldpresentpictorialharmony,
which he viewed as “equilibrium of movement and counter-movement.”63This is
relevantbecausepictorial ‘harmony’canobviouslybelinkedtomusical ‘harmony.’
Hedeviseda colour theory inwhichhe startswith the six coloursof the rainbow
andexplainsthisnaturalphenomenonbyarelatedcircledividedintosixparts.The
relationship between the colours in the circle results from two different kinds of
movement: a circular movement around the edge and a straight one within the
diameterofthecircle,whichhereferstoas‘pendularmovement.’Fromthecircular
form,hederivesatriangleofprimarycolours,whichhesubsequentlyexpandsinto
an ‘elemental star’ including thenon-coloursblackandwhite.This relationshipof
colours is symbolicof therelationshipofmusicalnotes.Hence, inKlee’swork,his
useofcolourreferencesspecificnotes,e.g.inworkssuchas‘Polyphony’of1908.He
believedthat“polyphonicpaintingissuperiortomusic”.64
As a teacher, it was Johannes Itten who exerted the greatest influence on the
students of the Bauhaus. From 1919 to 1922 he taught the basics of material
characteristics, composition and colour. His ‘student Bible’, The Art of Colour,
describes his ‘Colour Sphere’ of 12 colours and their correspondences. Itten
62HajoDüchting,‘PaulKlee-PaintingMusic’(Munich:Prestel,2002)Page1863http://www.bauhaus.de/de/das_bauhaus/45_unterricht/64HajoDüchting,‘PaulKlee-PaintingMusic’,(Munich:Prestel2002)Page27
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attempted to represent sound as a dreamlike ringing, such as in hisBluish-Green
Soundof1917.(SeeFigure10–ColourSphere)
Collectively the Bauhaus teachings of Kandinsky, Klee and Itten encouraged a
synaesthesia of the arts, via Itten’s pioneering adoption of the neo-Zoroastrian
religion‘Mazdaznan’aphysical,spiritualandmentalworkout.65Anextrapolationof
Itten’s theories became contemporary, in-depth investigations into solipsism and
theosophy, not least those made by Wassily Kandinsky during his spell at the
Bauhaus.Thusadualinterestinthesynaestheticandthespiritualledto“abeliefin
theprimacyofthespiritualandalongingfortheinterpenetrationofthearts;”66one
ofthechieftenetsofKandinsky’sDerBlaueReiterGroup.JosefMatthiasHauer67in
discussionwithItten,alsosharedaninterestinthesynaestheticagreementbetween
colours and musical tones, developing, independent of and a year or two before
ArnoldSchoenberg,amethodforcomposingwithall12notesofthechromaticscale.
But,itisfeltthat“Kandinskywentfurther.”68
In1922,Kandinsky’sBauhaus courseonartisticdesign included colour classes to
explore the psychological effects of colour - an investigation into Synaesthesia
throughcertainsoundsandemotionsinrelationtoparticularcolours.Furthermore,
Kandinskyattemptedtorendermusicgraphicallythroughtranscription.Stemming
from this, Kandinsky, Macke and Marc discussed by letter, the correspondence
betweenmusicaldissonances,notesandcolour-sparkingadialoguewiththe-then
darlingofdissonance,ArnoldSchoenberg.
65JohannesIttenwhotaughtattheBauhaus,insistedonshavenheads,crimsonrobesandcolonicirrigation.TheNazisproscribedMazdazmanfrom1935,abanthatremainedinGermanyuntil194666DavidSylvester,‘AboutModernArt’,CriticalEssays1949-96(London:Chatto&Windus,1996)Page7667JosefMatthiasHauer(1883-1959)wasanAustriancomposerandmusictheoristwhopre-emptsSchoenberg’smethodforcomposingwithall12notesofthechromaticscale.LikeSchoenberg,heemployedthetwelve-tonemethod.Therewasandstillisgreatcontroversyoverwhowasfirsttoemploythismethodofcomposition68E.HGombrich,‘Art&Illusion’(London:Phaidon,1995)Page311
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Kandinskywrote ina letter toSchoenberg in January1911, “Iamcertain thatour
ownmodernharmony isnot tobe found in the ‘geometric’way,but rather in the
anti-geometric, anti-logical way. And this way is that of ‘dissonances in art’, in
painting, therefore, just asmuch as inmusic. And ‘today’s’ dissonance in painting
andmusicismerelytheconsonanceof‘tomorrow’.”69
CertainlyJanGordonproffersaninterestingargumentinexploringthedualityofart
andmusicintheoreticalterms,inherAStepladdertoPaintingeditionof1962:
“Colour has a third aspect, the emotional. In this way colour differs frommusic.
Music can conveyemotions, butnonotehas apeculiar effect.”70Onemight argue,
however, that not every colour can elicit an emotion…. The blander colours on a
painter’spalettemayleavetheviewercold.
FollowingtheprecedentsetbythePost Impressionists invanGogh,Gauguinetal,
arguably Kandinsky’s chief aim was to explore the emotive power of colour, in
particular in tandem with music. Vincent and Gauguin occasionally used musical
analogiestodescribetheirworks,“comparingoneto‘abeautifulsymphony’…(they)
rhapsodized over the rich harmonies.”71Consequently, Kandinsky’s paintings are
largely expressive of feeling and sensation, rather than descriptive equivalents of
whathe saw. In thisway, “to let theeye strayoverapalette, splashedwithmany
colours,producesadualresult.”72
Just as Goethe had explored themusical properties inherent within the realm of
colourtheory,sotoowouldKandinskyviahis“unconsciousexpressionsofaninner
impulse.”73Thus, paradoxically, Kandinsky fluctuates between a theoretical and
experimental approach on his path to abstraction, the instructive versus the
69Source:PatriciaRailing,PhilosophyNow,‘AbstractArt&Music’,2005(OnlineArticle)Paragraph1070JanGordon,‘AStepladdertoPainting’(London:Faber,1962)Page8971MartinGayford,‘MusiciansinColour’from‘TheYellowHouse’(London:PenguinBooksLtd.2007)Pages203-20472JanGordon,‘AStepladdertoPainting’(London,Faber,1962)Page2373‘GreatArtists’Part80,Volume4(London:MarshallCavendish,1991)Page2542
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instinctive. The latter is best illustrated by his magnum opus ‘Concerning the
SpiritualinArt’of1910(published1911).
Thisstudywillgoontoexaminetheparallelbetweenpaintingandmusicinrelation
to abstraction and dissonance through concentrated works of Kandinsky and
Schoenberg. Stemming from this is the paradox between expressive freedom and
the calculated andmoremathematical approach of both practitioners. Examining
the relationship of concepts associated with Schoenberg’s music and theory to
Kandinsky’semploymentof similar ideas in thedevelopmentofhis compositional
theoryforabstractpainting,entailsidentifyingandexplainingthespecificaspectsof
Schoenberg’smusicandtheorythatKandinskynotedasbeingmostrelevanttohis
ownsearch for a theoryofharmony inpainting.This investigation isbest carried
outinrelationtotheworksofthe‘heroicperiod,’notably1909to1914.
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Chapter1–SynaesthesiainArtbeforeandduringKandinsky’sPeriod
ErichHohneinhistext‘MusicinArt’definedthephenomenonofsynaesthesiaaptly
as follows: “in the realm of science this magic word is rather drily called
synaesthesia.Thatis,thesympatheticarousingofonesensoryorganbystimulation
fromanother,fromwhichstemstheabilitytounderstandmusicalpaintings.”74The
word Synaesthesia derives from the Ancient Greek syn, ‘together’ and aisthesis,
‘sensation’. It is a neurological phenomenon (rather than ‘condition’)whereby an
individual’ssensationsintermingle.Itcanbedefinedasthecouplingoftwoormore
of the senses, hence, ‘with sensation’ (from Greek lexicon). “As a psychological
phenomenon, synaesthesia is intermodal, inter-sensory (specifically-audio-
visual)” 75 and is most simply an instant conjoining of sensations, affecting
approximatelyonein2,000people.
This fascinating phenomenon has been viewed paradoxically as both a form of
cognitiveenhancementandhindrance.Thevastmajorityofdefinitionsrefertoitas
a ‘condition’, which may imply some form of ‘affliction’. “Some people – a
surprisingly large number – “see” colour or “taste” or “smell” or “feel” various
sensationsas they listentomusic– thoughsuchsynaesthesiamaybeaccounteda
giftmorethanasymptom.”76Ipersonallyviewitasmoreadifferenceinperceptual
experience.Certainlyitisamulti-modalsensation,closetoAutism.
Synaesthesiacanbecongenitalandhereditary,thusdeterminedbygeneticfactors.77
Sachs points out that Galton believed genuine synaesthesiawas strongly familial.
However,onecanbecomesynaestheticasaresultofmentalillnesse.g.Vincentvan
74ErichHohne,‘MusicinArt’(London:AbbeyLibrary,1965)Page875B.MGaleyev,‘KandinskyandSchoenberg:TheProblemofInternalCounterpoint’,Articleonline,Page58.Kandinskyexplainedthisterm‘internalcounterpoint’,inventedbyhimself,inthatheimaginedthepainting‘Suddengrief’,inwhichthereisawoman,whohasreceivedaletter,informingherthatshehassuddenlybecomeawidow.Kandinskyconsidersitwouldbebanaltodepictthe‘feelingofgrief’withthe‘grief’plotitselfandwiththe‘grief’compositionandwiththe‘grief’drawingandwiththe‘grief’colouring76O.Sachs,‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page3177Podcast:‘SynaesthesiaScience’,InsideOxfordSciencewithM.duSautoy
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Gogh,78the victim of a stroke, bereavement or a severe fall.79The loss of a chief
sense or faculty can result in a kind of synaesthetic over-compensation, as in the
case of Goya.80(This case is further complicated by the fact that Goya’s world
became largely achromatic).81“The only significant cause of permanent acquired
synaesthesia isblindness…thelossofvisionmayleadto intersensoryconnections
andsynaesthesias.82Blindnessinevitablyforcesonetofocusonsounds,tobecome
moresensitivetotheauditory. Inthecaseofthosebornblind,“themassivevisual
cortex, far from remaining functionless, is reallocated to other sensory inputs,
especiallyhearingandtouch”.83Oncestonedeaf,Beethoven,forexample,continued
to compose, and his compositions rose to greater heights as themusical imagery
wasintensifiedbyhisdeafness.
Of course there are many different manifestations and strains of Synaesthesia.84
Some individuals have awareness of colour for a day /week, for example.Others
havehigherorderprocessing,toevokequestionsofimagination,memoryandsoon.
ThepainterEdvardMunchwasanestablishedsynaesthete.The ‘screamofnature’
he witnessed when crossing a Norwegian fjord, is reflected in the pulsating and
tumultuous rhythms in the background ofTheScream of 1893 (Figure 12)which
lookremarkablylikesoundwaves.(Figure11)
78“Itistruethatsynaesthesia,experiencingonesensationintermsofanother,canbefoundinthosesufferingfrommentalproblemsandthoseundertheinfluenceofhallucinogens”.MartinGayford, ‘Musicians inColour’ from ‘TheYellowHouse’(London:PenguinBooksLtd.,2007)Page19079LeighErceqwasdiagnosedwith Savant Syndromeafter falling into a ravine and suffering spineandbraininjuries.Shehasdevelopedenhancedcognitiveabilityfollowingabraininjuryandisnowan artist and poet who “hears” colour and “sees” sound. Acquired Savant Syndrome is rare; theconditiongivesaperson‘vastlyenhancedcognitiveability’,whichtheywerenotbornwith.Shealsonowexperiencessynaesthesia–themixingofthesenses.Source:Article,IndependentNewsOnline,May201580FranciscoJosédeGoyayLucientes’(1746-1828)illnessof1792lefthimdeaf;hesubsequentlybecameintrospective.Itisfeltthelossofonechieffacultymeantthathemadefarbolderstatementsinpaint.Seealso:DrCliffordRose,‘Neurology&theArts’81Achromatic:fromtheGreeka-‘without’andkhromatikosfrom‘colour’.82O.Sachs,‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page29483O.Sachs,‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page26884SeeAppendixNo.3forreference
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ForMunchtheworldofsoundwasaflowingworldofshapes;acousticwaveformsof
soundcolourortonecolour.Thosewithperfectpitchoftencompareittocolourand
the word ‘chroma’ is in fact sometimes used inmusical theory. Kandinsky had a
completelyeidetic85memory,yetwashetechnicallyasynaestheteoraninducer?86
Heisregularlycitedasbeingasynaesthete,andthisstudywillattempttoascertain
howmuchhewantedtobe,orhowmuchofhissynaestheticexperiencewasdown
tohiseideticmemoryoradesiretojoinothersinstrivingtofindthat‘sixthsense’.A
plausible case canbemade forbelieving thathewasnearly there.RobertHughes
proposes thatKandinskyhad “abnormally strongvisual senses”87and that “he felt
some colours as strongly asothers feel sounds.”88Sensibly,DuSautoyargues that
synaesthetic artmay refer to either art created by synaesthetes or art created to
convey the synaesthetic experience. 89 In neurological terms, there is a dual
perception system in a hemisphere of the brain, which may account in part for
Kandinsky’sdualsensoryexperience.
We knowKandinskywas an advocate of anthroposophy,90essentially therapeutic,
wellbeing.HeknewRudolfSteiner,founderofanthroposophy,andalsotheRussian
musicologistandtheosophistAlexandraZacharina-Unkovskaya.Unkovskayauseda
scaletodemonstratethevibrationofsoundsinaccordwiththevibrationofcolours
(this scale is preserved in Kandinsky’s Munich estate). In the Spiritual in Art
Kandinskydescribes theworkofUnkovskaya: “to impress a tuneuponunmusical
childrenwiththehelpofcolours….Shehasconstructedaspecial,precisemethodof
‘translating’ the colours of nature intomusic, of painting the sounds of nature, of
85InPsychology,relatingtomentalimageshavingunusualvividness&detail(seealsoFootnote90)86M.duSautoy,‘SynaesthesiaScience’,InsideOxfordScience,Podcast87RobertHughes,‘TheShockoftheNew’(London:Thames&Hudson,1992)Page30088RobertHughes,‘TheShockoftheNew’(London:Thames&Hudson,1992)Page30089M.duSautoy,‘SynaesthesiaScience’,InsideOxfordScience,Podcast90Aformaleducational,therapeutic,andcreativesystemestablishedbyRudolfSteiner,seekingtousemainlynaturalmeanstooptimizephysicalandmentalhealthandwell-being,Anthroposophyisahumanorientedspiritualphilosophythatreflectsandspeakstothebasicdeepspiritualquestionsofhumanity,tobasicartisticneeds,totheneedtorelatetotheworldoutofascientificattitudeofmind,andtotheneedtodeveloparelationtotheworldincompletefreedomandbasedoncompletelyindividualjudgementsanddecisions
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seeing sounds.”91Kandinsky also knew of the theosophy of Madame Blatavsky,
which“augmentedhisalreadystrongtendencytomysticism.”92
Kandinsky,adisciplinedandscholarlyteacherinlaterlife,outlinedhowunmusical
children have been successfully helped to play the piano by quoting a parallel in
colour(forexample,offlowers).Heexplains:“OntheselinesA.SacharjinUnkowsky
hasworkedforseveralyearsandhasevolvedamethodofsodescribingsoundsby
naturalcoloursandcoloursbynaturalsoundsthatcolourcouldbeheardandsound
seen.Thesystemhasprovedsuccessfulforseveralyearsbothintheinventor'sown
school and theConservatoire at St. Petersburg. Finally Scriabin, onmore spiritual
lines, hasparalleled soundand colours in a chartnotunlike thatofUnkowsky. In
"Prometheus"hehasgivenconvincingproofofhis theories.Hischartappeared in
‘Musik’(1911).”93
Kandinsky also enquired into the recently founded Munich sanatorium’s use of
colourtherapy,whichappliedmusicaswell:“attimesthepatientwasgivensingle
sounds or particular chords in rhythmic repetitionduring the treatment.94On the
subject of Chromotherapy95(See also Appendix No. 2), attempts have beenmade
withdifferent colours in the treatmentofvariousnervousailments.AsKandinsky
himself wrote, “They have shown that red light stimulates and excites the heart,
whilebluelightcancausetemporaryparalysis”.96
JohnR.Hughescoinedthetermthe ‘MozartEffect’ inaccordancewithachange in
neurophysical activity on the temporal and left frontal areas of the brain when
91KonradBoehmer,‘Schoenberg&Kandinsky:AnHistoricEncounter’,BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData,(Amsterdam,TheNetherlands:OPA,1997)(Article)Page6792N.Wolf,‘Expressionism’(Germany:Taschen,2004)Page5293WassilyKandinsky,‘Kandinsky’sDin:OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage6094KonradBoehmer,‘Schoenberg&Kandinsky:AnHistoricEncounter’,BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData,(Amsterdam,TheNetherlands:OPA,1997)(Article)Page7395Chromotherapyisanothertermforcolourtherapy;asystemofalternativemedicinebasedontheuseofcolour,especiallyprojectedcolouredlight96WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page25
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listening to themusic ofMozart. Brainmapswere generated to plot spiking. The
effectissaidtobeprimaryordirectonthecerebralcortex.Formerly,thescientist
DavidSchwenter(1585-1636)foundthatmusicalsoundsevenaffectthethickness
oftheblood,thustriggeringaphysicalandphysiologicalreactionofsorts.Similarly
the top-class pianist Manfred Clynes moved into the world of psychology and
neurology linked to feeling, measuring emotion and music. Relating to this,
Kandinskyfeltthat“relaxingtheeyeandmindallowswhatisseentoreachthepart
ofthebrainthatrespondstomusic.”97
A series of psychological studies in the 1860s and 1870s culminated in Galton’s
Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development in 1883. “These served to
legitimatethephenomenonandweresoonfollowedbytheintroductionoftheword
“Synaesthesia.”98Interestingly, ‘hyperconnectivity’ispresentinprimatesandother
mammalsduring foetaldevelopmentandearly infancy,but is “reducedorpruned
within a few months after birth…. The newborn’s senses are intermingled in a
synaestheticconfusion.”99
My investigation seeks to ascertainwhetherKandinskywas a true synaestheteor
pseudosynaesthete. Most commonly synaesthesia is both congenital and familial;
neitherofwhichseemtoapplytoKandinsky.
In claiming “The soundof colour is sodefinite,”100Kandinsky’s epiphanicmoment
came in 1896 when he found his ‘imagination running’ during a performance of
Lohengrin at the Moscow Royal Theatre: “I saw colours before my eyes, while
almostmadlinesdrewthemselvesinfrontofme…….Wagnerhadpainted‘myhour’
musically.” 101 Wagner’s Lohengrin revealed “new and expressive means of
97RobertCumming,‘GreatArtists’,(AnnotatedGuides)(England,DK,1998)Page9698O.Sachs,‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page28999O.Sachs,‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page292100WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page25101WillGompertz,‘WhatAreYouLookingAt?’(AudioSeries)Kandinsky/Orphism/BlueRider
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polyphonic instrumentation.” 102 In the same year, an exhibition of Monet’s
Haystacksprovedtobeaseminalmomentalsoforthe30-year-oldKandinsky:“That
it was a haystack the catalogue informedme. I could not recognize it. This non-
recognitionwaspainful tome. I considered that thepainterhadno right topaint
indistinctly.”103ForKandinsky,hehadthesensethattheobjectwasmissinginthe
picture. “Theobjectwasdiscreditedasan indispensableelementofapainting.”104
This contributed towards Kandinsky becoming the first abstract artist of the
twentieth century, whereupon he “embarked on a totally uncharted and
unprecedentedcourse,abandoningtryingtodepictobjectivereality.”105
ThetwoexperiencesthusplantedtheseedsinKandinskywhichweretogerminate
laterinamusical-synaesthetic-artisticvein.Monet’sstrivingfor‘fugitiveeffects’led
to an almost abstract halation106in theHaystack series of the early 1890s,which
Kandinskycouldtakefurtherintermsofthedematerialisationoftheobject,which
biographerUlrikeBecks-Malornyalternativelycoined‘thedissolutionoftheobject.’
Meanwhile the Wagnerian tenet of the gesamtkunstwerk coupled with the multi-
modalsensationsthemusicevokedinKandinskyprovidedhimwiththefoundations
forhisresearchintothesynaesthetic.
Couplingthesetwopotentexperiencestogether,“Kandinskynowsetouttoconvey
symbolicmeaningsnotonlythroughmotifsbutthroughpurelinesandcolours,their
contrasts and harmonies, their ‘musicality’ and synaesthetic effects.’ 107 An
illustrationofthisisoutlinedbyKandinskyasfollows:
102A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)Page20103KennethC.Lindsay,‘Kandinsky:CompleteWritingsonArt’(England:G.K.Hall&Co.,1982)Page363104C.Gregory,‘GreatArtists’Part80,Volume4(London:MarshallCavendish,1991)Page2538105‘DiscoveringGreatPaintings’,No.54(Milan:AFabbriProduction,1992)Page12106Halation:thespreadingoflightbeyonditsproperboundariestoformafogroundtheedgesofabrightimage,relatingtotheImpressionists’characteristicafocalhomogeniety107N.Wolf,‘Expressionism’(Germany:Taschen,2004)Page52
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“ThesunmeltsallofMoscowdowntoasinglespotthat,likeamadtuba,startsallof
theheartandallofthesoulvibrating.Butno,thisuniformityofredisnotthemost
beautifulhour.Itisonlythefinalchordofasymphonythattakeseverycolourtothe
zenith of life that, like the fortissimo of a great orchestra, is both compelled and
allowedbyMoscowtoringout”.108
InKandinsky’sarticle‘TheEffectofColour’109of1911,hetalksofthephysicaleffect
of looking at a palette of colours, in terms of an experience not unlike lexical-
gustatorysynaesthesia,“likeagourmetsavouringadelicacy”.Hedescribeshowthe
tongueis“titillatedbyaspicydish”andafinger“touchingice”.These,hestates,are
physicalsensations,limitedinduration.Similarly,thecross-overbetweenthevisual
and auditory is never far away inhisprose: “Keen lemon-yellowhurts the eye as
doesaprolongedandshrillbuglenotetheear”.110
As George Heard Hamilton outlines, “Colour, like music, has its ‘sounds’ and
‘tones’…..Coloursuggestssynaestheticsensationsofthegreatestintricacy”.111Given
Kandinsky’s confession of 1910 “I feltmuchmore at home in the realmof colour
thaninthatofline”,itispossible,thatKandinskyhadSynopsia;theabilityto‘hear’
colours and conversely ‘see’ sounds.112Thus, he connects each instrument of the
orchestrawithitscorrespondingcolour.(SeeFigure13)
For Kandinsky, “Each colour has its own objectively verifiable properties and its
ownspecificeffectonthepsyche.”113Forexample,“Violetisrathersadandailing.In
musicitisanEnglishhorn,orthedeepnotesofwoodinstrumentse.g.abassoon”.114
108H.Duchting,‘Kandinsky’(Germany:Taschen,1991)Page6109WassilyKandinsky,‘UherdesGeistigeinderKunst’,Chapter5,Pages37-42110H.Chipp,‘TheoriesofModernArt’(U.S.A:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1996)Page153111G.HeardHamilton,‘Painting&SculptureinEurope1880-1940’(U.S.A:YaleUniversityPress,1993)Page340112RobertHughes,‘TheShockoftheNew’(London:Thames&Hudson,1992)Page300113ThomasS.Messer,‘Kandinsky’(London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page25114WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page41
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Asanaccomplishedcellisthimself,Kandinskywouldseethecolourblueemanating
fromthe instrumentasheplayed it, floodinghisperipheralvision,andhenceThe
BlueRider.115“Thenamethusaroseofitsownaccord”.(Kandinsky)
AsJohnGagealsonotes,“Kandinsky,intheearlyyearsofhisnon-representational
style,wasmuchinterestedincolourtemperatureanddevisedcolourrelationships
basedentirelyonthis typeofcontrast”.116Hewaspreoccupiedaround1910-11 in
finding amusical equivalent for each colour. Much of his parallels he outlines in
ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt,suchas“Inmusicalightblueislikeaflute,adarker
blueacello;astilldarkerathunderousdoublebass;andthedarkestblueofall-an
organ…..Lightwarmredhasacertainsimilaritytomediumyellow,alikeintexture
andappeal,andgivesafeelingofstrength,vigour,determination,triumph.Inmusic,
itisasoundoftrumpets,strong,harshandringing”.117
Inaddition toamusicalequivalent forspecificcolours,Kandinskycitesa rangeof
emotionsinrelationtobluesandrosecolours,inasimilarwaytothoseofPicasso’s
respectiveBlueandRosePeriods: “Forredanddeepenedblue,aparallel inmusic
are the sad, middle tones of the cello”.118Blue ‘withdraws from the spectator
(concentricmotion).’ForKandinsky,a rosecolourevokesasoprano’svoice,black
“acquiresanadditionalresonanceofnon-humanmourning”.119Hegoesontoequate
whitetoapauseinmusic,aneffecthedescribeswiththeoxymoron‘resoundinglike
asilence’.Paradoxically,inmusicaltermsbrightred,heclaims,islikethesoundofa
fanfare, “vermillion like a tuba”. Furthermore, “dark blue can be compared to the
deepnotesofanorgan”.
115Formedin1911andbasedinMunich,so-namedduetoKandinsky’sloveofblueandMarc’spassionforhorses:“Webothlovedblue,MarchorsesandIriders”.(W.Kandinsky):A.Nelson,http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2000/11/3/all-the-pretty-horses-franz-marc/116JohnGage,‘ColourinArt’(London:Thames&Hudson,2006)Page76117WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page38118WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page41119A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)Page22
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InConcerningtheSpiritual,Kandinskytheorizedthatyellowisthecolourofmiddle
Conabrassytrumpetand‘streamsoutwardineccentricmotion’.Infurthersound
analogies,hestatesinTheLanguageofFormsandColours“yellowisdisquietingand
stimulating,withashrillsound”.Blackisthecolourofclosureandtheendofthings,
and that combinations of colours produce vibrational frequencies akin to chords
playedon apiano.AsKandinskyhimself put it: “Anyparallel between colour and
musiccanonlyberelative.Justasaviolincangivevariousshadesoftone,soyellow
has shades, which can be expressed by various instruments. But in making such
parallels, I amassuming ineach caseapure toneof colouror sound,unvariedby
vibrationordampers”.120
ThepainterJawlensky, likeKandinsky,wasconvincedthatcoloursandsoundsare
interrelatedandinterchangeable,wherebycolours“ranglikemusic inhiseyes”.121
Franz Marc similarly shared the above view, claiming that “colours contain
counterpoint,trebleandbassclef,majorandminorjustlikemusic”.
The Institute of Artistic Culture, known as INKhUK, (1920–24) was an artistic
organisation, a society of painters, graphic artists, sculptors, architects, and art
scholarssetup inMoscowrunaccordingtoaprogrammebyKandinsky, involving
thepsychologicalreactionoftheartisttocolours.Forexample,hebelievedthatred
excitesactivity.Healsostatedthat“Thecoloursaretobestudiedfirstindividually
and then in combinations.…..co-ordinated with medical, psychological and occult
knowledgeandexperienceofthesubject,e.g.colourandsound”.122
Listening to music has, in extreme cases, had the power to induce Musicogenic
Epilepsy, orMusicolepsia; essentially epileptic seizures inducedbymusic. In tests
concerning Epileptic form activity, in patients exposed to regular excerpts of
Mozart’smusic,forexample,thenumberofattacksdecreased.120A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)FootnoteonPage38121G.HeardHamilton,‘Painting&SculptureinEurope1880-1940’(U.S.A:YaleUniversityPress,1993)Page214122C.Gray,‘TheRussianExperimentinArt:1863-1922’(London:Thames&Hudson,1996)Page234
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In1922,KandinskyintroducedacourseattheBauhaus123onartisticdesignwhich
included colour classes to explore the psychological effects of colour and how
Synaesthesia can be experienced through certain sounds and emotions related to
particular colours. 124 Sachs, in his text Musicophilia, claims that musical
synaesthesia,asencouragedbytheBauhaustutors,wasthemostcommonstrainof
thiscomplexneurologicalphenomenon.ForKandinsky,“formsandcolourstended
increasinglytosoundindependentchords”.125
123KandinskytaughtattheBauhausfrom1922-33124MoreofKandinsky’stheoriesoncolourareoutlinedinChapterV11ofhisbookTheLanguageofFormsandColour.Hisanalogy‘coloursinfanfares’isonesuchstatementthatsumsuptheartist’sdualinterestincolourandmusicalanalogy.125U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page25
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Chapter2-ThePathtoAbstraction
ThissectionseekstoinvestigateKandinsky’sspiritualjourneyintotherealmofthe
spiritual in art as a source for the artist’s early abstractions. It is important to
ascertain to what extent this path to abstraction was instinctive and natural,
whetheritwasgovernedbypurechanceoradeliberateattemptatinnovation.
ThequestionofwhetherKandinsky’s‘PathtoAbstraction’126wasanentirelynatural
one or not becomes amoot pointwhen one recalls the serendipitousmoment in
1908whentheartistencounteredoneofhisownpaintingson itsside;awork“of
indescribablebeauty, imbuedwithan inner flame.”127Allhe could recognisewere
“forms and colours whose meaning was incomprehensible.”128This prompted a
semi-permanentmove to non-objective art. “Themore abstract is form, themore
clearanddirectisitsappeal,”129asKandinskyputit.
The question of abstraction is an inherently complex one. Abstract art could be
definedas“artthatdoesnotattempttorepresentanaccuratedepictionofavisual
reality but instead uses shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve
itseffect.”130Abstractart is invariablynon-representational. Itcouldbebasedona
subject ormay have no source at all in theexternalworld. However, artwhich is
‘abstracted’, connotes a tendency to separate or withdraw something from
somethingelse, thus extracting and simplifying from reality whilst containing
recognisablematerialforms,albeitinshort-handformat.
In describingAbstraction, Kandinsky talks of the rejection of the third dimension
whenotherartistswerelookingforthefourth,tokeepapictureonasingleplane.
126http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/kandinsky-path-abstraction/kandinsky-path-abstraction-room-guide,Paragraph1127RobertHughes,‘TheShockoftheNew’(London:Thames&Hudson,1992)Page301128RobertHughes,‘TheShockoftheNew’(London:Thames&Hudson,1992)Page301129WassilyKandinsky‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage70130Source:Tate.org,http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art,Page1
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Modelling was abandoned, in favour of a ‘limitation.’131This chimed with the
contemporaryModernist doctrine “less is more” as coined by GermanModernist
architect Mies van der Rohe, and the then vogue for asceticism. That said,
abstractionforitsownsakeheldnointerestforKandinsky.Hewantedtostressthat
abstract art was not merely decoration of patterning and so retained certain
references to recognisable objects in his early works (e.g. Cossacks, 1910). He
enjoyed the polymorphous freedom of children’s art, for example, yet I am not
entirelyconvinced“hispicturesconveyasensationofastateofmindthroughfreely
combinedshapesandcolourswithouthavingtorepresentanythingatall.”132
AugustEndelltalkedpropheticallyofatotallynewartwhichwasabouttodevelop-
anartwith“shapesthatmeantnothing,representednothingandrecallednothing,
but which had the same emotional effect as music.” 133 Yet, at least initially,
Kandinsky’s abstract works are solipsistic,134and are thus esoterically symbolic,
ratherthan‘notrepresentinganythingatall.’Hisearlyabstractworksarecertainly
oftenbasedonmemoriesorexperiences135albeitinareductionistformat.Thusthey
are abstractly allegorical. In this way, his symbolic language of shape and colour
wentbeyondthedepictiveinfavourofthespiritual;muchlikeGauguin’saccusation
that the Impressionistswere searching around the eye andnot in themysterious
centreofthought.136
The Fauve ‘experience’ certainly led the way to greater freedom, and “more
apparent reduction of representational elements.” 137 As Tom Phillips states,
131WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A,Dover,2000)Page44132AndrewGraham-Dixon,‘Art’(London:DK,2008)Page221133RosemaryLambert,‘The20thCentury’(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1981)Page27134Solipsismistheviewortheorythattheselfisallthatcanbeknowntoexist:extremeegocentrism.EpistemologicalSolipsismisatypeofidealismaccordingtowhichonlythedirectlyaccessiblementalcontentsofanindividualcanbeknown.Theexistenceofanexternalworldisregardedasanunresolvablequestionoranunnecessaryhypothesis,ratherthanactuallyfalse135Forexample,‘ImprovisationGorge’of1914isbasedonKandinsky’smemoriesofboatingwithhispartnerandfellow-artistGabrieleMunter136D.Gamboni,PaulGauguin,‘TheMysteriousCentreofThought’(U.S.A:UniversityofChicagoPress,2014)Introduction,Page6137A.Bovi,“Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England,Hamlyn,1971)Page20
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“Kandinsky,between1908and1912,managed,usingmusicasakey,tounlockthe
doortothisnewfreedom.”138Certainlyfrom1909onwards,Kandinskywaspainting
pictures such as Mountain, which are considered non-figurative, but “contain
ciphers of natural objects.”139By 1910, in works such as Composition 11 (lost in
WW11), Kandinsky’sworkwas characterised by “liberation fromperspective and
thefreeuseoflineandcolourincontrapuntalarrangement,”140althoughhehadnot
yet‘takentheplunge’intotherealmoftotalabstraction.
Around1911-12,Kandinskywasexperimentingwithnon-objectiveart.By1911he
bansallfigurativeelements;preferring,instead,tomakecolours“sing.”Hebelieved
that abstract art contained spiritual qualities and independence from natural
appearances and could give art a new autonomy. The nature of colour and its
emotional effects Kandinsky explores in his book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art
(1910), insisting that inner-feelings could only be expressed in abstract forms. In
fact Kandinsky went on to categorise his paintings ‘Compositions’ and
‘Improvisations’inordertoremoveanynarrativeassociations,using"formsfiltered
totheessentials"asMatisseputit.141
Interestingly, whilst Kandinsky had a completely eidetic142 memory and could
visualiseshape,coloursandtonesofanyobjectatwill,hisshort-sightednessmeant
that he tended to see distant things as brightly coloured patches with indistinct
contours. This is, as per the impact of developing cataracts on the late work of
Turner andMonet, a contributory factor in termsofKandinsky’s journey into the
realmofabstraction.Kandinsky’sfirstabstractpaintingisconsideredtobeawater-
colourandinkpaintingof1910143inwhich“therangeofthevisiblewasfreedofall
138T.Phillips,‘MusicinArt’(NewYork,Prestel,1997)Page38139W-DieterDube,‘TheExpressionists’(London,Thames&HudsonLtd,1996)Page112140H.Düchting,‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany,Taschen,1995)Page26141Matissebelievedthathehadgained‘greatercompletenessandabstraction’inthecut-outs.‘Ihaveattainedaformfilteredtoitsessentials’.Tate.org,TheSnail:http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/matisse-the-snail-t00540/text-display-caption142InPsychology,relatingtomentalimageshavingunusualvividnessanddetail14349x63cm,Muséed’ArtModerne,Paris
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naturalism and showed him the primary evidence for his eidetic presences and
essencesthroughaninternaldimension”.144
Essentially,Kandinskysought the ‘victoryof theavant-gardeover tradition,’ ashe
stated in Concerning the Spiritual in Art. So revelatory was the path Kandinsky
forged,heisregardedastheveryfirstmodernEuropeanartisttobreakthroughthe
representationalbarrierandcarrypaintingintothestrangeandunexploredworld
oftotalabstraction.145Heclaimedthat“generallyspeaking,colourisapowerwhich
directlyinfluencesthesoul”.146
Bothintermsofhisteachingsandhisownartisticoutput,improvisingfreelyupon
the ‘keyboard of colours,’ “revealed to him the dramatic and expressive power of
purecolour”.147Leaning towards the spiritual rather than thematerial,hewanted
hispaintingtodescribespiritualstates,“epiphaniesofthesoul.”148Itistrue,hehad
abnormallystrongvisualreactionsand“he feltsomecoloursasstronglyasothers
feelsounds.’149Thus,heencouragedpeopletothinkandsee“behindmatter”ashe
statedintheBlueRiderAlmanac150of1912.Kandinskyreferstothisphenomenon
as ‘TheEpochof theGreat Spirituality.’ Subsequently, hedevelopedan interest in
the idea of the ‘Geist’151or the ‘spiritual essence.’ He introduced himself to Franz
Marc as a spiritually based person,152for example. The Czech artist Frank Kupka
explored the kinetic dimension plus various synaesthetic and theosophical ideas,
sparkingadialoguewithKandinskyandhiscircle.
144A.Bovi,“Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England,Hamlyn,1971)Page20145H.Arnason,‘AHistoryofModernart’,(London:Thames&Hudson,1977)Page127146Janson&Janson,‘HistoryofArt’(London,Thames&Hudson,1997)Page787147C.Gregory,‘GreatArtists’Part80,Volume4(London,MarshallCavendish,1991)Page2531148RobertHughes,‘TheShockoftheNew’(London,Thames&Hudson,1992)Page301149RobertHughes,‘TheShockoftheNew’(London,Thames&Hudson,1992)Page300150Theeditorssucceededinpresentinganeclecticmixofmaterialfromdifferentculturesanderas–andindoingso,demonstratedanimportantprinciple-thatallauthenticmanifestationsofartcouldbeunitedbytheirexpressiveform,notbytheircontent.Inotherwords,allart,irrespectiveofculture,thatdemonstratedagenuineexpressiveurgecouldbeplacedtogetherinaunity,orsynthesis,superficialquestionsaboutitstechnicalorartisticqualitybecomingirrelevant151Thespiritofanindividualorgroup(ref.German&relatedto‘ghost’)152AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page31
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Following the precedent set by Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams of 1900,
Kandinskywasdrawntothemetaphysicalandtherelationshiptotheinnerstatesof
mind.153HebelievedandresearchedinformationfromSigmundFreud’swritingsto
helpKandinskyactivateitinhiswork.Thisnotionofinteriorisationorintrospection
wascommontothemodernExpressionistoutlook;infactTranscendentalismwasa
shared interest of Kandinsky and Der Blaue Reiter. This originally Kantian
philosophypromptedKandinsky’sowninvestigationsconcerningthespiritualinart
andhis “mysticalbelief inaco-relationbetweenmusicalandcolour tones.”154The
pulsatingrhythmsofdisparatecoloursandabstracthieroglyphicmotifsofhismid-
late oeuvre become “unconscious expressions of an inner impulse.’ 155 These
unconscious expressions Kandinsky relates to music and spirituality, stating that
“Musicwasseenasthemostspiritualartform,theonebestsuitedtoexpressingthe
ineffable.”156
Kandinskyfeltstronglythatmusicalsoundactsdirectlyonthesoul.157Inparticular,
he talks of how the piano affects the human soul, for “true harmony exercises a
direct impressionon the soul.”158Ultimately,Kandinsky investigated the effectsof
coloursasvibrationsofthesoul,believingthat“thedecisivefactorinthegenesisof
apictureshouldbetheinnervoiceoftheartist.”159
Fascinatingly,someyearsearlier,VincentvanGoghhadproposedthat“therewould
beafutureartist,hepredicted,whowoulddowithcolourwhatWagnerhaddonein
sound:mix it innewandbeautiful combinations thatwould soothe themind and
speak to the soul: ‘itwill come’.”160Prophetic, no less, and Iwould conjecture the
153Shapiro,David/Cecile.AbstractExpressionism.‘ThePoliticsofApoliticalPainting’(Cambridge:UniversityPress,2000)Page17154‘DiscoveringGreatPaintings’,No.54(Milan,AFabbriProduction,1992)Page26155C.Gregory,‘GreatArtists’Part80,Volume4(London:MarshallCavendish,1991)Page2542156ThomasS.Messer,‘Kandinsky’(London,Thames&Hudson,1997)Page25157WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page27158WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page15159U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page55160MartinGayford,‘MusiciansinColour’from‘TheYellowHouse’(London:PenguinBooksLtd,2007)Page190
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‘futureartist’wasnoneotherthanWassilyKandinsky.Meanwhile,hiscontemporary
PaulKlee’srepertoire“increasinglyincludedthesymboliclanguageofmusic”.161
AsC.Grayrightlynoted,“Malevich,KandinskyandthePevsnerbrothers……argued
that art was essentially a spiritual activity, that its business was to order man’s
visionoftheworld.”162AsKandinskywasapractisingmemberoftheTheosophical
Movement, he believed that our knowledge of God may be achieved through
spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition or special individual relations. Like Madame
Blavatsky,hefeltamagicalcorrespondencebetweentonesincolourandmusic,and
pursuedhisinterestinTheosophy,Spiritism,EschatologyandtheOccult.Similarly,
the Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck talked of a “darkening of spiritual
atmosphere.”
In his text Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky states “The Theosophical
Societyconsistsofgroupswhoseektoapproachtheproblemofthespiritbywayof
the innerknowledge…..Theosophy is synonymouswith eternal truth.”163However,
bywayofachallenge,Nietzscheclaimed“spiritualityisdead.”Itwasinthisclimate
thatvarioussocietiesandordersconcernedwithmysticism, like theTheosophists
andtheRosicrucians164hadsprungupinanattempttofillthespiritualgap,whilsta
newagedawned,inwhichmaterialismwouldbereplacedbyspirituality–aconcept
alreadyexploredbyGermanRomanticsFriedrichandPhilipOttoRunge.
“The idea of music appears everywhere in Kandinsky's paintings. He believed
shadesresonatedwitheachothertoproducevisual'chords'andhadaninfluenceon
thesoul.”165RobertHughescitesanenlighteningstatementbyKandinskyabout‘the
161HajoDüchting,‘PaulKlee-PaintingMusic’,(Munich:Prestel2002)Page30162C.Gray,‘TheRussianExperimentinArt:1863-1922’(London:Thames&Hudson,1996)Page246163WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page13164Secretivesocietydevotedtothestudyofmetaphysical,mysticalandalchemicallore;Rosicrucianismemphasizedthebettermentofmankindthroughacquiredknowledge,buttheriseofscientificenlightenment,whichplacedcompletestockinempiricalevidence,discardedRosicrucianismforitsmoremysticalelements.165GerardMcBurney,‘WassilyKandinsky:ThePainterofSoundandVision:ConcertosonCanvas’,http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/jun/24/art.art,Subtitletoarticleonline
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soul’inhistextTheShockoftheNew:“Anyimpressionoftastecommunicatesitself
directly to the soul, and thence to the other organs of sense.”166Yet, as Bovi
observed,therangeofinfluencesonKandinsky’sartisbroadandvaried:‘Uptothe
time of his death in 1944, Kandinsky’s work showed a wealth of inspiration.”167
Culturally,hedrewuponhisnativeRussia,in10th–14thcenturyreligiouspaintings
andRussianfolklore.Furtherafield,helookedtotheethnographic,thenaïveandthe
‘primitive arts’, namely African and Oceanian. Yet he also focussed on the art of
other cultures, such as Bavarian glass painting, Persian textiles, Chinese brush
painting, Japanese Zen calligraphy, German prints, Bavarian art and the cult of
Egyptian priesthood. Art historically, he drew uponMedieval sculpture, Post and
Neo Impressionism; in particular the cloisonnism of the Pont-Aven artists, and
Symbolism: “Kandinsky’sattitudeand thatof theBlaueReiter groupasawhole is
essentially Symbolist: the subjective truth, the sacred.” 168 Certainly Kandinsky
seems to have heeded Symbolist GustaveMoreau’s advice “Youmust copynature
with imagination; that is what makes an artist. Colour must be thought, dreamt,
imagined.”169
Naturally,Kandinskyalsodrewfromthefountainofearlytwentiethcentury‘Isms,in
Fauvism, Rayonism, Simultaneism, Orphism and Expressionism. The deliberate
clashes of colour that epitomises the work of Les Fauves arguably heralds the
beginningsofKandinsky’searlymovetoabstractionanddissonance.Rayonismand
Simultaneism both shared an interest in the combined sensory experience, and
Orphism celebrated music - a movement eponymously named after the mythical
figureofOrpheus.AsBovistates,“KandinskystemsfromtheviolenceoftheFauves
and the exacerbated Expressionism of the Brücke.”170Yet he is most commonly
associatedwith the alternativeGermangroupDerBlaueReiter.Soabundantwere
the influences on Kandinsky and fellow-painters of theNeue Kunstlervereinigung
166RobertHughes,‘TheShockoftheNew’(London:Thames&Hudson,1992)Page300167A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)Page36168C.Gray‘TheRussianExperimentinArt:1863-1922’(London:Thames&Hudson,1996)Page118169www.leith.edin.sch.uk/arts/resources/pdf/er/FauvesCubismVorticism.pdf170A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)Page40
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München and Der Blaue Reiter, they threw their net open so far wide that they
termedtheirapproach‘syncretism.’
However,themostprofoundinfluenceonKandinsky’sartisticoeuvreisundoubtedly
music,for“PaintingandmusicwerecallingKandinskyirresistibly.”171Incombining
theinfluenceofmusicwithabstraction,IagreewithStone,inhow“heseesMusicat
thecreativeapexofthepyramidofcomposition,sincemusicadherestoabstraction
extendedthroughtimebutpaintingcompressestimewiththepossibilityofrhythm
and colour for movement.”172(Thus raising before its time, the ghost of moving
picturesandmotiongraphics).Thisquestionofwhetherandtowhatextentmusicis
anabstractionisamootpoint,andonethatKandinskyandiscontemporarieswere
preoccupiedwith.
Ubiquitously, “Music, that great teacher of humankind, was ever present in
Kandinsky’slife.”173Herecalledhearingastrangehissingnoisewhenmixingcolours
in his paint-box as a child, and later he became an accomplished cello player.
Meanwhile, his contemporary Klee was a concert violinist. Arguably Kandinsky’s
most significant statement on the correlation between art and music is in
ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt,inwhichhewrotethat“Generallyspeaking,colouris
apowerwhichdirectlyinfluencesthesoul.Colouristhekeyboard,theeyesarethe
hammers,thesoulisthepianowithmanystrings.Theartististhehandwhichplays,
touchingonekeyoranother,tocausevibrationsinthesoul.”174
ThesynthesisbetweenartandmusicwasanentirelynaturaloneforKandinsky;he
excelled at both in school, playing the cello and the piano. He felt strongly that
painting can develop the same energies as music. 175 In fact the vocabulary
171AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page36172JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage10173ThomasS.Messer,‘Kandinsky’(London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page70174SimonShaw-Miller,‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page93175NorbertLynton,‘StoryofModernArt’(London:Phaidon,1995)Page83
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Kandinsky uses for both is interchangeable: ‘melodic’ and ‘symphonic,’ also
‘rhythmicandunrhythmic,harmony,discord’.“Musicalreferencesanddiscussionon
colour is often accompanied by timbral, melodic and harmonic analogies”. 176
Similarlyheusesamusicalvocabulary tonamehisworks:e.g.ColourfulEnsemble,
1938.Kandinskyalsotalksabouthiscoloursas‘sounding’and‘vibrating’.Thiscase
is further strengthenedwhen in1909,hedivideshispaintings into the categories
Impressions, Improvisations, Compositions; the latter two clearly correlatingwith
music, “from melodic to symphonic values-Impression (outward); Improvisation
(unconscious); Composition (inward)”.177In categorising these abstract works, he
catalogueshis‘pieces’aspermusicalopusnumbers,thusfurtheringtheallusionto
music,whilstpragmaticallyorganisinganarrayofuntitledabstractexperiments.
Furthermore,KandinskygreatlyadmiredWagner,andsawhisfusingofmusic,text
and drama into a seamless gesamtkunstwerk as inspirational. 178 Kandinsky
concernedhimselfwiththereciprocalrelationshipbetweentheartsandcolourand
the psychological effect which calls forth “a vibration from the soul”. Wagner
developed an operatic genre, which he called ‘music drama’. The synthesizing of
music, drama, verse, legend, and spectacle is best epitomised in Der Ring des
Nibelungen.179
WillGrohmann180consideredthat“chromaticmaterialbecomesdecisiveasinmusic
and in this respect Kandinsky stands between Mussorgsky and Scriabin.” 181
Chronologically this makes sense, yet theoretically Kandinsky sought more for a
resonance than their dissonance: for forms and colours should penetrate the
beholder,directlyimpactthesoul,reverberateinhimandmovehiminhisdepths,
176ThomasS.Messer,‘Kandinsky’(London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page90177JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage11178NorbertLynton,‘StoryofModernArt’(London:Phaidon,1995)Page82179TheRingCyclewasacycleoffouroperas,1847–74180WriterofacomprehensivemonographonKandinsky:IlSaggiatore,Milan,1958181A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(London:Hamlyn,1971)Page21
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asmusicdoesthelistener.182Hetalksofan‘innersound’andtheunconsciousmind.
In thisway he echoes the sentiments of Schopenhauer,who claimed ofmusic “It
reproducesall theemotionsofour innermostbeing.”183Mostofhis contemporary
musicians such as Debussy were also deeply concerned with spiritual harmony.
Believingthat“musichasagrammarwhich,althoughmodifiedfromtimetotime,is
of continual help and value as a kind of dictionary,”184Kandinsky attempted to
render music graphically via transcription, just as his contemporary Klee used
structural rhythms, musical notation and linear counterpoint: “prominent force
lineswhichmoveinadynamiccrescendo.”185
Elger believes he saw the free chords and tone rows in music as an analogy of
abstract art; 186 Gompertz that “his intended purpose was to create a visual
soundscape,”187andfurthermorethecriticSylvesterupholdsthebeliefthatpainting
forKandinskyisaformofmusicinthatitneedstimenotmerelytounfolditssecrets
butbegintomeananythingatall.188Thesethreetheorists’statementsamounttothe
same conclusion, which is that Kandinsky was indeed seeking out a visual
equivalentofabstractmusic–somethingIhavealwaysfeltisattheverycoreofhis
workofthepre-Waryears.
Withhisbelief that “Therichest lessonsare tobe learned frommusic,”Kandinsky
hasbeenhailedas a ‘visualmusician’, corroboratingSadler’s view thatKandinsky
was‘paintingmusic’.Thatistosay,“hehasbrokendownthebarrierbetweenmusic
andpainting,andhas isolatedthepureemotionwhich, forwantofabettername,
182NorbertLynton,‘StoryofModernArt’(London:Phaidon,1995)Page83183O.Sachs‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page28184WassilyKandinsky,‘Kandinsky’sDin:OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage97185ThomasS.Messer,‘Kandinsky’(London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page92186D.Elger,‘Expressionism’(Germany:Taschen,1991)Page146187WillGompertz,‘WhatAreYouLookingAt?’(AudioSeries)Kandinsky/Orphism/BlueRider188DavidSylvester,‘AboutModernArt’,CriticalEssays1949-96(London:Chatto&Windus,1996)Page79
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wecalltheartisticemotion.”189CertainlyKandinskywasstrivingtoprovewhatthe
analogyisbetweencolourandsound,lineandrhythm.
Kandinsky was familiar with Kulbin’s ‘The Studio of the Impressionists,’ with its
passagesonhearingcoloursandcoordinatingspectralcolourswiththemusicscale.
CertainlyKulbinsentKandinskyhisbrochure‘FreeMusic:ApplicationoftheNewArt
andMusic’, similarly, Kandinsky studied Signac’s treatise ‘From Delacroix to Neo-
Impressionism’ of 1899, in which Signac demonstrates that ‘petits intervalles’ are
foundinDelacroix’swork,wheretheyhelpcreateintervalsbetweenlight/darkand
warm/cold.This formsaparallelwithmicrotonaleffects inmusic.This,of course,
was founded upon the earlier theories of the renowned colour theorists Eugene
ChevreulandOgdenRood.
Ultimately,despite thepainter’sdichotomybetween formulaand intuition, “Music
provided Kandinskywith a quintessential paradigm thatwas both structural and
ideological.”190AsTomPhillipspointsout,“musicpossessesorder,amathematical
elegance.” 191 Whether striving for the order or, paradoxically, the dissonant
disordermusicprovided,theartisthimselfconcluded,“Personally,Icannotwishto
paint music, because I believe that such art is basically impossible and
unattainable.”192WhatisundoubtedlyinextricablylinkedforKandinsky,however,is
musicandabstraction,“Forwhileitisthemostcloselytiedtotheemotions,musicis
whollyabstract.”193
Kandinsky envied music – its independence and the freedom of its means of
expression.InSchoenberg,hefoundatemporarysoulmate,for“Schoenberg’smusic
leadsus into a new realm,wheremusical experiences areno longer acoustic, but
189M.T.HSadler,Introduction,WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)PageX1X190SimonShaw-Miller,‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page20191T.Phillips,‘MusicinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Prestel,1997)Page38192D.Elger,‘Expressionism’(Germany:Taschen,1991)Page146193O.Sachs,‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page87
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purely spiritual. Here begins the ‘music of the future’.”194Essentially, Kandinsky
simplyconnectedfreedomwiththeinnergeist,“sooncemorewearefacedwiththe
sameprinciplewhichistosetartfree,theprincipleoftheinnerneed.”195
Central toKandinsky’s development artistically,was a cathartic outpouringof the
soul,hisinnerspiritualworldmademanifestviathemediumsofartandmusic,for
“music has been for some centuries the art which has devoted itself not to the
reproductionofnaturalphenomenabutrathertotheexpressionoftheartist'ssoul
inmusicalsound.”196
194U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page61.Wagnertriedtodescribethe“artofthefuture”,whichsawhimasasynthesisof,theunificationofallkindsofarts.Thisconceptwasthebeginningofpan-aestheticpositionsofromanticism.ForWagnerembodimentsofthissynthesisweremusicaldramaproductionswithapplicationofspecificstageofthefunds195WassilyKandinsky,‘Kandinsky’sDin:OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage72196WassilyKandinsky,‘Kandinsky’sDin:OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage50
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Chapter3-Kandinsky’sEarlierWorkandEncounterswithSchoenberg
Serialism&Dissonance:‘TheMusicoftheFuture’197
Kandinsky admired greatly, the work of a group of experimental Viennese
composersactiveatthestartofthetwentiethcenturyofwhichArnoldSchoenberg
is considered to be the father. This section outlines the tendencies of Schoenberg
andhiscontemporaries inrelationtoKandinsky’searlyabstractions, for theartist
believed strongly that “both arts learn frommusic that every harmony and every
discordspringingfrominnerspiritisbeautiful,essential,andalone.”198Significantly,
Schoenberg’s seminal concert of 1909 provided the springboard for Kandinsky’s
developmentofaseriesofabstract‘Impressions’from1911onwards.
Collectively, Webern, Schoenberg and Berg are often referred to as the Second
Viennese School.199The master was undoubtedly Arnold Schoenberg, given he
taughtbothserialdisciples.Throughhisinnovationsheredefinedmusicoftheearly
twentiethcentury.ToquotePatner,“Schoenbergneverceasestobereactionaryand
progressive”.200This progression is, most significantly, the development of the
twelve-tonetechnique,whichwillbeoutlinedinmoredetailduringthisChapter.
AntonvonWebern,forsixyearsSchoenberg’spupil,developed'totalserialism’.His
musicwasespeciallystripped-backandprecise;histen-minutesymphonyisacase
in point. Webern composed only thirty-one works, amounting to less than three
hours in performance time. In contrast, Alban Berg had a much less abstract
conception to his counterparts, and developed amore lyrical and harmonic style.
For this reason, he is frequently considered to be the “most easily approached
197Kandinskyin‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page24198WassilyKandinsky,‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage104199TheFirstVienneseSchoolbeingHaydn,Mozart,BeethovenandSchubert,allofwhomlivedandworkedinVienna,makingtheAustriancapitalthecenterofmusicalcreationatthattime.Althoughthemenallmovedinthesamecirclesandknewoneanother,theywerenotanactual"school"inthesenseofworkingtogethertoproducemusicalcompositions200A.Patner,‘ALegendaryEncounter:PlumbingtheBrief,BrilliantFriendshipofArnoldSchoenbergandWassilyKandinsky’,2003(Article)Paragraph10
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composer of this style”.201Schoenberg, on the other hand, was “an experimental
composer”generating“trulynewmusic”.202
1908was‘Schoenberg’spaintingyear’,atatimewhenhedevelopedtheuseofthe
12-tone scale (dodecaphonic 203 construction) with over-expressive leaps.
DodecaphonyorSerialism,involvesthesoleuseofthe12notesofthemusicalscale
in a predestined order; thus producing chromaticism as opposed to conventional
diatonicism.204Sometimes itwouldbecompletelyrandom,atother times itwould
beinaveryparticularorder.Itsbasisisaseriesof12differentnotes,noneofwhich
isheard for a second timeuntil all havebeen sounded.205Itmeant that themusic
wasn't based on melody, but on mathematics. These mathematical rows were
rearranged using the techniques of retrograde and inversion into a series of
mathematically ordered and predetermined notes that fail to make harmonic sense
in conventional terms. 206 This organised ‘architecture’ in Schoenberg’s music,
resonated with the super-organised cerebral cortex in Kandinsky; the pattern of keys
marrying with the artist’s paint-box.
Whilst Schoenberg’s approach was initially viewed as being totally new, its
inspirationstemsfromtheworkofthereveredcomposerBach,foritwasBachwho
composedtwosetsof24preludesandfuguesusingeverymajorandminorkeyin
chromaticorder.Whilethiswastodemonstratethewell-temperedsystemoftuning,
hence the title ‘The Well-Tempered Clavier’, Bach’s compositional technique was
similarly based on mathematical principles. The fugue is a famous example of a
musicalformgovernedbycontrapuntalguidelines,thesubjectandcounter-subject
materialfollowingpredeterminedorders.
201‘AcomparisonoftheapproachesofSchoenberg,BergandWeberntoserialismintheirmusic’,Musicteachers.co.uk,Article,Page4202H.H.Stuckenschmidt,‘ArnoldSchoenberg’(London:JohnCalder,1959)Page54203AnothertermforTwelve-NoteSerialism204Diatonicmusicusesonlythenotesavailablewithinthescale,andchromaticismusesnotesoutsideofthemembersofakey'sscale205E.Smith&D.Renouf,‘ApproachtoMusic’Book3(London:OxfordUniversityPress,1971)Page68206Source:‘TheSecondVienneseSchool:wheretostart’,ClassicFMDiscoverperiodsonline,P5
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LikeBach,Schoenberghadtofindawaytoturnsomethinglogicalandmathematical
into somethingexpressiveandmeaningful.The12-tonescale links to J. Itten’s ‘12
colourandtone’system,inthatIttenparallelsaseriesofchromaticstepswiththose
of the musical scale, with half-colours mirroring semi-tones and their respective
‘black notes’. Itten’s scale and Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique have been
paralleled with Kandinsky’s abandonment of figuration in favour of a more
expressive style. Paradoxically, it stylistically represents amix of dissonance and
systematization: “new dissonant melodic and chordal structures of twentieth
century music within a more consciously conceived and systematically ordered
framework”.207Kandinskywas so keen to circulate Schoenberg's ideas on12-tone
music and atonality that he commits to a translation of an article without
permission.208
While “Schoenberg is composing his ‘pantonal209 music’ the ubiquitous ‘atonal
triad,’210harmonically speaking, Schoenberg’s new musical paradigm meant that
‘anything goes’, by virtue of an “emancipateddissonance”211inwhich “nomotif is
developed” in the words of Anton Webern. This approach found its way into
painting,viadiscussionswithinDerBlaueReiter,namelyinaletterbyFranzMarcto
AugusteMacke, inwhichheposes:“canyouconceiveofmusic inwhichtonality is
completely abolished? It kept reminding me of the great creation by Kandinsky
which leaves not the slightest trace of tonality”.212The use of enormous melodic
skipsandtheextremechromaticism213encouraged“theplacingtogetherofclashing
notes commonly avoided or resolved in tonal music”.214The effect is a kind of
207‘AcomparisonoftheapproachesofSchoenberg,BergandWeberntoserialismintheirmusic’,Musicteachers.co.uk,Article,Page2208JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage13209Pantone:asystemformatchingcolours210R.Taruskin,‘MusicintheEarlyTwentiethCentury’(OxfordUniversityPress,2009)Page461211R.Taruskin,‘MusicintheEarlyTwentiethCentury’(OxfordUniversityPress,2009)Page465212AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page110213R.Taruskin,‘MusicintheEarlyTwentiethCentury’(OxfordUniversityPress,2009)Page460214FrancesGuy,‘Dissonance’Chapter,‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’,SimonShaw-Miller(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page69
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musical abstraction, best epitomised by the ostensibly ‘abstract’ inventions of
Berg.215
Intermsofaparallelbetweenabstractartandmusic,Kandinskyfeltthat“ifmusic
couldbeabstract,ordered,andemotionallycharged,thensotoocouldart.”216This
sentimentissharedbyarthistorianAnthonyF.Jansonwhobelievesthatbyvirtue,
“music is inherently non-representational”.217 Kandinsky believed that “discord
produces fresh harmonies. Composition dematerialises objects in favour of
abstraction.Primarycolours.”218ThecontemporaryneurobiologistJasonWarrenof
the University College London claims that music is a highly evolved species of
patternedsound.This‘patternedsound’isexactlywhatKandinskystrovetopaint–
timbre,ortone-colour.
Theoreticalwritingonmusicof the timehelpeddecipher thisnewwaveofavant-
gardism, namely Schoenberg’s article on Music ‘The Relationship to the Text’,
Thomas von Hartmann’s ‘Anarchy in Music’ and Aleksandr Scriabin’s ‘Colour
Symphony:Prometheus’byLeonidSabaneev.BothKandinskyandSchoenbergwere
aware their respective innovations inartandmusicwouldcausea sensation. Ina
letter to Schoenberg, Kandinsky referred to onework entitled ‘Musicology’ which
“comesfromMoscowandwillturnmanythingsontheirhead.”219
Kandinsky’s interest in Schoenberg’s discoveries initially stems from the lack of
cohesionmusically:“Theirexternallackofcohesionistheirinternalharmony.This
haphazardarrangementofformsmaybethefutureofartisticharmony”.220Yet,with
furtherstudy,heconcludes:“butIambeginningtofeelthattherearealsodefinite
215R.Taruskin,‘MusicintheEarlyTwentiethCentury’(OxfordUniversityPress,2009)Page525216A.Graham-Dixon,‘Art:TheDefinitiveVisualGuide’(England:DK,2008)Page434217Janson&Janson,HistoryofArt(London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page787218WassilyKandinsky,‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage11219Source:fromarchivistThereseMuxeneder,Schoenberg/KandinskyCorrespondence,TheArnoldSchoenbergCenter,Vienna,Austria,schoenberg.at,Paragraph6220WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page49
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rules and conditions which incline me to the use of this or that dissonance”.221
Certainly Kandinsky was naturally drawn to the radical and avant-garde music
flavouredwith dissonance, such that “his new atonalmusicwas causing asmuch
interestandhostilityasthenewartmovements”.222
In addition to discussions with Schoenberg’s students Alban Berg and Anton
Webern, Kandinsky shared a dialoguewith ThomasMann223, Igor Stravinsky and
the Musicologist Eduard Hanslick. 224 However, the well-documented dialogue
betweenKandinskyandSchoenberg, “oneof the treasuresof thecentury’sartistic
archive”225reallygotunderwayin1911whenthepaintersparkedacorrespondence
following a performance of Schoenberg’s 3 Piano Pieces, Opus 11 of 1909, on
January 2, 1911, in Munich, in which “the distinction between consonance and
dissonanceandthesenseofahomekeyarebanished”.226Kandinskymadesketches
on the night of concert and then wrote just two weeks later to the composer
Schoenberg, pouring out his sole. Kandinsky’s painterly response was his
Impression111of1911,“a linchpinof theworld’sprincipalcollectionofworksof
the Blue Rider group”227 – he felt the two of them had “so many points in
common”.228 Thewriting between the two abstract practitioners resoundedwith
the principals of Schopenhauer: “I myself don’t believe that painting must
necessarilybeobjective.Indeed,Ifirmlybelievethecontrary”.229
221WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork:U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page17222RosemaryLambert,TheTwentiethCentury(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1986)Page28223ThomasMann(1875-1955),Germannovelistandessayist224EduardHanslick(1825-1904),GermanBohemianmusiccritic225‘HowtoPaintaSymphony’,‘MusicinArt’,T.Phillips,(NewYork,U.S.A:Prestel,1997)Page38226E.Smith&D.Renouf,‘ApproachtoMusic’Book3(London:OxfordUniversityPress,1971)Page74227A.Patner,‘ALegendaryEncounter:PlumbingtheBrief,BrilliantFriendshipofArnoldSchoenbergandWassilyKandinsky’,2003(Article),Paragraph6228“Pleaseforgivemefortakingthelibertyofwritingtoyouwithouthavingthehonourofknowingyou,butIhavejustattendedyourconcertwhereIexperiencedgreatjoy.Obviouslyyouknownothingaboutmeandmyworks,forIhaveonlyexhibitedonceinViennasomeyearsago.Nonetheless,ourworks,ourthoughtandoursensibilityhavesomanypointsincommonthatIfeelauthorisedtotellyouhowmuchIlikeyou”AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’,(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page112229AnexcerptfromaletterfromA.SchoenbergtoW.KandinskyofJanuary24th1911,J.Auner,‘A.SchoenbergReader,DocumentsofaLife’(NewHaven&London:1959)Page90
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Kandinsky’s Impression 111 (Figure 14) has been hailed appropriately by
Schoenbergas“effectinganexemplarybringingtogetherofpaintingandmusic”,230
albeit,Iwouldadd,onlyinitsfoetalformatthisstage,however.JustasKandinsky
wasdevelopinghis interest in the synaesthetic, so toowasSchoenberg, forging “a
harmonyof sound colours, soundpatternsand soundelements”,231as Schoenberg
stated.Inthisway,hewasmakingmusicwithcoloursandforms.InSchoenberg’s3
PianoPieces,Opus11of1911,thecomposerabandonedacceptedorganisationofthe
musicalscaleforthefirsttime.Kandinsky’svisualrecordofthe‘sound-happening’,
wasequallypioneeringinitsabstractconception;ostensiblychildlike,wecanmake
out the primitive form of a grand piano seen from above, and a wave of yellow
which represents the sound of the trumpet. This we know, due to Kandinsky’s
synaestheticcolourchartcorrespondedtotheinstrumentsoftheorchestra.
KandinskyandSchoenbergwerealso ‘in tune’witheachotherregarding thesoul:
“The external can be combined with the internal harmony, as Schoenberg has
attemptedinhisquartettes”.232Furthermore,SchoenbergwrotetoKandinskyabout
“inner images bymeans of rhythms and sound values”.233In the chapter entitled
‘Consonance and Dissonance’ of ‘Theory of Harmony’, Schoenberg sets out an
argumentinfavourofbreakingawayfrommereartisticreproductionofthenatural
world, stating “In its most advanced state, art is exclusively concerned with the
representation of inner nature”.234 This sentimentmirrorsKandinsky’s notion, as
seen inConcerning theSpiritual inArt, that the truepurposeofart is found in its
abilitytobringtolifetheinnerworldofthespiritratherthanjustimitatetheouter
world.
Kandinsky’s operatic ‘Yellow Sound’ of 1909 oscillates between consonance, a
combinationofnoteswhichareinharmonywitheachotherduetotherelationship230AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page109231FromSchoenberg’sautobiography.ErichHohne,‘MusicinArt’(London:AbbeyLibrary,1965)Page7232WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page51233AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page112234ArnoldSchoenberg,‘TheoryofHarmony’(Berkeley:Univ.ofCaliforniaPress,1984)Page18
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betweentheirfrequencies,anddissonance,alackofharmonyamongmusicalnotes.
This is similar to Schoenberg’s notion of timbre and structure, representing
successions of changing tone-colours to create abstract shapes. In Schoenberg’s
mostrevolutionaryworks,suchashisStringQuartetOpus10,DieGlucklicheHand&
Pierrot Lunaire, he allowed sounds to remain dissonant and unresolved in a
rejection of conventional structures in music. In response to ‘The Yellow Sound,
Schoenbergwrotethatit“pleasesmeextraordinarily.ItisexactlythesameaswhatI
have striven for in my "Lucky Hand," only you go still further than I in the
renunciation of any conscious thought, any conventional plot. ”235In thisway, his
approach can be paralleled with that of Debussy, who used chords for their
expressive ‘colour’ effects unhindered by traditional rules of harmony. Debussy’s
dissonancesareunpreparedandunresolved.Schoenberg’s textTheoryofHarmony
alsoputsforthargumentsforthedevelopmentofmusicusingamuchmore“liberal”
notion of consonance,which could include amuchwider range of notes. “InDie
GlucklicheHand…Schoenbergusestheplayofcolourswhichareexactlyfittedtothe
music”.236
TheMusicologistJosephAuner237remindsusthatSchoenberghasbeenviewedasa
revolutionarymodernist,anevolutionarytraditionalist,a“reactionaryRomantic,”a
solitaryprophet,thefounderofaschoolthathasheldcompositioninitsclutchesfor
a century, an “irrationalexpressionist,” anda “cerebral sonic”mathematicianwho
recast“modernmusicintheimageofscience.”Workssuchashis‘Scorefor2Songs,
Opus 1 for Baritone & Piano’ advocate his radical approach, in being “totally
independentoftheharmony,followingitsownlawsandpolyphonictension”.238
235AnexcerptfromaletterfromKandinskytoSchoenberg1911,ArchivistThereseMuxeneder,Schoenberg/KandinskyCorrespondence,TheArnoldSchoenbergCenter,Vienna,Austria,schoenberg.at,Page130236H.H.Stuckenschmidt,‘ArnoldSchoenberg’(London:JohnCalder,1959)Page55237JosephAuner’s(ProfessorofMusicintheSchoolofArts&SciencesatTuftsUniversity)Lecture:‘SchoenbergasSoundStudent’238H.H.Stuckenschmidt,‘ArnoldSchoenberg’(London:JohnCalder,1959)Page54
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Schoenberg introduced Sprechstimme,239an aurally challenging admixture of half-
speaking and half-singing. Whilst Webern became known for the brevity of his
music;similarlySchoenbergcreatedhis‘miniatures’asperthemodernistpenchant
forrationalism,functionalismandasceticism,andthusakindofmusicalminimalism.
1911, a year of Schoenberg’s ground-breaking atonal works, saw the duel
publication of Schoenberg’s ‘Theory of Harmony’ and Kandinsky’s ‘Concerning the
Spiritual in Art’. “On December 9, 1911, by an extraordinary coincidence, the
composer Arnold Schoenberg and the painter Wassily Kandinsky received from
their publishers the first copies of books that contained two of the twentieth
century’smostinfluentialprogrammaticstatements".240
Kandinsky promptly wrote to Schoenberg about liberation in developing a new
means of expression. In short, the pair “discovered a remarkable kinship in their
artistic intentions”.241AsAndrewPatner puts it, “Kandinsky,whowas at just that
moment looking to free visual art from formal structures similar to those that
Schoenbergwasrebellingagainstinmusic”.242
Kandinskywrote ina letterof1911 toSchoenberg, “Whatwearestriving forand
our whole manner of feeling and thought have so much in common that I feel
completelyjustifiedinexpressingmyempathy”.243
239AnothertermforSprechgesang;astyleofdramaticvocalizationintermediatebetweenspeechandsong.Itisatechniqueorrecitativeorparlando.RichardWagnerusedthetechniqueinhismusic-dramasorlateGermanRomanticoperasofthenineteenthcentury240J.Hahl-Koch,‘ArnoldSchoenberg&WassilyKandinsky:Letters,Pictures&Documents’,(London:Faber&Faber,1984)Page221241J.Hahl-Koch,‘ArnoldSchoenberg&WassilyKandinsky:Letters,Pictures&Documents’,(London:Faber&Faber,1984)Page221242A.Patner,‘ALegendaryEncounter:PlumbingtheBrief,BrilliantFriendshipofArnoldSchoenbergandWassilyKandinsky’,2003(Article)Paragraph5243LetterofJanuary18,1911:KandinskytoSchoenberg.J.Hahl-Koch,‘ArnoldSchoenberg&WassilyKandinsky:Letters,Pictures&Documents’(London:Faber&Faber,1984)Page221.Kandinskygoesontosay:“Inyourworks,youhaverealisedwhatI,albeitinuncertainform,havesolongedforinmusic.Theindependentprogressthroughtheirowndestinies,theindependentlifeoftheindividualvoicesinyourcompositions,isexactlywhatIamtryingtofindinmypaintings”.
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InJanuary1911,SchoenbergrepliedtoKandinskywiththefollowing:
“Our work has much in common…….every formal procedure which aspires to
traditionaleffectsisnotcompletelyfreefromconsciousmotivation.Butartbelongs
totheunconscious!Onemustexpressoneself!Expressoneselfdirectly!Notone’s
taste, or one’s upbringing, or one’s intelligence, knowledge or skill. Not all these
acquiredcharacteristics,butthatwhichisinborn,instinctive”.244
Schoenberg’s characteristic unresolved dissonances, the 12-tone system and
independence from conventional harmonic arrangements parallels with the
cascadingabstract formsofKandinsky’sCompositionV1, inwhichdisparatecolour
interrelations clash and jar – the leaps of the giantmusical intervalsmirrored in
Kandinsky’s“coloursleapingupwithoutplan”,astheartisthimselfputit.245(Figure
15)Therearesimilaritiesherewith theworkofAlexanderScriabin;mostnotably
Prometheus:ThePoemofFireof1910,withthetoppartforluce,246akeyboardwith
notescorrespondingtocoloursasgivenbyScriabin'ssynaestheticsystem,specified
in the score. “Scriabin’s work is an example of parallel streams of colour and
sound”.247Kandinsky alludes to the impact of Scriabin’s experiments in his text,
Concerning the Spiritual in Art: “Scriabin’s attempt to intensify musical tone by
corresponding use of colour”.248 Schoenberg’s interest in colour straddles both
musicandpainting.WritingtoKandinsky,hestated“PerhapsyoudonotknowthatI
alsopaint.Butcolourissoimportanttome;not‘beautiful’colour,butcolourwhich
isexpressiveinitsrelationship”.249
244LetterofJanuary24,1911,‘A.SchoenbergReader’,editedbyJosephAuner(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,2003)Pages90-91245Interestingly,concordantsoundsareprocessedintherighthandsideofthebrainanddiscordantsoundsontheleft246Luce:clavieràlumières(keyboardwithlights),aninstrumentinventedbyScriabin.Influencedbythedoctrinesoftheosophy,Scriabindevelopedhissystemofsynaesthesiatowardwhatwouldhavebeenapioneeringmultimediaperformance:hisunrealizedmagnumopusMysteriumwastohavebeenagrandweek-longperformanceincludingmusic,scent,dance,andlightinthefoothillsoftheHimalayasMountainsthatwassomehow‘tobringaboutthedissolutionoftheworldinbliss’247C.Gray,‘TheRussianExperimentinArt:1863-1922’(London:Thames&Hudson,1996)Page235248WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A.,Dover,2000)Page51249JelenaHahl-Koch‘Schoenberg-Kandinsky:Letters,PicturesandDocuments’trans.JohnC.Crawford(Boston,Mass:FaberandFaber,1984)Page23
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In addition to Scriabin’s ‘keyboard of light’ and the discovery of the Lithuanian
painterM.KCiurlionis,Stravinskyalsoexertedaprofound influenceonKandinsky
with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris, giving rise to Kandinsky’s 1913 series
‘Sounds’,acollectionofprose-poemswithblackandcolouredwoodcuts.
“Both Kandinsky and Schoenberg were seeking to createmusic dramas in which
colourwouldbeperceivedonthesamelevelassoundandaction”.250Schoenberg’s
atonal music was, like Kandinsky’s contemporary canvases, unconventional and
modern,marking “the abolitionof the traditional tonal functions andheralded an
entirelynewtreatmentofdissonance”.251Ultimately,inparallelterms,“Schoenberg
was leavingtonalitybehind,Kandinskyrepresentation”.252Thusthetwosharedan
ephemeral,near-symbioticartisticalliance,untiltheirratherpublicfalling-out,over
Kandinsky’sallegedyetmisconstruedanti-SemitismduringhisspellattheBauhaus.
Ultimately, “Schoenberg had staged an equivalent escape from traditional
tonality”.253
The“orchestralcolouration”254oftheSecondVienneseSchoolprovidedtheradical
painterKandinskywithinspirationtogeneratehispainterlydisportsor ‘concertos
oncanvas’.Reciprocally,SchoenbergcontributedtotheDerBlaueReiterAlmanacof
1912. It is worth recognising at this juncture, that Schoenberg was also an
enthusiastic painter, dubbed “a scholarly musician but an instinctive painter”.255
Thus,“thetwomenfoundtheysharedthesameideals,bothofthembreakingtime-
honoured rules of composition in their own fields”.256Kandinsky regularly played
the piano and his beloved cello,whilst painting also.Meanwhile, Schoenbergwas
250GerardMcBurney,‘WassilyKandinsky:ThePainterofSoundandVision:ConcertosonCanvas’,http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/jun/24/art.art,Paragraph9251‘AcomparisonoftheapproachesofSchoenberg,BergandWeberntoserialismintheirmusic’,Musicteachers.co.uk(OnlineArticle)Page2252AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’,(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page164253T.Phillips,‘HowtoPaintaSymphony’,‘MusicinArt’,(NewYork,U.S.A.Prestel,1997)Page38254KonradBoehmer,‘Schoenberg&Kandinsky:AnHistoricEncounter’,BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData(Amsterdam,TheNetherlands:OPA,1997)(OnlineArticle)Page10255AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Pages150-151256C.Gregory,‘GreatArtists’Part80,Volume4(London:MarshallCavendish,1991)Page2532
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producing his experimental paintings, whilst concurrently covering new ground
musically. For the more scathing of the critics, however, in order to appreciate
Schoenberg’smusicandpaintings,itwasfeltthat“Onemustlosebothone’shearing
and sight at the same time”, and “Schoenberg’s music and Schoenberg’s pictures
togetherwilltearyourearsoffandputoutoureyesatthesametime”.257
Bothavant-garde practitionerswere thus adhering to thatWagnerian doctrine of
thegesamtkunstwerk, justastheDerBlaueReitergroupwereattemptingto“bring
down the barriers which had hitherto existed between painting, music, theatre,
dance, and poetry”.258 Influenced by Wagner, both were seeking a ‘total art’ in
which painting andmusic weremutually associated.259Indeed, Kandinsky sought
Schoenberg’ssupportforhisideasforhisoperasofcolour ‘TheYellowSound’and
‘Violet Curtain’ in the Munich Artists’ Theatre. In terms of emulating musical
configuration, Kandinsky’s later work entitled Rows of Signs of 1931 (Figure 16)
resembles amusical score,with the five lines of a stave hungwith notes, thus as
Shaw-Millerstates,“Theideaofmusicalcompositionofferedanartisticstructurefor
theabstractconfigurationsoflines,coloursandforms”.260
ItisevidentthatKandinskywantedarttobelikemusic,whichappealeddirectlyto
thesensesandhadnoneedtotellastory.InhistheoreticalaccountPointandLine
to Plane, first published in 1926, Kandinsky’s illustrative symbols proliferate
throughoutthetext,closelyresemblingmusicaldynamics.Thus,both‘artists’were
creating “examples of theory of rhythm, composition and colour”.261(Franz Marc).
Simultaneously,PaulKleewas “transferringcomparisons fromtheworldofmusic
intothatofthevisualarts”.262
257AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page115258AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’,(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page150-151259AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page113260SimonShaw-Miller,‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page24261AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page97262HajoDuchting,‘PaulKlee-PaintingMusic’(Munich:Prestel,2002)Page34
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A furthermusical associationKandinskymade is thathebelieved colour couldbe
usedinthesamewayassound.Hislessonsincolourweregoverned,toanextent,by
Goethe’s bible on colour, Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours) of 1810. Drawing
togetherthesevariousstrandsandideas,“heobservedtheharmonyinpainting,its
relation to music, the mystical content of art and symbolism of colours”. 263
Concurrently,Schoenbergwaswriting:“Kandinsky(andKokoschka)….improvisein
colours and forms to express themselves as only themusician expressed himself
until now”.264Hence their duality of desire to foster co-curricular linkswithin the
arts,anddesiretoprovehowpaintingisanalogoustomusic.
Themicrotone, an interval smaller thana semitone,becamea shared leitmotif for
SchoenbergandKandinsky.Certainlyinthelatter’scase,thissubtlegradationofhue
stemsfromSeurat’sPointillisteChromoluminarismandSignac’sdiscourseoncolour,
‘Delacroix to Neo-Impressionism’. According to Schoenberg, ‘free music’ uses all
tones:thequarter,eighth,eventhirteenthtones.“Themicrotonalcomposer’sability
to act on the mind is enriched in particular by ‘small intervals’ which are not
perceived by the brain. Such ideas were ‘in the air’ at that time, but Kulbin was
probably one of the first to have noted them and experimented with them”.265
Boehmer wonders to what degree this can be compared with Schoenberg’s
invention of the ‘Sprechstimme’, the ‘speaking’ voice that he used in hisworks, in
which the voice oscillates and fluctuates between one tone and another.
Interestingly, the microtone’s origins in music stems from the Eastern Russian
OrthodoxChurch– something, therefore,Kandinskywouldhavebeenaufaitwith
since childhood, since “the sensitivity for microtonal effects might have been
263A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England,Hamlyn,1971)Page24264ArnoldSchoenberg,DerBlaueReiterPublication,‘TheRelationshiptotheText’1912(Article)Page92.ApointofcomparisonbetweenSchoenberg'smusicandartrelatestoathematicisminmusicandabstractioninpainting.Theterm"athematic"referstopiecesthatlackarecurringmotiveormelody,andabstractpaintingsarethosewithoutadistinctrepresentationalsubject.Bothcouldbethoughtofas"workslackingclearsubjectmatter."Totalabstractioninpaintingwasasradicalastepinpaintingatthistimeaswasathematicisminmusic.MostanalystsofSchoenberg'smusicarguethatatleastthreeworksare"athematic":Op.11No.3forpiano,Op.16No.5fororchestra,andErwartun265‘Schoenberg&Kandinsky:AnHistoricEncounter’,BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData,(Amsterdam,TheNetherlands,OPA,1997)(OnlineArticle),Page68
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particularly strong in Russia, through the priest’s finely elaborated way of
chanting”.266Thepriest’svocalintoningandululationrisesinpitchimperceptiblyat
particularly dramatic or solemn moments, not through steps or half-steps but
through something close to ‘microtonal glissandi’. 267 Thus there is an almost
subliminalregisteringofwhatistantamounttothemicrointerval:aquarter-tone.
Whatastudyof‘ArnoldSchoenberg’sJourney’makesclearisthathisworkwastoo
progressivefor itstime, justasKandinsky’swas.Bothpractitionersstroveinitially
to secede from conventional establishments. As his biographer Bovi notes,
“Kandinsky struggles throughout his life……to get rid of everything conventional,
academic,wornoutandbanal”.268Thisisnotnecessarilythecaseacrosshiswhole
oeuvre post-1909, however. Initially Kandinsky had been pejoratively labelled a
‘morphia 269 addict’ guilty of ‘carnival clowning’, his early experiments were
dismissed as ‘idiocy’. Schoenberg’s inaugural performance of Pelleas etMélisande
was continually interrupted with catcalls, a very public mass exit and the loud
slammingofdoors.
Whilstthereisacasetoagreewiththestatement“Kandinskyassumedakeyrolein
thedevelopmentnotonlyofanavant-gardebutaveritablyrevolutionaryart”,270his
workwasnotintentionallyanti-conventionalorsubversive.Instead,hewasmerely
makinggroundandbeingprogressive.Athisartisticzenithinaround1910hehad
“reachedthesummitofwhathasnowbeencalledExpressionistabstraction”.271In
266‘Schoenberg&Kandinsky:AnHistoricEncounter’,BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData,(Amsterdam,TheNetherlands,OPA,1997)(OnlineArticle),Page18267‘Schoenberg&Kandinsky:AnHistoricEncounter’,BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData,(Amsterdam,TheNetherlands,OPA,1997)(OnlineArticle),Page58268A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)Page44.Inthisvein,KandinskypursuesasimilarroutetothatoftheFuturists,whoweresimilarlystrivingtoeradicatethepastintermsofanyartisticlegacy,inordertomakestridesintothefuture.ThisnotiontosecedestemsfromtheVienneseSecessionistsofthelatenineteenthcentruty269Morphine(old-fashioned)270N.Wolf,‘Expressionism’,(Germany,Taschen,2004)Page52.RevolutionaryherereferstotheprogressiveandinnovativeworkoftheartistratherthantheartofRevolutionwhichheembarkedupon,toanextent,post-1917,whenthetsaristregimewasoverthrownandreplacedbyBolshevikruleunderLenin271W-DieterDube,‘TheExpressionists’(London:Thames&HudsonLtd,1996)Page112
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factby1919,theterm‘AbstractExpressionist’hadalreadybeenusedtodescribehis
work,despite the fact that themovement itselfdidn't reallygainmomentumuntil
the1950s.ThisisfurtherevidenceofhowaheadofhistimeKandinskywas.
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Chapter4-Kandinsky’sMatureAbstractions:TheSymphonicWorks,1909-14
The period 1909-14 in Kandinsky’s oeuvre “left the deepestmark on art history”
according toWillGrohmann.Hegoes furtherby labelling it the “genius span”and
the “heroic years”. Similarly, Ulrike Becks-Malorny supports this by stating “The
yearsbetweenthepublicationoftheBlaueReiterAlmanacandtheoutbreakofthe
First World War were decisive in Kandinsky’s artistic development”.272It was
undoubtedly a prolific period for Kandinsky, duringwhich time he developed his
uniquestrainof‘expressiveabstraction’whenworkinginMunichpre-WorldWar1,
formulating a newly gained power of pictorial expression, psychological and
physiologicalresponsestocolour.
ThissectionisthusparamountinestablishingtowhatextentKandinsky’spaintings
at their highpointmirror themusic of Schoenberg, and also towhat degree they
support his reported condition of synaesthesia. There is a strong case to support
that between 1910 and 1913 in particular, Kandinsky comes as close as ever, to
‘paintingasymphony’.
Whilst1911-14was“perhapstheartisticallymostexcitingphaseofhiscareerwhen,
in his Impressions, Improvisations and Compositions, he retained a modicum of
figurationwhilechargingformsandcolourswithintrinsiceffect,”273itisimportant
to trace the genesis of this prolific period in Kandinsky’s oeuvre from earlier, i.e.
1909.Thisdateheraldsthebeginningofhisinimitable‘Improvisations’.
TheImprovisationsbetween1909and1914,Kandinskycategorisesas‘unconscious’
works. They are, in the words of the artist himself, “A largely unconscious,
spontaneousexpressionof innercharacter, thenon-materialnature.This, I callan
272U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page98273N.Wolf,‘Expressionism’,(Germany:Taschen,2004)Page52.In1911,Kandinsky’s‘Impressions’weremoreanchoredinthenaturalistictradition,inthathewasrespondingdirectlytomaterialsources,ratherthanrelyingsolelyontheunconsciousandsubconsciousasperthe‘Improvisations’
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‘Improvisation’. 274 The term itself is borrowed from music; “Kandinsky was
beginning to state his intent by using titles derived from music – Composition,
Improvisation, Lyrical”, 275 the works convey spontaneous emotional reactions
inspiredbyeventsofaspiritualtype.Paintedspontaneously,theImprovisationsare
meanttoprojectthe‘innersound’ontothecanvasimmediately.Therewere35such
Improvisationsupto1914.
Theworksof thisperiodare largelyof imaginary inspiration,havingoriginated in
theunconscious.However, there is indeeda ‘modicumof figuration’ in theearlier
Improvisations from 1909, with forms stemming largely from the Murnau
landscapes’, predominantly architectonic and biomorphic, such as towers, spires
and mountains, for example. In time, however, such forms become increasingly
distorted,tothepointthattheybecomeunintelligible.ThustheImprovisationsasa
whole,chartthepainter’s‘pathtoabstraction’.
By virtue, one would assume that the Improvisations were largely intuitive or
instinctiveworks, devoid of predetermined or conscious formal planning, akin to
SurrealistAutomatism.276“HerethewordImprovisation ismeant toconjureupan
impromptu composition”. 277 Indeed, the general consensus is that his most
spontaneous works are the Improvisations. Kandinsky himself stated, “I always
decide in favour of feeling rather than calculation”.278 Yet, ironically, for each
painting,hemadenumerouspreparatorysketchesandvariations.Thismirrorsthe
musicalpracticeofthecapriccio, inwhichacapriceisdividedupintoathemeand
elevenvariations.Kandinsky’s seriesof Improvisations isnumbered from1 to35,
thussuggestingaconscioussystematplay.“Theseriesthusformsafairlyextensive
274WassilyKandinsky,‘TheArtofSpiritualHarmony’(U.S.A:HoughtonMifflin,1914)Pages111-112275H.Arnason,‘AHistoryofModernArt’,(London:Thames&Hudson,1977)Page127276Theavoidanceofconsciousintentioninproducingworksofart,especiallybyusingsubconsciousassociationsaspioneeredbytheSurrealistsJ.MiroandA.Masson,whoseartischaracterizedbyabstracthieroglyphicwanderingswhichlackanyformofapreconceivedplan277T.Phillips,‘MusicinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Prestel,1997)Page38278SimonShaw-Miller,‘Eye-Music,Kandinsky,KleeandallthatJazz’(Chichester:PallantHouse,2007)Page58
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whole”.279Thechronologicalnumberingofthissetofworksalsopertainstotheuse
ofOpusnumbersinmusic.
As aforementioned, there was a myriad of influences on Kandinsky’s work –
children’s art among them. Like other artists of the early twentieth century,280
Kandinskyfeltthatinordertobeprogressive,thenaturalstartingpointwastobe
regressive.Hencewecandetect the influenceofPalaeolithicwallpaintingsonhis
Improvisations of 1911 in particular, which features horses in hieroglyphic
shorthand form. Inamoderncontext,however, likeotherearly twentieth century
abstractionists,Kandinskyalsoappears tohave followedMauriceDenis’prophetic
instructionthat“apaintingisessentiallyasurfacedecoratedwithcoloursarranged
inacertainorder”.281AsalatenineteenthcenturyNabi282painter,Denisseemstobe
adescendantofthenextgenerationmorethanhisown.
The line is expressive in this series of Improvisations, (Figure 17) emulating
primitivecharcoalstrokesofPaleolithicrockpainting,(Figure18)gesturalChinese
brushpaintingortheemphaticcontourinherentinJapanesecalligraphy.“Intuitive
rather than descriptive, Kandinsky himself asserted that these details sprang
spontaneouslyfromhisbrush”.283Paradoxically,theimpactofStern’scontemporary
‘musicaldrawings’isapparent,inthewaythathemovedhispencilacrossthepaper
totherhythmofapieceofmusic.Kandinskyhimselfinsistedthatanartistexercises
aestheticduties:howtopaintmusic,howtogivelinerhythm.
279J.Lassaigne,‘Kandinsky:Biographical&CriticalStudy’,(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.,1964)Page44280TheDadamovementlaunchedin1916tookitsnamefromthefirstwordsababyutters“da-da”,inanattempttosay“daddy”,andthuslookingtotheoriginsofseeing.“Thechildseesbeforeitcanspeak”J.Berger,‘WaysofSeeing’(Englad:Penguin,2008)Page1.TheDadaistseffectivelyreappraisedtheoriginsandverynatureofart,byreturningtochildren’sartandthecultofprimitivismasastartingpoint281U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page30282NabiGroupoflate19thcenturySymbolistFrenchpainters,indebtedtoGauguin.Hebrewwordmeaning‘Prophet’283J.Lassaigne,‘Kandinsky:Biographical&CriticalStudy’(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.,1964)Page66
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OneofthechiefgoverningforcesintheImprovisationserieswasmusic.“Itisclear
thatmusic had a great influence…..in relation to colour andmoving forms in the
dynamicofline”.284In1913,RogerFrystatedemphatically,thattheyarepurevisual
music.CertainlyImprovisation14(Figure19)canbereadasthevisualequivalentof
musical dissonance. As free and subjective explorations of form and colour,
Kandinskywasdevising concurrently, hisprose-poems seriesof1908-12, entitled
‘Klangs’(Sounds).
ImprovisationGorgeof1914isoneofKandinsky’smostambitiousabstractworksup
to this point. According to Yakov Rabinovich, all has turned towhirling light and
colour. Movement becomes the governing force, supporting Rabinovich’s theory
thatwhatholdsthevastmajorityofKandinsky’sabstractcompositionstogetheris
not a structure based on symmetry and static order, but onmomentum. In his
1914Cologne Lecture,Kandinsky describes the physics of his non-dimensional
visualworld,his ‘aesthetic chaos’where “up anddown, nearer and farther, heavy
and light, have ceased to exist”. 285 In Improvisation Gorge, Kandinsky has
transformedeverythingintolight,andinturn,intocolour.Heobeysthe‘non-laws’
ofpureabstraction,intermsoftheabandonmentofcastshadows.“Shadowlessness,
like the pinions of celestial spirits, is asymbolof perfect, weightless freedom,
unconstrainedbythree-dimensionalexistence”.286
Kandinsky’s worlds are all realised in the zero-gravity of heaven - the realm of
light. 287 Rabinovich’s reference to ‘the light’ marks Kandinsky’s temporary
dispensation with the temporal in favour of the hieratic, thus chiming with the
284A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)Page20285YakovRabinovich,‘Kandinsky:MasteroftheMysticArts’InvisibleBooks.com:KennethC.LindsayandPeterVergo,‘Kandinsky:CompleteWritingsonArt’(Cambridge,MA:DaCapoPress,1994)Page400.RabinovichoutlinesherehowKandinskybelievedthattheTwentiethcenturywas“thedawningageoftheGreatSpiritual”.Thishesuggestsismanifestinhowtheoutwornwaysofbeingandthinkingwouldbetransformed,undertheguidanceoftheartsinKandinsky’sstillfigurativebutwhirlingandcataclysmicpaintings,oneofwhich,the1913CompositionVI,healsocalled“theDeluge”286YakovRabinovich,‘Kandinsky:MasteroftheMysticArts’InvisibleBooks.com:KennethC.LindsayandPeterVergo,‘Kandinsky:CompleteWritingsonArt’(Cambridge,MA:DaCapoPress,1994)Page400287YakovRabinovich,‘Kandinsky:MasteroftheMysticArts’InvisibleBooks.com,Paragraph7
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artist’s growing interest in the spiritual. Rabinovich furthers the analogical
reference to physics, with the theory that without weight to help in placement,
Kandinskyarrivedatthemaelstromasaprincipleofcomposition.
Conflictbecomesan inevitablekey theme in theworksof thisperiod,byvirtueof
the outbreakofWorldWar1, thedivorce fromhiswife and the floating, abstract
malaisesynonymouswithdissonantmusic,enablinghimtoemployhismaelstrom
leitmotif with increasing virility. Kandinsky alsowrote aboutWagner’s use of the
leitmotif: “a motif as a sort of spiritual atmosphere, expressed in music”. 288
Furthermore,“somethingsimilarmaybenoticedinthemusicofWagner.Hisfamous
Leitmotiv is anattempt togivepersonality tohis charactersby somethingbeyond
theatricalexpedientsandlighteffect.HismethodofusingadefiniteMotivisapurely
musicalmethod.Itcreatesaspiritualatmospherebymeansofamusicalphrase”.289
YetKandinsky’snon-dimensionalworldisnotflatordimensionlessasitoftenisin
earlytwentiethcenturyabstractioninthecaseofMondrian,Malevichetal,for“The
colours . . . lieas ifupononeandthesameplanebuttheir inner[psychic]weights
[values] are different” asKandinskyhimself put it in hisCologneLecture of 1914.
Furthermore,he insists thathe avoided theelementof flatness inpainting,which
caneasilyleadandhassooftenledtotheornamental.
Dubbed “a landscape of sensations”290by Rosemary Lambert, ImprovisationGorge
appearstobepossessedandtotakeonamusicalmindofitsown,inthesensethat
both Kandinsky’s and Schoenberg’s works use alternative strategies without
aesthetic justification.It isanonslaughtofthesenses,andthustheword‘gorge’ is
288U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page60289JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPages43-44290RosemaryLambert‘TheTwentiethCentury’(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1986)Page28.Thissuggestsamapofemotiveresponses,whichchartahostofcross-sensoryexperiences,tantamounttoapictorialPolygraphicresponserecord
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chosenforbothgeologicalandgustatoryeffect.Theworkbringstomindanentryin
Delacroix’sjournal:“Thefirstvirtueofapaintingisthatitbeafeastfortheeyes”.291
Within the ocean of colour in Improvisation Gorge, there are still one or two
discernible symbols, notably the ladder,which allude tomusical notation and the
keysofthepiano.“Themeaningsofobjectsstillreverberatelikeanundertoneinthe
largely abstract structure,”292Wolf proposes. The ladder motif aids Kandinsky’s
evocation of the experience of walking through a steep-sided gorge, suggesting
vertiginousandtoweringheight.Withtheskiffintheforegroundandtheturbulent
wavesofawaterfall,Kandinskycallstomind,esoterically,memoriesofboatingtrips
withhispartnerGabrielleMünter,albeitviaamore internalisedoutcomethanhis
earlierMurnaulandscapes.Onabroaderdimension,theworkreferstotheDeluge,
or great Biblical flood, a “cataclysmic event that ushers in an era of spiritual
rebirth”.293Theresultanteffectissuggestiveofabattleand“aturbulent,conflicting
character–asifthemaelstromsofpaintwereintheprocessofswallowingupthe
lastremnantsofobjectivityandfiguration”.294
Thehallmark leaping linesandsplashesofcolour,coupledwiththeaquatictheme
inherentinImprovisationGorge,callstomindKandinsky’searlierImprovisation26
of 1912 (Figure 20). Again an abstraction of a former rowing trip – this time the
HollentalGorgeofJuly1914withGabrieleMünter.Thisprecursoryworkrepresents
afreedomofexecutionandamorepronounceddegreeofabstractionfor1912.As
perImprovisationGorge,Improvisation26amalgamatesthepainter’sdual interests
inmusicologyandmysticism,resulting in“visualequivalentsandrepresentational
embodimentsofpuremusicinchartinghissynaestheticexperiences”.295
291(E.Delacroix)L.NortonTheJournalofEugeneDelacroix,(England,PhaidonPress,1995)Page10292N.Wolf, ‘Expressionism’ (Germany: Taschen, 2004) Page 50. Naturally,Wolf’s description hereincorporatesmusicalanalogiesasdescriptors,asthevibratingstringsofthepianoreverberateinasubduedormutedtoneofsoundorcolourasperan‘undertone’293TateModern:Kandinsky;ThePathtoAbstraction,RoomGuide,Room7,Paragraph1294N.Wolf,‘Expressionism’,(Germany:Taschen,2004)Page52295AnnetteandLucVezin,‘KandinskyandDerBlaueReiter’(Paris:Terrail,1992)Page164
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In Improvisation 19 of 1911, “…It seems as if an unknown ritual occurs
inImprovisation 19,a kind of initiation and enlightenment of figures who can be
understoodasnovices.Onesees translucent figuresoutlinedonly inblack.On the
leftisaprocessionofsmallerformpressesforwardtothefront,followedbyshades
of colour. The largest part of the painting, however, is filled with a wonderful,
supernaturalblue,whichalsoshinesthroughthegroupoffiguresshowninprofile
on the right,who seem tomove toward a goal outside the painting. The spiritual
impactoftheselong,totallyincorporealfiguresdrawsbothontheuniformity(that
is, theyareall thesameheight, as inByzantinepicturesof saints)andon the fact
that deep blue, almost violet shade in their heads may symbolize extinction or
transition….This work underscores Kandinsky’s almost messianic expectation of
salvation through painting…” 296 The contrast of blue and yellow represent
“opposites and contradictions – this is the harmony”. (Kandinsky On the Spiritual inArt)
There are two geographically disparate elements in this predominantly abstract
picture. The left hand side is representative of worldly existence – quotidian or
temporal, whereas the right hand side is devoted to spiritual existence or the
hieratic. The choice of coloursmirrors the two respective realms,with the divine
spiritmanifest inderigueurblue,whichKandinskyreferredtoasa“trulycelestial
colour, creatingasupernaturaldepth”.Blue inMedievalandRenaissanceart is,of
course, invariably synonymous with the Virgin and is often derived from the
preciousminerallapislazuli.ForKandinsky,“speakinginmusicalterms,lightblueis
likeaflute,darkbluelikeacello,andindeepestandmostsolemnshadesthesound
ofblueresemblesthesoundofanorgan”297thusstrengtheningfurther,hisinterest
in synaesthesia and more specifically, synopsia. Kandinsky himself, entitled
Improvisation19 ‘BlueSound’(Figure21)andstatedthat“blue is thesamecolour
wepicturetoourselveswhenwehearthatsoundofthewordheaven”.Thecelestial
296AnnegretHoberg,CuratorattheStädtischeGalerie,Lenbachhaus,Munich,exhibitioncatalogueentry,Paragraph9.Whilstinspiredbyhopeorbeliefinamessiah,thisalsoreferstotheferventorpassionatemessianiczealthatembodiesKandinsky’sworkatthetime297‘DiscoveringGreatPaintings’,No.54,(Milan:AFabbriProduction,1992)Page26
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blueherelatestospirituality,insistingthat“spirituallyenrichingexperiencescould
beattainedsolelythroughart–vibrationsonthesoul”.298Thismightwronglylead
one,perhaps,intobelievingthatKandinskywasatruesynaesthete.
When Improvisation 19 was exhibited in 1911, Kandinsky and Marc submitted a
small almanac which contained the explanation that their purpose was to show
“howtheinnerwishoftheartisttakesshapeinmanifoldforms”,thuspertainingto
thepremiseof an improvisation in general terms.TheMay1912DerBlaueReiter
Almanac featured amusical supplementwith facsimiles of short song settings by
Schoenberg and two of his pupils, Alban Berg and Anton von Webern. Both
KandinskyandSchoenberg’sessaysprintedinthealmanacshareacommontheme
ofidealism,arebellionagainstform,andexternalexpressionoftheinnerworld.299
Kandinsky’s musical-synaesthetic response is most manifest in the Improvisation
series in Improvisation Deluge of1913. “What thus appears a mighty collapse in
objectivetermsis,whenoneisolatesitssound,thehymnofthatnewcreation”.300
The theme of a deluge recalls the dramatic themes of the Romantic composer
RichardWagner. “The great battle, the conquest of the canvaswas completed”.301
Kandinsky himself stated, “I knew that a terrible struggle was going on in the
spiritualsphere,andthatmademepaintthepicture”.302
DespiteImprovisation28,1912markinga“growingdetachment&simplification”,303
a freedom of approach is strongly felt in a “composition according to its own
laws”. 304 Similarly, he develops this proto-Automatist approach further in
298U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page98299Kandinsky,‘CompleteWritingsonArt’(Boston,Mass:G.K.Hall,1982)Page230300WassilyKandinsky,‘Sturm’Album,1912,R.Marchi,GettyResearchJournal,No.1(LA,California:2009),Page65301U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page104302RichardCork,‘ABitterTruth:Avant-GardeArtandtheGreatWar’(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1994)Page18303J.Lassaigne,‘Kandinsky:ABiographical&CriticalStudy’(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.1964)Page66
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Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons) of 1913, in a “free, painterly, improvisatory,
Expressionist,biomorphicmannerthatwoulddevelopthroughtheSurrealistartof
Masson, Miro”.305This sojourn into sporadic spontaneity culminates in the final
Improvisation in the series, namely Improvisation35 of 1914, “Oneof the richest
and most exuberant of Kandinsky’s pre-war abstract works. Totally different
elementsandshapesarejuxtaposedtocreateaverydramaticeffect”.306
Kandinsky’sseriesheentitledImpressions,hailfrom1911.Hedescribestheseriesof
works as being ‘outward’ impressions. He painted six Impressions in total, all of
which were completed in 1911. These quick-format sketches were “inspired by
externalnature”.307Inthissense,theyaretheantithesisoftheImprovisations,which
draw instinctively on the unconscious, whereas an Impression, as Kandinsky
explainedit,is“adirectimpressionofoutwardnature,expressedinapurelyartistic
form.ThisIcallan‘Impression’.308Perhaps influenced by, as the name suggests, the art of the Impressionists,
Impressions are still related to a naturalistmodel,which inspires artistic creation
andwhichalsocontinuesinthedesignofreducedforms.TheImprovisations,onthe
otherhand,werepaintedspontaneouslyandaremeanttoprojectthe“innersound”
ontothecanvasimmediately.309Despitetherebeingoneortwosimilaritiesbetween
thesetwogroupsofworksinKandinsky’soeuvre,clearlytheImpressionsarecloser
to observation by virtue of their being “derived from nature” and containing
elements of draftsmanship and naturalism. In order to ‘show the course of
constructiveeffortinpainting’Kandinskydividedthis‘effort’intotwodivisions.The
first, he labelled ‘Melodic’. He defined this as “a simple composition regulated
304J.Lassaigne,‘Kandinsky:ABiographical&CriticalStudy’(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.1964)Page66305H.Arnason,‘AHistoryofModernArt’,(London:Thames&Hudson,1977)Page128306‘DiscoveringGreatPaintings’,No.54(Milan:AFabbriProduction,1992)Page18307C.Gregory,‘GreatArtists’Part80,Volume4(London,MarshallCavendish,1991)Page2537308WassilyKandinsky,‘TheArtofSpiritualHarmony’(U.S.A:HoughtonMifflin,1914)Pages111-112309D.Elger,‘Expressionism’(Germany:Taschen,1991)Page50
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according to an obvious and simple form”.310This is, I assume, in essence, an
Impression. The quick notation in Kandinsky’s Impressions recalls the
Impressionists’tendencytopaintquicklyonthespot,or,asEdouardManetputitso
succinctly,to“putdownwhatyouseethefirsttime.Ifthat’sit,that’sit!”.311
“The impressionswe receive,which often appearmerely chaotic, consist of three
elements:theimpressionofthecolouroftheobject,ofitsform,andofitscombined
colour and form, that is, of the object itself.”312 There is a simplicity in the
Impressionsseries–thecalmbeforethestormthatistheCompositions,asisevinced
inhis seminalwork Impression111,(Concert), 1911 (Figure14)painted twodays
afterSchoenberg’sconcertSecondStringQuartet,Op.10andThreePianoPieces,Op.
11 in Munich on January 2nd 1911. The first major public airing of Schoenberg’s
pioneering musical experiment in atonal music shockedmany contemporaries. A
review from the Allgemeine-Musik-Zeitung indicated that the concert left “no
‘impression’ but of – to put it mildly – pointless experimentation. There was no
shortageofapplause,buttherewasplentyoflaughterandcursingaswell.”313Otto
Keller described the ThreePianoPieces as “aimless wanderings on the keyswith
nothing to connect them” and critic Arthur Hahn described the Second String
Quartetas“seriouslymuddled”.Tooaheadof itstime, itappears,the“almosthair-
raisingcacophoniesseemedalmosttoomuchevenforthosewhoupuntilnowhad
followed themusical revelationsof Schoenberg’sweltschmerzwitha straight face.
310WassilyKandinsky‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage114311DallasMuseumofFineArts:http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth225285/m1/2/.Manet’swordshereembodythecheftenetofImpressionismatlarge,whichwastocaptureimmediacybymeansofthesnapshot,astriggeredbytheadventofphotographyinthelate1830s312JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage70313FredWasserman,‘SchoenbergandKandinskyinConcert’inEstherdaCostaMeyerandFredWasserman(Eds.),‘Schoenberg,Kandinsky,andtheBlueRider’(NewYork:TheJewishMuseum,2003)Page19
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One can only shake one’s head in astonishment at the cheek of this sort of thing
beingtakenforwhathasalwaysbeenunderstoodasmusic”.314Stylistically retrograde, Impression 111 presents a Gauguinesque / proto-Fauve
flatness and simplicity, with a populated left side, and an empty right, yet some
believed that “the painting reflects Kandinsky’s capacity for intense synaesthetic
experience”.315Thetwocolourswhichresound,areyellowandblack.InKandinsky’s
essay‘OntheQuestionofForm’of1911,helabelledblacknegative,destructive,evil,
yethereitrepresents,simply,anaerialviewofagrandpiano.Emanatingfromthe
musician in front of thepiano is “yellow, brighter tones, like the shrill soundof a
trumpetorthesoundofahigh-pitchedfanfare”,asKandinskyput it inConcerning
the Spiritual in Art. This is similar to the yellow in All Saints 11, which Malorny
describesthus:“Thepicturedissolvesintoananimatedtangleofsplinteredformsin
light,coolcolours,thrownintoaspirallingvortexbytheblastofthetrumpet”.316
Accordingtotheexhibitioncataloguenotes,Munich,1911,thepaintingImpression
111shouldbelookeduponas:“…oneofmodernart’smostoutstandingexamplesof
synaesthesia, correspondences between music and painting that other early
twentieth-centuryartistssought.Adynamicwaveofyellowpaint flowsacross the
paintingfromlefttorightlikeagreatswellofsoundthatseeminglyreverberatesto
andfro.Aboveitintheupperhalfofthepaintingisanenergeticblackinadiagonal
position.Inthepreparatorypencilsketchesonecanclearlydecipherthescenewith
theopen,blackgrandpianoaswellasthecurvedbacksoftheseatedlistenersand
thosestandingalongthewall…”317
314FredWasserman,‘SchoenbergandKandinskyinConcert’inEstherdaCostaMeyerandFredWasserman(Eds.),‘Schoenberg,Kandinsky,andtheBlueRider’(NewYork:TheJewishMuseum,2003)Page19315U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page87316U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page101317Lenbachhaus,StadtischeGalerieImLenbachhausundKunstbauMunchen,http://www.lenbachhaus.de/exhibitions/sammlungspraesentation/the-blue-rider,Paragraph3
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KandinskyrespondedverypositivelytoSchoenberg’sconcert,writing:“Ienvyyou
verymuch!Youhaveyour"TheoryofHarmony"already inprint.How immensely
fortunate(thoughonlyrelatively!)musiciansareintheirhighlyadvancedart,truly
an art which has already had the good fortune to forgo completely all purely
practicalaims.Howlongwillpaintinghave towait for this?Andpaintingalsohas
therighttoit:colourandlinefortheirownsake-whatinfinitebeautyandpower
these artisticmeans possess! And yet today the beginning of this path is already
more clearly visible. In this field as well one may now dream of a "Theory of
Harmony."IalreadydreamandhopethatIwillwriteatleastthefirstsentencesof
thisgreatfuture”.318Inresponse,ArnoldSchoenbergwrotetoKandinskyonapieceofmanuscript:“Dear
MrKandinsky,IfreemyselfinnotesfromanobligationwhichIwouldhavelikedto
fulfill long ago”. 319 Subsequently, Kandinsky borrowed certain aspects of
Schoenberg’scompositionaltheories,buttransformedthemandemployedmusical
terminologywhenexpoundinghiscompositionaltheoriesforabstractpainting.
Mostly, Kandinsky paints the mixed audience response to this new music in
Impression111.MusicologistSusanMcClary320describesthesignificanceoftherules
of the diatonic tonal system for its audience. She characterises the structure
consisting of ‘establishment of a key, excursion through other keys and return to
homeasasortofquestnarrativeandconstruestheoppositionofconsonanceand
dissonance as providing the illusion of cause and effect’. For audiences used to
listeningtosuchtonalcompositions, the introductionofdissonanceintonalmusic
thus produced a strong desire for closure in the return to consonance. However,
instead of perceiving “aimless wanderings” in Schoenberg’s compositions,
Kandinskysaw“independentlife,”andratherthantheabsenceofharmonyhefound
analternative,modernharmony.318KandinskytoSchoenberg, letterof1911,ArchivistThereseMuxeneder,Schoenberg/KandinskyCorrespondence,TheArnoldSchoenbergCenter,Vienna,Austria,schoenberg.at,Page125319C.Gregory,‘GreatArtists’Part80,Volume4(London,MarshallCavendish,1991)Page2532320‘ConventionalWisdom:TheContentofMusicalClarity’(Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,2000)Seeparticularlythechapter“WhatisTonality?”Pages63-108
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The impact of Schoenberg’s atonal dissonant music is most strongly felt in
Kandinsky’s series ofCompositionsof 1910 to 1939,which he classed as ‘inward’
works. Through this set of ten impactfulworks started in 1910 and completed in
1939,“wehearthechallengingsoundsofthetwentiethcentury”.321
The first threeCompositionswere lost inWorldWar1, thus sevenpre-warworks
fromtheseriessurvive.Unquestionablyhismostmatureandambitiousworks,they
werealllarge-formatpaintings,sevenofwhichwerepaintedinMunich.Theresult
oflengthybuild-upprocesseswithnumerousextantpreliminarydrawings,thetitles
are deliberately nondescript. The numerical ordering pertaining to musical Opus
numbers or “numbered in the way a composer numbered his symphonies or
concertos”;322thehigherthenumberthemoreabstractthework.
Asper a synaesthete ‘seeing sound’, progressively, throughout the years1910-12,
using the analogies of music, Kandinsky would “develop his themes of spiritual
conflictresolvedthrough lineandcolour”.323Incontrast to therelativelyprimitive
outwardImpressionsof1911,theinwardlyfocussedCompositionsmostlyproduced
a little after this date, present “complex rhythmic compositions with a strong
symphonicflavour”324whichreacheazenithinCompositionV11of1913.
On ‘constructive effort on painting’, the second division, according to Kandinsky,
was ‘Symphonic’: “a complex composition consisting of various forms, subjected
moreorlesscompletelytoaprincipalform:hardtograspoutwardlyandthusofa
stronginnervalue.”ThisseemstosumuptheessenceofthecollectiveCompositions.
Kandinsky clarifies that the body of works represent “an expression of a slowly
formedinnerfeeling,whichcomestoutteranceonlyafterlongmaturing.ThisIcalla
321T.Phillips,‘HowtoPaintaSymphony’from‘MusicinArt’(NewYork:Prestel,1997)Page38322‘DiscoveringGreatPaintings’,No.54(Milan:AFabbriProduction,1992)Page14323H.Arnason,‘AHistoryofModernart’,(London:Thames&Hudson,1977)Page127324JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage116
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Composition”.325He claimed that they were more important, deliberate and fully
worked-outpaintings,whichhaddevelopedoveralongperiodoftime:“summaries
ofslowlyacquiredvisualexperiences”.326Furthermore,inhisReminiscencesof1913,
Kandinsky explains how he was “inwardly moved by the word composition and
latermadeitmyaiminlifetopainta‘Composition’.Thisworditselfaffectedmelike
aprayer.Itfilledmewithreverence”.
Elger describes the collective Compositions as Kandinsky’s most mature works;
large-format, most radiant, the result of lengthy processes, numerous drawings,
sketchesandcompositions.327Sachs,inhistextMusicophilia,explainshowwehave
toconstructavisualworldforourselvestorecallamusicalpiece–“theengravingof
music on the brain”. 328 This idea seems applicable to the situation, in that
Kandinsky’s Compositions seemingly represent the visual charting of some
synaestheticexperiencebasedonSchoenberg’sdissonanceandrichchromaticism,
perhapsbestepitomisedbyCompositionV1, “aseemingly indecipherablevortexof
shapesandcolours”.329
Governed by instinct, dissonance and the unconscious mind, it is clear that
contemporary writing between Schoenberg, Schopenhauer and Kandinsky also
influencedtheCompositionsof1910inparticular.“Nolongerrestrictedbytheneed
to describe, he selected colours he found most telling and used distortions and
repetitions to achieve greater expressiveness of form”.330Ultimately, he gave free
reintothemid-numberworksintheseriesinparticular.Kandinskyhimselfclaimed
“thegreatestnecessityformusicianstodayistheoverthrowofthe ‘eternallawsof325WassilyKandinsky‘TheArtofSpiritualHarmony’(U.S.A:HoughtonMifflin,1914)Pages111-112326ThomasS.Messer‘Kandinsky’(London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page20327D.Elger,‘Expressionism’(Germany:Taschen,1991)Page50328O.Sachs,‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page102.Oneofthemosteffectivemethodstorecallapieceofmusicistoenvisagetheoverallworkasavisuallandscapeormapofpatternedwavesandcoloursrelatingtosounds–asortofenforcedsynaestheticprocedure329AndrewGraham-Dixon,‘Art’(London:DK,2008)Page438330J.Lassaigne‘Kandinsky:Biographical&CriticalStudy’(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.1964)Page41.Thislackofthenecessitytodescribe,LassaignelargelylaysdowntotheabstractapproachadoptedbyKandinskyin1909/10,whichobviatedtheneedtodepictinfavourofadesiretosuggestbymeansofsymbolsandshapesrelatedtotheartist’semotiveresponses
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harmony’,whichforpaintersisonlyamatterofsecondaryimportance”.331Opinion
at the time regarding the work of this period ranges from images of impending
doomand apocalyptic visions, to expressions of pulsating and a eupeptic ‘joiede
vivre’.
Schoenberg’snewmusicseemedinitiallytobetotallyarbitrary,yetironicallyitwas
governedbythatstrictunderlyingsystem,serialism. Inthesameway,Kandinsky’s
Compositions initiallyseemtobeliethelogicwithin,orthat“hiddenstructure”.“As
soonaswerealisethatalargelymusicalimpulseliesbehindthisparticularcanvas,
it changes from a seemingly chaotic parade of visual experiments to a readable
sequence of quasi notations” (on Study for Composition V11, 1913, Munich)332
Phillips describeswhat he reads as “large blocks of sound-events, punctuated by
white silences, black interruptions”. More specifically, in musical terms, Phillips
likensStudyforCompositionV11(Figure22)totheworkofSchoenberg’sprodigious
pupil,AntonWebern:“ThediversityofthesestacksofsoundremindoneofWebern,
whoseconstructionofmusicaldurationmakesthehearingofhisworkakintothe
experienceofabsorbingapainting”.333
Tothisend,theparallelbetweenthemusicoftheSecondVienneseSchoolandthe
abstractpaintingsofKandinsky ismostapposite in thisseries,asKandinsky finds
thevisualequivalenttowhathedescribesofSchoenberg’sinnovations:“Heresorted
toa technique–rathersimilar toDelaunay’s,ofdaringdissonancesandcontrasts,
giving full play to sonority”. 334 Arguably the midway Compositions secure
Kandinsky’scrownasthe‘advocateofmodernism’.
331KandinskytoSchoenberg,letterof22August,1912.ArchivistThereseMuxeneder,Schoenberg/KandinskyCorrespondence,TheArnoldSchoenbergCenter,Vienna,Austria,schoenberg.at.Page133332T.Phillips‘HowtoPaintaSymphony’from‘MusicinArt’(NewYork:Prestel,1997)Page38333T.Phillips‘HowtoPaintaSymphony’from‘MusicinArt’(NewYork:Prestel,1997)Page38334J.Lassaigne‘Kandinsky:ABiographical&CriticalStudy’(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.1964)Page40.Delaunay’sworkslabelledOrphicstrovetofindavisualequivalentofsonoroussound
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Kandinsky’sreferencetoDelaunay,linkstobothartists’interestinsimultaneity.In
the former’s case, that being the “synthesis of the complementary elements; the
expressivecapabilitiesofmusic,colourandmovement.335
ThefollowingstatementbyKandinskyarguablybestillustratestheartist’sdesireto
delveintothesubconsciousandtoexperimentallypaintmusic:“…Lendyourearsto
music,openyoureyes topainting,and…stopthinking! Justaskyourselfwhether the
workhasenabledyouto‘walkabout’intoahithertounknownworld.Iftheansweris
yes,whatmoredoyouwant?…”336
The neurotically busy pieces conjured by Kandinsky from 1911 onwards derive
frommusic,yethavingoriginatedintheunconscious(thesehereferstoas‘inward’),
hencetheyarelargelydevoidofmaterialforms.HiscontemporaryFranzMarcdoes
not describe any figures or any perceived relationship between elements of
Kandinsky’spainting,only“jumpingspots”and“spotsofcolour.”Thepredominance
of red in the Compositions, most notably Sketch for Composition V11 of 1913, for
example, can be explained by the fact that Kandinsky saw the high-key colour as
emblematicofdiscordance.“Redwillprovideanacutediscordoffeeling”.337
Ittranspiresthat1913wasthepainter’sannusmirabilis:“ForKandinsky,1913was
the most productive of the pre-war era. He had now mastered the keyboard of
abstractformsofexpression”.338ThestartingpointforComposition1Vof1913isthe
Deluge.At2x3metres,itwasexhibitedatHerwarthWalden’sfirstGermanAutumn
SalonStürmGalleryinBerlinin1913.Theosophysupportedthebeliefinacoming
apocalypsebutthemovementalsoemphasizedreincarnationandrebirth.Basedon
this doctrine, hopewas possible only after destruction. Thiswould be a common
motif for Kandinsky’s pre-war paintings. Emblematically, the painting opens up,335ThomasS.Messer,‘Kandinsky’(London,Thames&Hudson,1997)Page24336OssianWard,‘HowKandinsky’sSynaesthesiaChangedArt’TheTelegraph,December2014337Wassily Kandinsky ‘Kandinsky’s Din ‘On Ghosts in Art (New York: Sagabona, 2014) iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage100.Asastandardadvancingcolour,red,attheendofthespectrumnexttoorangeandoppositeviolet,issynonymouswithdanger,bloodandfire338U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page106
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fanlike from the centre, with arbitrary colour. Natural forms melt into painterly
passages - mountain, horses, figures and a ‘rainbow of conciliation’. Kandinsky
believed that formwithout contentwas “not a hand, but an empty glove”,339thus
thematically, Richard Cork theorises that Kandinsky’s pre-war pictures such as
Composition 1V are apocalyptic, containing images of the Last Judgement or the
Deluge.340Zyrian and Theosophical imagery aided Kandinsky in expressing his
emotions, especially those of the highly stressed environment building up to the
outbreakofthewar.ForKandinsky, impendingorimminentwarandthethreatof
devastationstemmedfromthewritingsofRudolfSteiner.By1910hisfocuswason
TheApocalypse as thesignificantdocument formodern times.Thiscoincidedwith
the assumption of many Russian intellectuals, intensified by the earlier 1905
revolution,thattheApocalypsewasnearing.341“Theosophyalsoaidedinexpressing
mystical concepts such as the abyss and apocalypse”.342Meanwhile, culturally,
“Zyrianshamanisminfluencedatleastpartofhisrepertoireofpictographsincluding
symbolsforhorses,suns,boats,mountains,andmore”.343
Composition V of 1911 (Figure 17) represents “the sound echoing forth from a
trumpet, a black whiplash contour derived from a Russian folk-art lubok
(woodblock)threatensthisevocationofacosmiclandscape”.344AsperKandinsky’s
orchestral chart of corresponding colours, the yellow represents the travelling
trumpetsound,whichiscounteredbythefunerealblackcalligraphicline.Theform
ofoarsandabridgecanbedetected,thusalludingtoKandinsky’srecurrenttheme
of rowing. The abstract landscape, which reminds one of the cave paintings of
Lascaux, pertains to the Last Judgement theme, painted in a manner dubbed
339‘GreatArtists’Part80,Volume4(London:MarshallCavendish,1991)Page2539340RichardCork,‘ABitterTruth:Avant-GardeArtandtheGreatWar’(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1994)Pages17-18341Rose-CarolWashtonLong,‘Occultism,Anarchism,andAbstraction:Kandinsky’sArtoftheFuture’ArtJournal46.1(1987)Page40342MariaStavrinaki,‘MessianicPains.TheApocalypticTemporalityinAvant-GardeArt,Politics,andWar’Modernism/modernity(2011)Pages372-373343PegWeiss‘KandinskyandOldRussia:TheArtistasEthnographerandShaman’(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1995)PagesX111-XV344S.Behr,‘MovementsinModernArt:Expressionism’(London:TateGallery,1999)Page43
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‘abstracteroticism’.Thecontrapuntalmovementwithin, linksagaintomusic.With
the black line in particular, Kandinsky seems to be pre-empting the work of the
AutomatistsMiroandMasson,particularlygiventhe facthehimselfstatedhewas
not thinking about the result.345Composition V was rejected by the Munich New
Artists’ Association – a decision which caused Kandinsky and friends to resign.
However,asaresult,fortuitouslytheBlueRiderGroupwasformed.
CompositionV1,1913(Figure23)withitspassionatelyenergeticcolours,bearsthe
tracesofhis engagementwithSchoenbergandhowKandinsky’sunderstandingof
Schoenberg’smusicandtheoryhelpstoexplainthecompositionalstructureof the
painting. The structure is not immediately obvious, but it can be seenwithin the
juxtapositionsoflinesandcoloursinthefinishedwork.InReminiscencesKandinsky
describes “a coarse red-blue centre, somewhat discordant”.346Further to this, he
writes on the principle of ‘anti-logic’ and how “colours long considered
disharmoniousarenowplacednexttoeachother”.347
Despitethepainting’sspontaneousappearance,Kandinskysaidhehadtheworkin
hisheadforoneandahalfyears,tryingtodissolvetheseformsandalsoattempting
to create the picture through “purely abstract” means, but with no success.
Kandinsky alsodescribes theprimaryorganizationofCompositionVI in amanner
consistent with his theories of dissonant composition for painting. He identifies
threecentres in thepicture,asperLandscapewiththeBlackArch of1912,oneon
the left the“delicate,rosy,somewhatblurredcentre,withweak, indefinite lines in
themiddle”asecondontheright(somewhathigherthantheleft)the“crude,red-
blue,ratherdiscordantarea,withsharp,ratherevil,strong,verypreciselines”anda
thirdcentre,between the two(nearer to the left)which isnot initiallyrecognized
butemergesastheprincipalcentre;the‘hiddenstructure’.
345‘DiscoveringGreatPaintings’No.54(Milan:AFabbriProduction,1992)Page14346H.Duchting,‘Kandinsky’(Germany:Taschen,1991)Page38:“withsharp,strong,verypreciseandrathermalevolentlines.Betweenthesecentresisathirdwhichcanonlylaterberecognisedasacentre,butneverthelessisultimatelythemaincentre”347WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A,Dover,2000)Page193
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Kandinskyproposesprinciplesofmusicalconsonanceanddissonanceatplayinthe
juxtaposition of forms on the canvas, and “the jostling, the confluence or
dismembermentoftheindividualform”.348CompositionVIisfullofsuchaninterplay
of antithesis - curved and straight lines, diagonal movements, bright and muted
colours, extremes of light and dark, areas of thinner and thicker paint, lines and
areasofcolourseemingtomoveindifferentdirections,areasofdenseinterplayof
intersectinglinesasintheupperright,andareasofrelativelyopenspaceasinthe
rosysectionjustleftofcentre.Intryingtoabsorballoftheseoppositionsintheway
Kandinsky specifies, there is no rest for the eye, resulting in an unresolved
dissonanceillustrativeofSchoenberg’sagitatedatonalmusic.
Düchting describes an “Inner world of imagination and feeling; apocalyptic
atmosphere, abstract means of expression”,349thus, drawing together the various
traitsinherentinKandinsky’sworkofthisperiod:theinteriorisation,emotion,the
apocalypse theme, abstraction and unbridled expression. Arnason refers to
Composition V1 and Composition V11 as masterpieces of ‘Abstract Expressionist’
painting;atermmoregenerallyreservedforthelaterworkoftheGesturalistsand
Colour Field artists of the 1940s and 1950s. He also describes “pictorial fields in
whichcolours,shapesandlinesseemengagedinsomefuriouscosmicbattle”.350The
word‘field’herelinkstothefutureAbstractExpressionist,MarkRothko.
Kandinsky’sdescriptionoftheeffectsheexperiencesinlookingatthepainting-the
effectsofclashing,disorientation,andtheindependenceofcolourandline-recalls
those he noted in response to Schoenberg’s pantonal music. “Then this soul will
experience amultitude of vibrations to enter into the realm of art”.351There is a
multitude of contrasts, in large and small areas of the canvas, that produce
disorientingandconflictingeffects,whilehisbalancingofthesetensionsacrossthe
348H.Düchting,‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page48349H.Düchting,‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page50350H.Arnason,‘AHistoryofModernArt’,(London:Thames&Hudson,1977)Page127351WassilyKandinsky, ‘OntheQuestionofForm’,Almanacessay,1911,C.Short, ‘TheArtTheoryofKandinsky1909-1928’(Oxford:PeterLang,1962)Page65
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whole painting produces an effect of a unifying equilibrium via his leitmotif, the
hiddenstructure.
CompositionV11,1913,(StateTretyakovGallery,Moscow)at200x300cm(Figure
24)ishismagnumopus,andundoubtedlythemostambitiouspaintingofhiscareer.
“Analogousinformandconstructiontoasymphony,themajorworkofKandinsky’s
MunichperiodiswithoutdoubtCompositionV11”.352Thecomplexityofthemesand
motifsisasrichasthecoloursthemselves,whichexplodelikefireworksthroughout
thecanvas inacornucopiaofemotions.“Aworldof ideasexplodes fromthemore
graphicallyappliedcentreofthepainting”.353Manyreadtheworkasapocalypticin
lightoftheloomingviolenceofWorldWar1andrevolutioninhisRussianhomeland.
RichardCorkbelievesthatthroughoutEurope,someofthemostalertartistsofthe
emergentgenerationfoundthemselvesperturbedbysimilar intimations.Although
noonecouldhavepredictedwhensuchawarwouldbreakout, letaloneforeseen
theprolongedandharrowingcourseittook,paintersofverydifferentpersuasions
were united in a growing conviction that theworldmight soon be threatened by
awesomedevastation.354
AlthoughZyrianfolkartdidnotfocusonChristianimagerysuchasanapocalypse,
Kandinsky derived symbols from their culture and relates them to a catastrophic
war.TheartistalsoreturnedtoBlavatsky’sTheosophyfocusedonspiritualthoughts
such as reincarnation. Nietzsche took Blavatsky’s spirituality to a new level by
introducing his idea of a super human (Übermensch) or a man that transcends
humanity.Kandinsky related to thisdivinehuman figure throughpainting.McKay
claimscolours,specifically,“enabledhistransportationbeyondempiricalreality”.355
352H.Düchting‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page52353S.Farthing,‘1001PaintingsYouMustSeeBeforeYouDie’(England:Cassell,2011)Page618354RichardCork,‘ABitterTruth:Avant-GardeArtandtheGreatWar’(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1994)Page13355CarolMcKay,‘Kandinsky’sEthnography:ScientificFieldworkandAestheticReflection’1994Page203
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Kandinskywasnotaloneinhisendeavourtorepresentdestructionbeforethewar.
TheGermanExpressionistLudwigMeidnerpaintedmanypropheticallyapocalyptic
images in the years before the outbreak of the war in 1914. His Apocalyptic
Landscape of 1913 shows a man lying in the midst of storms, flooding, fire, and
smoke, in aworldnot faroff from the realityof the comingwar.Kandinsky’s ally
Franz Marc also painted devastation after realising the paradise motif he had
createdcouldnotlast.InTheFateoftheAnimalsof1913,treesandanimalsendurea
terriblestormofthrashinglines.356
Perhapsitisbesttoavoidthephrase‘theagonyandtheecstasy’inanarthistorical
context, yet the work Composition V11 teeters on the cusp of both, and relates
stronglytothe ‘creationthroughdestruction’conceptpioneeredbyNietzsche,and
the ideasofapocalypsepropagatedbyRudolfSteiner. InbothCompositionV1 and
V11,thethemesaretheDelugeandtheLastJudgement,andarethuscentredupon
the gottlich (divine). “Almost superhuman achievement, bringing together a
staggeringdiversityofformsasinsomemightysymphony.Eachformissubjectto
itsownrules,butallisswepttogetherinasinglevastimpulse”.“Fullofmovement,
breaking into colourful proliferations, with the centre overlaid and strongly
emphasisedbydarkerlinesandpatches,spawningshapes”.357
Inhiswritings,KandinskyidentifiedthesubjectofCompositionVIastheDeluge,or
greatBiblical flood,“acataclysmiceventthatushers inaneraofspiritualrebirth”.
He believed that painting itself resembled such a cataclysm: “Painting is like a
thunderingcollisionofdifferentworldsthataredestinedinandthroughconflictto
create thatnewworld called thework”.358Thoughonecanmakeout the formsof
356Gerald 0Izenberg, ‘Intellectual-Cultural History and Psychobiography: The Case of Kandinsky’AnnualofPsychoanalysis31(2003)Page31.Marc’sdystopianvisionsofapocalypseanddoombeganto tainthisworkat this timeandcouldberelated tohis feelingson the impendingwar. Ina1915lettertohiswifeMaria,Marcexplainsthatthischangeinhisartoccurredbecausehebegantoseetheuglinessinanimalswhichhehadpreviouslythoughtonlyexistedinhumans.Hestatesthathewasnolongerabletoseethebeautywhichanimalshadoncerepresentedforhim.Theanimalmotifswhichonceconveyedasenseofemotionnolongerheldtheirappealandpossibility357H.Düchting‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page53358TateGalleryOnline:Kandinsky:ThePathtoAbstraction,roomguide,Room7,Paragraph1
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boats,crashingwavesandslantingrain,itisthemoodofviolenceandchaosthatis
moreimportantthantheliteralinterpretationofobjectsornarrative.Thepainting
ischaracterisedbyapowerfulsenseofmovement,createdbycontrastinglightand
dark areas of colour, linked by strong diagonals. Conventional perspective has
disappeared. Instead, formsandcoloursare layeredand juxtaposed, interactingto
createaswirling,three-dimensionaleffect.Themonumentalscaleoftheworkadds
tothis,givingtheviewerthesenseofbeingimmersedinthespaceofthepainting.
These effects contribute to what Kandinsky described as the ‘inner sound’ of
thepicture.359
Despite the apparently arbitrary arrangement of ambiguous forms in both
CompositionV1andV11,Kandinskymade30preparatoryorpreliminarystudies.An
entry inGabrieleMünter’sdiaryreads:“Inspiteof the intensivepreliminarywork
thecompositionretainsthefreshnessandspontaneityofthefirstsketches.”360
ReturningtothethemeofmusicandsynaesthesiaasrelatingtoKandinsky’sworks,
asaforementioned,thisismostapparentintheCompositionsseries,andnonemore
so than in Composition V1 and V11; both of which represent ‘orchestration’ and
synaesthetic experience, “atonality and dissonance with parts clashing and a
disruption of space”. 361 In building a case to support Kandinsky’s alleged
synaesthetic condition, with its monumental proportions, enormous forms and
thematic complexity, Composition V11 is a symphony of complex, multi-layered
formsandcolours.WillGrohmann,biographer,describeditas“asmoulderingfire,
approaching disaster, excessive tempo”.362The musical analogy is thus extended,
andsomescholars read theworkasavisual response toWagner’sworkDerRing
desNibelungen(TheRingCycle)andwereturntothefatherofthegesamtkunstwerk.
359J.Lassaigne,‘Kandinsky:Biographical&CriticalStudy’,(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.,1964)Page70360H.Düchting‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page53361KhanAcademySmarthistory:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i16sGRY7SZ4362U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page109
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After a prolific spell duringwhichKandinskydeployed all of his cosmicprops, “A
lastmeetingwithMünterinthewinterof1915roundedoffoneofthemostexciting
andeventfulperiodsinthehistoryofmodernart”.363Despitethisstatement,there
weremoreCompositions,upto1939.ThusthecollectivebodyofCompositionsasa
wholerunsfromtheoutbreakoftheFirsttotheoutbreakoftheSecondWorldWar.
Themusicalthemecontinues,notablyinCompositionV111of1923(Figure25)with
the ‘quiet’ bubble-like form of the plainwhite circle, to the ‘noisy’ solar forms of
concentric rings. Interestingly, J.SReid’s recent research into the ‘shape of sound’
usingaCymaScope,revealsanaloguesofsoundandmusicasbeingbubble-shaped
(SeeAppendix1).Cymaticsisconcernedwithhowsoundenergycreatespatternsin
formviamolecularenergy.AccordingtoneurobiologistSemirZeki,theV4complex
in thebrainconstructscolours in theabstract, in that it isnotconcernedwith the
objectsthatthecoloursvest.
Other non-category works of synaesthetic significance include Landscape with a
BlackArchof1912(Figure26),whichstandsaloneasanabstractworkin itsown
right as opposed to being one of the Improvisations, Impressions or Compositions.
Kandinsky’sownwordsseemmostaptindescribingtheforcesinthispainting:
“Painting is likea thunderingcollisionofdifferentworldsthataredestined inand
throughconflicttocreatethatnewworldcalledthework.Technically,everyworkof
art comes into being in the sameway as the cosmos – bymeans of catastrophes,
which ultimately create out of the cacophony of the various instruments that
symphonywecallthemusicofthespheres”.KandinskyinReminiscencesof1913364
Asanotherlarge-scaleworkofthe‘heroicperiod’LandscapewithaBlackArchrelies
onthepowerofwhollyabstractedformalone,forthecompositionisdominatedby
363H.Düchting‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page54364U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page102
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three colour areas of shapes which press against each other: “rocklike shapes
floatinginspaceonacollisioncourse,somesortofcosmiccalamity”.365
In Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky describes red and blue as being
physicallyunrelated,buteffective if juxtaposed.Thus, likeSchoenberg’smusic, the
chromaticclashisdeliberate.WhatU.Becks-Malornydescribesas‘acosmicvortex
ofinexorablemovement’createsadramaticatmosphereofcoalitionandopposition
betweenthecolours.Typically forKandinsky, interplayandantithesisareagainat
work,withhot and cool colours; the red represents the struggle andblue retreat,
andtheenergyiseruptedviatheblackarch.Whilsttheworklinkstomusicinpart
withitsmovement,balanceandharmonywiththeblackarchactingastherhythmic
counterpoint to areas of colour, thework is interpreted as an image of a violent
struggle–morespecificallythedivorcefromhiswifein1911.ThusKandinskyuses
synaestheticcolourvaluesandfindsformswhichwouldhaveanemotiveeffecton
theviewer.
LikeCompositionV1 andV11,LandscapewithaBlackArch is also a cosmic vision,
reflectinghisinterestinTheosophy.OncemorewecanfindKandinsky’strademark
‘hiddenstructure’whichinthiscaseistheblackgraphicelement,which“maintains
the composition in a sense of taut equilibrium”.366The black arch operates like a
bentlance,piercingtheheartsofthethreedisparatecolourpools.
BlackLinesNo.189of1913 (Figure27) is typicalofKandinsky’s earlyexpressive,
abstract works. Coloured forms, surfaces and areas are seemingly laid out at
random.Thecoloursarehigh-keyandvibrant.Thereisanintense,explosivepower
in it - the painting has a reality all of its own and does not refer to the objective
worldoranythingotherthanitself.Theblacklines,arealmostlikerandomdoodles,
yetaddafurthersenseofstructure.Thepaintingisapureconstructionoflineand
colour,reminiscentofChinesebrushpaintingandJapanesecalligraphy.365ThomasS.Messer‘Kandinsky’(London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page84366U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page102
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The direct, expressive, and ‘sensational’ valuewaswhat Kandinskywas trying to
achieve. Suchpaintingswere theproductofhis imaginationand sensation, rather
thanderived fromobservationor intellect.The colours, lines, forms, gestures and
tonesareallemployedonlyfortheirabstractvalue.Kandinskygavethesepaintings
titleswithoutanynarrativereferences,suchashisImprovisationsorCompositions.
Fugue, 1914 (Figure 28) shows Kandinsky’s continuous fascination with the
emotionalpowerofmusic.Kandinskyregardedthis ‘innersound’ascrucialtothis
painting. The connection is made explicit in the title of Fugue, which suggests a
visual equivalent to a musical fugue, with its overlapping, repeated motifs and
themes at differentpitches. 367 Unlike the atonal music of his much-admired
contemporary composer Arnold Schoenberg, the ‘polyphonal order’ which
KandinskysoughtinthisworkisfoundinthemathematicalconstructionofJ.SBach
of the eighteenth-century. This reflects the influence of the painter Paul Klee on
Kandinskyat the time.Kleeenjoyed thepolyphonyandarchitectural construction
inherentinBach’sfugalconstructions.In contrast toFugue,PaintingwithaRedSpot of the sameyear features “swirling,
almost frenetically activated colours which shoot across the page in a display of
painterlyfireworks”.368Principlesareoverthrownandtheindependentexistenceof
elements of the composition reflect all that Kandinsky admired in Schoenberg’s
work. Kandinsky juxtaposed disparate colours which he saw as ‘clashing’ and
creatinganunresolvedtension-effectscomparablewithSchoenberg’sunresolved
dissonance.As he outlined in a letter toMünter in June1916, “Mixing everything
together,itmustbelikeanorchestra”.369
Kandinsky continued to represent music in his paintings into the 1920s, as is
evident in ‘Swinging’ of 1925.Here themusical linkprevails in the sense that the
367TateGalleryOnline:Kandinsky:ThePathtoAbstraction,roomguide,Room7,Paragraph2368‘DiscoveringGreatPaintings’,No.54(Milan,AFabbriProduction,1992)Page18369W.Kandinsky,‘DelphiCollectedWorksofKandinsky’(DelphiClassicsVersion1,2015)Page45
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geometricabstractshapeschartthechoreographicstepsofdance,pre-emptingthe
jazzfadofthefollowingdecade,whilstechoingthemetronomicmotionofmusical
metre.Kandinskycalledthisworkthe‘pulsationofpainting’.Yellow-redblueofthe
same year is similar, in that “the graphic, dynamic and geometrical elements are
brought together in a rhythmical relationship with a fascinating note of inner
evocation;theyemphasisemusicallythedepthofthecoloursinrelationtothespace
whichisbeingcreated”.370Alsoin1925,hecreateda ‘SchematicDrawing’ inSmall
Dream in Red, which reflects the fact that “Music appeared to possess a pure
autonomywhichappealeddeeplytoKandinsky”.371
Certainlyathismoreexpressive,asPhillipsaptlyputit“heevencarriestheanalogy
intothephysicalprocessofpainting,equatingthepressureofthebrush,broadening
thelineasitincreases,withthatofabowonthestringsenlargingthesound”.372
Kandinsky’sspellattheBauhausbetween1922and1933representsacalltoorder.
GropiushadappointedtwomembersoftheBlueRiderasresidentsattheBauhaus,
Klee in 1921 and Kandinsky as ‘Formmeister’ for the painting class in 1922.
“Kandinskywasinapositiontodisseminatehisartandhistheoryofarttoabroad
publicattheBauhaus”.373Itwasatthispointthatanotablechangeoccurredinhis
painting style, from “The exuberantly coloured, dramatic, and improvisatory
character of his Compositions V1 and V11, to the more geometrically ordered
VariegatedCircle,1921”374(Figure29).Theshiftistoapicturecomposedofregular
geometricalelements,suchasthetriangle,circleandsquare,reflectingtheimpactof
theSuprematistsandConstructivists inMoscow,namelyMalevichandLissitzky in
particular. This contrasts with the more ‘Expressionist’ work from the Munich
period.However,Düchting contests that “Kandinsky’spaintings couldhardlyhave
370A.Bovi‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)Page34371‘DiscoveringGreatPaintings’,No.54(Milan:AFabbriProduction,1992)Page32372T.Phillips‘HowtoPaintaSymphony’from‘MusicinArt’Page38‘MusicinArt’(NewYork:Prestel,1997)Page38373H.Düchting,‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’,(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page62374G.HeardHamilton,‘Painting&SculptureinEurope1880-1940’,(U.S.A:YaleUniversityPress,1993)Page338
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beenderivedfromcontemporaneousSuprematistandConstructivistworks”.375This
helaysdowntoadifferenceintheoreticalstructureandKandinsky’sexpressiveness
ofform.Kandinskywroteatthistimethat“themutualinfluenceofformandcolour
now becomes clear. A yellow triangle, a blue circle, a green square or a green
triangle, a yellow circle, a blue square - all these are different and have different
spiritual values”.376This reflects the growing impact of Suprematist principles;
mirroringMalevich’sdoctrineinparticular.
Theoretically,Kandinsky laidout inhisPointandLinetoPlane of 1926, that “The
contentofaworkofartfindsitsexpressioninthecomposition:thatis,inthesumof
the tensions inwardly organised for the work”.377This reminds us of Jackson
Pollock’s statement “There is no accident. I can control the flow of the paint”.378
Interestingly, Stravinsky’s earlywork, epitomised byTheFirebird, 1910 orRiteof
Spring, 1913,wasas turbulentasKandinsky’sworkof thatperiod.Yetpost-1920,
Stravinsky’s music, like Kandinsky’s painting, “was increasingly controlled and
composed of elements pre-invented and placed in orders more intellectual than
instinctive”.379
Just asElgerwrites “Kandinsky continuedhis consistentdevelopment towards an
autonomous, increasingly geometrical art”. 380 Kandinsky’s biographer Düchting
notes that by 1920 “an increasing tendency toward making individual elements
moregeometricalbecomesevidentintheabstractworks”.381Theturbulentworldof
form and colour gives way to “cool, rational composition based on the stricter
375H.Düchting,‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page62376JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage64-65377FonsHeijnsbroek,‘W.KandinskyonArtTheory,Composition,Colour&Line’Onlineat:http://www.quotes-famous-artists.org/wassily-kandinsky-famous-quotes378TheMetropolitanMuseumofArtHeilbrunnTimelineofArtHistory,AutumnRhythm(No.30)1950,ThePollock–KrasnerFoundation/ArtistsRightsSociety(ARS),NewYork.2011379H.Düchting,‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page340380D.Elger,‘Expressionism’(Germany:Taschen,1991)Page151381H.Düchting,‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page61
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analysisofform”.382Concurrently,PaulKleegrewincreasinglyinsistentuponFaktur
(structural rhythm), which he adopted from bars of musical composition. More
broadly, Bauhaus tuition sought to instil Faktur as a principal doctrine in its
students’programmepostWW11.
Afterhislastflutterwithrepresentingsoundinanabstractwayin‘Overcast’of1917,
Kandinsky continued his synaesthetic journey at the Bauhaus nonetheless, in
particular through lessonsandexperiments in the interactionbetweencolourand
form“inviewofoursynaestheticassociationofyellowwithsharp,forexample”.383
Collectively,however,theBauhausyearsrepresentacalltoorder,whichLassaigne
definesas follows: “Paradoxically, this intoxicating freedomwasultimately to lead
himtothestrictestself-discipline”.384
382H.Düchting,‘Kandinsky:ARevolutioninPainting’(Germany:Taschen,1995)Page62383U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page142384J.Lassaigne,‘Kandinsky:Biographical&CriticalStudy’,(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.,1964)Page74
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Conclusion
Kandinsky’s painterly journey tookhim froma colourful Expressionist style to an
abstraction which became increasingly pared down. This morphological
developmentissimilartothatofthecomposerArnoldSchoenberg’sinmusic.Both
advocatesofModernism,theircombinedlegacyisimmense.Intheformer’scase,he
straddlesmuchofModernArt-thefirsthalfofthetwentiethcentury,infact,given
heformsthelinkbetweenFauvismandExpressionismtoAbstractpaintingandon
to SurrealismandAbstractExpressionism.To that end I agreewithArnasonwho
wrote “Kandinsky alone became the father of the free, painterly, improvisatory,
Expressionist,biomorphicmannerthatwoulddevelopthroughtheSurrealistartof
Masson, Miro, and Matta and to attain its climax in the environmentally scaled,
‘holistic’compositionsofJacksonPollockintheyears1947-50”.385Inrespectofthis,
Iwould add thatKandinsky’s impactwas on the ‘all-over’ paintings of the Colour
FieldAbstractExpressionistgroup.Certainlyhisfourpanelseriesof1914hasbeen
read as a journey through the four seasons, and pre-emptive of Pollock’s
Summertime No. 9A of 1948 and Autumn Rhythm No. 30 from 1950 (or indeed
Rothko’s Four Seasons Restaurant canvases). Peg Weiss supports the view that
Kandinsky’sworkof1913/14waspropheticoflatertwentieth-centuryart,notably
AbstractExpressionism.
Kandinsky generated a predominantly German Expressionist movement that
producedfeelingasvisualform,notjustcolour.Hisdaring,completeabstractionor
non-objective work led to the elimination of representation altogether. Although
imbued with his extensive knowledge of music, literature, science (the atomic
theory) and philosophy – the material objects seemingly have no structure or
purpose. In terms of the orchestration of colour, form, line, and space, hisworks
becameblueprintsforanenlightenedandliberatedsociety,emphasizingspirituality.
385H.Arnason,‘AHistoryofModernArt’(London:Thames&Hudson,1977)Page128
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AsbiographerT.SMesserstates, “hepossessed thenecessary intellectual scope to
articulatetheawarenessandwasable,therefore,toconductameaningfuldialogue
betweentheoreticalreflectionandpictorialrealisation”.386Whateverone’stheories
onKandinskyare,itismosthelpfulthathewasbothintelligentandhighlyliterate,
for it is arguably throughhis extensive and candidwriting thatwe gain themost
valuableinsightintohismodeofthoughtandintentionsasanartist.
On the question of whether Kandinsky possessed the neurological condition or
‘sixth sense’ of synaesthesia or not, it is important tomake clear and understand
thatsynaestheticartmayrefertoeitherartcreatedbysynaesthetesorartcreatedto
conveythesynaestheticexperience.InKandinsky’scase,evidencesuggeststhatitis
largelythelatter.OssianWard’spointthatthereisstilldebatewhetherKandinsky
washimselfanaturalsynaesthete,ormerelyexperimentingwiththisconfusionof
sensesincombinationwiththecolourtheoriesofGoethe,SchopenhauerandRudolf
Steiner,inordertofurtherhisvisionforanewabstractart387isaveryvalidone.
Asaforementioned(Sachs,Galonetal)synaesthesiaisoftencongenital,i.e.present
frombirth, andalso invariably familial orhereditary.Researchers S.Baron-Cohen
andJ.Harrisonfoundthatathirdoftheirsubjectsreportedcloserelativeswhoalso
hadSynaesthesia. InKandinsky’scase, thisdoesnotappear tobeso.Scholarsand
neurologistsareunderstandablyeagertodistinguishbetweentruesynaesthesiaand
thephenomenonknownas‘pseudosynaesthesia’.Psychologicaltestinginrelationto
this has inevitably become more prevalent in modern times; the work of V.S.
RamachandranandE.M.Hubbardin1999isofparticularnote,forexample.Aminor
point but worth considering also, is that research has revealed that the ratio of
female tomale synaesthetes is in a ratioof six toone.Thus it is lessprevalent in
males,anditmaybethatKandinskywasdrawntoitasitwas‘intheair’atthetime,
386ThomasS.Messer‘Kandinsky’London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page8387OssianWard,‘TheManwhoHeardhisPaintboxHiss’TheTelegraph,June2006
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ratherthanbeingatruesynaesthetehimself.Beckettsuggests“Heevenclaimedthat
whenhesawcolourheheardmusic”,388suggestingitisaclaimratherthanareality.
However,IdonotbelievethatKandinskywasapseudosynaesthete,nordoIthink
he was a true synaesthete, but agree with Robert Hughes’ notion that he had
abnormally strong visual reactions and that he felt some colours as strongly as
others feel sounds.389In essence, then, he certainly had extra sensory perception,
andwitnessedadegreeofinter-sensoryexperience,butmoreperhaps,asaresultof
hisinterestinspirituality,theosophyandmysticismratherthanarawneurological
reaction. J.A. Stonewrites in relation to this: “Kandinskyexplores theworkingsof
colourontheeye,mind,andsoul”.390Forme,thekeywordhereis‘explores’which
suggests a quest or a deep delving on the artist’s part, rather than an instinctive
inner happening. Stone rightly poses the question, is the psychic effect of colour
physicalorthroughassociation?Atremoloeffectofvibrationswithoutrealcontact?
I believe itwas. Biographer Lassaigne concurswithHughes, stating: “Kandinsky’s
mentalperceptionisextra-sensory”.391
It would be possible to suggest by way of explanation of this, that in ‘highly
sensitive’ people, the way to the soul is so direct and the soul itself so
impressionablethatanyimpressionoftastecommunicatesitselfimmediatelytothe
soul and thence to the other organs of sense (in this case, the eyes). This would
implyanechoor reverberationsuchasoccurs sometimes inmusical instruments,
which, without being touched, “sound in harmony with some other instrument
struck at the moment.”392As Sachs writes inMusicophilia, “Listening to music is
immenselyenhanced–arichstreamofvisualsensations”393
388SisterW.Beckett‘TheStoryofPainting’(London:DorlingKindersley,1996)Page355389RobertHughes‘TheShockoftheNew’(London:Thames&Hudson,1992)Page302390JenniferArleneStone‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt:WassilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage10391J.Lassaigne,‘Kandinsky:Biographical&CriticalStudy’,(U.S.A:TheWorldPublishingCo.,1964)Page65392WassilyKandinsky‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage58393O.Sachs,‘Musicophilia:TalesofMusicontheBrain’,e-Book,Picador,Page287
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InsupportofKandinsky’scaseofsynaesthesia,however,theexperienceofcoupling
sensesisalludedtoinhiswritings.Forexample,hestated,“Theexpression‘scented
colours’isfrequentlymetwith”394andhowthesoundofcoloursissodefinitethatit
wouldbe“hardtofindanyonewhowouldtrytoexpressbrightyellowinthebass
notes or dark like in the treble”.395Furthermore, in relation to lexical-gustatory
synaesthesia(seeAppendix3)Kandinskywrote that “without tastingblue, that is,
withoutexperiencingafeelingofseeingabluecolour”.396Thismightseemapointin
favourofhimhavingsynaesthesia,byvirtueofhissuggestionthatthetwosenses,
taste and sight, are inextricably linked, and he cannot imagine a timewhen they
weren’t. Similarly, Kandinsky explained the feeling and emotion he felt when
experiencingcolour.Hefelthischestwouldburst,andbreathingbecamedifficult.In
relationtothis,Kandinskybelievedcolourcanconjureupveryspecificassociations
which “set off a chainof emotional responses in thebody”.397He certainly ‘heard’
colour,forhewrote“blueisthesamecolourwepicturetoourselveswhenwehear
that sound of the word heaven”. Those who possess synopsia, are able to ‘hear’
colour in this way. But for true synaesthetes colour is not added to music, it is
integraltoit.Kandinsky’sexperienceofmusicinrelationtocolour,appearsalittle
contrivedratherthanbeingentirelyintegraltoit.
SachsposesaninterestingpointinMusicophilia,whichisthatsynaesthetesalways
experience the same colour in relation to sound, and the experience is thus
preordained.Thecoloursareconstantorconsistent,instantaneous,immediateand
fixed. In the case of Kandinsky, he cites the organ, double bass, flute and cello
sounds as all being related to the colour blue. It may well be that the range of
instrumentsisduetothedifferenthuesorshadesofblue;darkbluehevisualisesin
394WassilyKandinsky‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage59395WassilyKandinsky‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage59396WassilyKandinsky‘Kandinsky’sDin‘OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage59397U.Becks-Malorny,‘Kandinsky:TheJourneytoAbstraction’(Germany:Taschen,1994)Page64
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responsetotheorgan,forexample,butitseemsthatincontrasttoSachs’definition,
thecoloursheassociateswiththesamesoundsarenotentirelyconsistent.
ForKandinsky,thecoloursonthepainter'spaletteevokeadoubleeffect:aphysical
effectontheeye,yettheeffectcanbemuchdeeper,however,causingavibrationof
the soul or an "inner resonance".398 I believe that for true synaesthetes, the
experiencewouldbe lessspiritualandmoreneurological/ innate.Kandinskywas
very interested in the condition of synaesthesia, however, and made special
research into the ‘synaesthesia problem’ in the Laboratory of Monumental Art
(INHUK) he founded, and then in the Bauhaus. Galeyev, in fact, states that, “most
peopleconnect thenameand theoreticalworksofKandinskywith theproblemof
synaesthesia.Moreoverheisoftencalledanartist-synaesthesist”.399Hisinterest in
tryingtovisualisesound,ledhimtoproducein1916,thepainting‘ToTheUnknown
Voice’asavisualsoundrecordofhisfirsttelephonecalltohiswifeNina.
Phillipsrightlywrote,that:“Schoenberg’smusichelpedliberateKandinskyfromthe
restraintsofreference.”400Theparadoxishowbothpractitionersmanagedtoturn
thisfreedomintodiscipline.Bothartists’earlysojournintoabstractionwasinitially
perceived as an unruly experiment, in which ‘anything goes’. However, for both,
thereisaverykeensenseofunderlyingorhiddenstructure.AsPhillipsgoesonto
point out: “Schoenberg, like Kandinsky, was to turn new-found freedoms into
rules.”401GeorgeHeardHamiltonwritesofhowreason,consciousnessandpurpose
play an overwhelming part in Kandinsky’s work.402The paradox he illustrates
through Kandinsky’s consciously constructed works from spontaneous
398TateModern,‘Kandinsky:ThePathtoAbstraction’http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/kandinsky-path-abstraction/kandinsky-path-abstraction-room-guide,Room7,Paragraph1399B.MGaleyev,‘KandinskyandSchoenberg:TheProblemofInternalCounterpoint’,Articleonline,Page67400T.Phillips‘HowtoPaintaSymphony’from‘MusicinArt’(NewYork:Prestel,1997)Page38401T.Phillips‘HowtoPaintaSymphony’from‘MusicinArt’(NewYork:Prestel,1997)Page38402G.HeardHamilton‘Painting&SculptureinEurope1880-1940’(U.S.A:YaleUniversityPress,1993)Page211
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configurations of colour and line, which were then fitted into a predetermined
design.403
InthecaseofSchoenberg,contemporarycriticsinitiallydismissedhiscompositions
asbeingwithout rules– randomandbasedon “aimlesswanderings” inwhich the
composerseemedtoselect,inthewordsofLinke,“onlytheoppositeofwhatsounds
‘right’toourears”.404Kandinskywasinstinctivelydrawntothisstrainofmusicand
recognisedtheparadoxbetweenthehaphazardarrangementofforms(thefutureof
artistic harmony) “expressed in mathematical form but in terms irregular rather
thanregular.”405Thus,asKandinskywroteinalettertoSchoenberg,constructionis
tobeattainedbythe ‘principle’ofdissonance;suggestingorder throughchaos;an
epithet fittingof theworksofKandinsky’s ‘heroic’period.406Kandinskyoutlines in
Concerning the Spiritual in Art, that the need for coherence is the essential of
harmony–whetherfoundedonconventionaldiscordorconcord.Thishesupports
inthefollowingstatement:“Harmonytodayrestschieflyontheprincipleofcontrast
whichhasforalltimebeenoneofthemostimportantprinciplesofart”.407
There is a paradoxical relationship between structure and dissonance in both
painterlyandmusicalform.Thisismostlybecauseoneistheantithesisoftheother,
yet both artists strove for a synthesis of the two. In the case of Kandinsky, Bovi
describes this as “evidence of the continuously growing osmosis of his mind
betweenaprimaryneedformathematicalandgeometricalorder inhisexpressive
meansandavital innerdimensionofhis creative impulsewhichbringsamagical
403G.HeardHamilton‘Painting&SculptureinEurope1880-1940’(U.S.A:YaleUniversityPress,1993)Page212404KarlLinke‘ArnoldSchöenberg’(1912),astranslatedbyBarbaraZ.SchoenbergandpublishedinWalterFrisch(ed.),SchoenbergandHisWorld(Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,1999)Page208405WassilyKandinsky‘VasilyKandinsky&ArnoldSchoenberg’from“Kandinsky'sDin.”iBooks.https://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.l,Page106406JelenaHahl-Koch‘Schoenberg-Kandinsky:Letters,PicturesandDocuments’trans.JohnC.Crawford(Boston,Mass:FaberandFaber,1984)fromLetter57,Page51407WassilyKandinsky,‘Kandinsky’sDin:OnGhostsinArt’(NewYork:Sagabona,2014)iBookhttps://itun.es/gb/KD_fW.lPage93
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movement to forms”.408And, whilst Kandinsky talked of the quasi-mathematical
perfectioninherentinmusic,heconcurrentlydescribes‘splashesleapingupwithout
plan’and,inthesamebreath,‘mathematicallyaccurateconstruction’.Arthistorian
F.ElgerdetectsthiscontradictionofapproachinrelationtoImprovisation9of1910,
inbelievingthattheworkcannothavebeenproducedquitesospontaneouslyand
automatically with regard to composition. The choice of colour, he feels, is well
calculated.409
Kandinsky’sdevelopment is thus fromspontaneousrecordings(Improvisations) to
well planned but free Compositions. This was to give way later to a quasi-
SuprematistveinofabstractionwhilsthewasinstructingattheBauhaus.Intermsof
the artist’s own achievements and arguments, he claimed that Wagner only
achievedthegesamtkunstwerkonasuperficiallevel.Kandinsky’sown‘YellowSound’
is a kind of alternative to Wagner’s developments, and the self-proclaimed
“prototype for modern stage productions”.410 Arguably, the gesamtkunstwerk is
mostfullyrealisedattheBauhaus,however.Theworkshop’scollectiveaimafterall,
wastocreate“anewguildofcraftsmanwithouttheclass-distinctionsthatraisean
arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist”411in thewords of founderWalter
Gropius.
DespitetheoverwhelmingamountofsupportingevidencethatKandinskyaimedto
‘paint sound’, interestingly the artist himself counters this theory by stating:
“Idonotwanttopaintmusic.Ionlywanttopaintgood,livingpictures”.412Thatsaid,
the word ‘living’ must either imply progressive (anti-Classical) or animated. The
latterisrepresentedinKandinsky’sdepictionsoftheswirlingpatternsandrhythms
heheardandsubsequently‘saw’inmusic.SisterWendyBeckett’sbeliefisalsothat
408A.Bovi,‘Kandinsky’,Twentieth-CenturyMasters(England:Hamlyn,1971)Page36409D.Elger‘Expressionism’(Germany:Taschen,1991)Page150410ThomasS.Messer‘Kandinsky’(London:Thames&Hudson,1997)Page24411WalterGropius,fromthe1stBauhausManifesto,documentedinFrankWhitford’s‘Bauhaus’(London:Thames&Hudson,1995)Page12412WassilyKandinsky“PaintingasPureArt’TheSturmVerlag,CompleteWritingsonArt,ed.KennethC.Lindsay&PeterVergo,Vol.1(Boston:G.K.Hall,1982)Page535
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Kandinskyusedcolourinahighlytheoreticalway,associatingtonewithtimbre(the
sound’scharacter)huewithpitch,andsaturationwiththevolumeofsound.413
As regards the ephemeral, yet near-symbiotic artistic alliance betweenKandinsky
and Schoenberg, their correspondence follows a fairly predictable arc of mutual
curiosityandrespectfulexchangewhichthendegradesintorivalriesandjealousies,
the nadir of which occurs during the period 19th April to 4th May, 1923, with
Schoenberg'siratechargesofanti-SemitismagainstKandinsky.
Kandinsky’s desire to purify his art through the dissolution of form,while at the
same time resisting against simple ornamentalism, has a strong parallel in
Schoenberg’s own inner-conflict between formulaicmusic andhis distaste for the
ornamental. Furthermore, both artists felt that abstraction was the best means
available to them for depicting an unseen realm of quasi-existence. The
simultaneous discovery of atonal music for Schoenberg and abstract art for
Kandinsky is revealed in the concordant friendship between these two men.
Schoenberg’s music and theory were an affirmation for Kandinsky that such
compositionalstrategiesweresuitableforamodern,abstractart.
More than Schoenberg, Kandinsky seemed perennially driven to capture the
Zeitgeist inhiswork.Kandinskyperceivedunrest,conflictanddematerializationin
his contemporary world. He invokes the impact of Nietzschean philosophy,
describinghis timeasoneof “enormousquestions” inwhich “everything thathad
onceappearedtostandsoeternally…suddenlyturnsouttohavebeencrushed…by
themercilessandsalutaryquestion‘Isthatreallyso?”414
Schoenberg’sownattempt tooverthrow the ‘eternal lawsofharmony’ reflectshis
ideas on the function of art and artists in society, perhaps adhering to Georges
413SisterWendyBeckett,‘TheStoryofPainting’(England:DorlingKindersley,1994)Page355414WassilyKandinsky,‘WhithertheNewArt?’inKennethC.LindsayandPeterVergo’s(eds.)‘Kandinsky:CompleteWritingsonArt’(Cambridge,MA:DaCapoPress,1994)Page103
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Braque’s doctrine, “art is meant to disturb. Science reassures”. 415 Thus his
experimentation with atonality and musical dissonance was to meet with such
similarshockasthemusicitselfelicitedatthetime.
Kandinsky advocated: “one art has to learn from another how it tackles its own
materialsand,havinglearnedthis,useinprinciplethematerialspeculiartoitselfin
a similar way, i.e., according to the principle that belongs to itself alone”.416This
statement encapsulates his chief aims: a synthesis of art and music, innovation,
principlesandinstinct.Ratherthanmerelylookingtomusicasageneralmodelfor
abstractart,Kandinskyexploredcompositionalprinciplesderivedfromthediatonic
tonalsystemandSchoenberg’spantonalmusic.Heemployedthemusicalconceptof
dissonance as a framework for thinking about compositional structure in his
abstractpaintings.
AccordingtoSemirZeki,“Myviewisthatthemusic,thedissonance,theconsonance,
thetonalityandtheambiguityallresideinthebrain,andareindeedamanifestation
of brain activity”.417This prompts thequestionwhether such a thing as amusical
brainexists,withregionsdevotedtotheperceptionandmemoryofmusic–distinct
fromthosethoughttounderlielanguage.ThisisthesubjectofrecentresearchbyH.
Platel.Furthermore,ThomasWillislocatedmusicalfunctionsinthecerebellumback
intheseventeenthcentury.ItisthusinterestingthatKandinskysawWagnerashis
master, for Wagner was a neurobiologist who certainly understood the internal
workingsofthebrain.Musicallytoo,weseemtohavegonefullcirclewithWagner
asZekipointsout, for itwashewho introducedtheunresolvedappoggiatura into
harmonic progressions and the resulting diabolic interval of the diminished fifth,
thusachievingmusicalambiguity.
415http://www.art-quotes.com/auth_search.php?authid=349#.VeR4VdNViko,Paragraph2416WassilyKandinsky,‘ConcerningtheSpiritualinArt’(NewYork,U.S.A:Dover,2000)Page154417SemirZekiinF.CliffordRose’sNeurologyoftheArts(London:ImperialCollegePress,2004)Page32
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ThereisastrongcasetosupportKandinsky’scaseforfindingavisualequivalentof
modern music in art, and he successfully found in the period 1910 to 1913 in
particular, the ability to chart the atonal qualities of Schoenberg’s musical
dissonance. This generally seems without doubt. As a cellist-painter himself,
Kandinskywas able to transfermodernmusical sounds into an abstractpainterly
vocabularywithsomeease.
ThequestionoftowhatextentKandinskywassynaestheticisamuchmorecomplex
one.DespitethelackofmedicalproofforKandinsky’ssynaesthesia,thecorrelation
between art andmusicwas a lifelong preoccupation for him. Some sceptics have
dismisseditasnomorethansubjectiveinvention,yetCompositionV11, thelargest
workheevermade,andarguablyhismostmusicalmanifestation,wascompletedin
just three days. This, Sean Rainbird, curator of ‘Kandinsky’ at the Tate Modern,
believesrepresentsthefactthatforKandinskythislanguagewasquiteinternalised.
DespiteKandinsky'scuriousgiftofcolour-hearing,whichhesuccessfullytranslated
ontocanvasas"visualmusic",tousethetermcoinedbytheartcriticRogerFryin
1912,asWardputs it,Kandinsky“gavetheworldanotherwayofappreciatingart
that would be inherited by many more poets, abstract artists and psychedelic
rockersthroughouttherestofthedisharmonic20thcentury”.418
418OssianWard,‘TheManwhoHeardhisPaintboxHiss’TheTelegraph,June2006
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Postscript–LegacyofLessonsinMusic
Kandinsky’s profound artistic influence extended to the development of
choreographicdiagramsinart,intheformofadiagrammaticrecordofadanceora
move,suchasMiro’spirouetteofadancer,entitled‘Danceuse11’of1925.Similarly,
SoniaDelaunay, following her studies of flamenco singers, emphasisesmovement
with the concentric circles expanding from the figures.419Her work ‘Syncopated
Rhythm’of1967shows“Spinning incandescentwheels…thenotessingoutbyher
radiantcoloursanddancingrhythms”420andisclearlyindebtedtoKandinsky.
The ‘Musicalists’ including Olivier Messiaen, like Kandinsky, found that music
provoked a synaesthetic response. The 1940s French group were devoted to
interpretingmusicalcompositionsinpaint.Blanc-GattihadthegiftofSynopsiaand
theabilitytohearcolours;hesubsequentlycreatedvisualtranslationsofStravinsky
and Bach. Messiaen, a synaesthete, owned Blanc-Gatti’s work ‘Brilliance’ which
prompted the organist tomake chord-colour tables and to devise a screenwhich
wouldflushwithcolouredlampsincorrespondencewiththechromatictexturesof
his organworks. Thismirrors ProfessorRimington’s earlier experimentswith his
‘colour organ’, Scriabin’s work for ‘Luce’ and Kandinsky’s constant striving for a
colour-musicequivalentmoregenerically.
Mondrian’s‘BroadwayBoogieWoogie’421(Figure30)isamoreintenseandanimated
versionofhis ‘grid’paintingsofpreviousdecades.Thepulsatingblocksof colour
indicatethepaceofmodernity.Unlikehisearlierworks,blackisomitted.Heevokes
the sensationof the throbbing rhythmofManhattan life andof electric lights and
419JulietteRizzi,‘SoniaDelaunay,TheEyExhibition’,TateModern,April15,Page5420ArtQuarterlymagazinearticle,Spring2015,Page41421MondrianescapedthewarinEuropeandwenttoNewYorkin1940.TheGermaninvasionoftheNetherlandsinMay1940andthefallofParisthefollowingmonthdeeplytroubledMondrian,andmanyofhisartistneighbourshadalreadyleftLondon,toescapeimminentbombing.Mondrian,whohadacquiredanAmericanvisa,activelysoughtpassagetotheUnitedStates.HisjourneywasaidedbyayoungAmericanartistandfriend,HarryHoltzman.
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neonsigns.TheperpendicularelementsarerelatedtothegridplanningofAmerican
citiesandtothemovementoftraffic.Thepatternreferencesthesyncopatedrhythm
of American jazz music. Mondrian studied the Foxtrot, basing his studies on
Downtown New York jazz clubs. The double bass notes of the ‘walking bass’
correlate with the pace of the pedestrians who speed about the metropolis. The
systematiccompositionofthe3primariesand2non-colourswhichareplayedout
inthestricthorizontal/verticalsystem,linkstoSchoenberg’sSerialTechniquewith
thecombinationofsymmetryandinversion.
Warholcreatedhis‘DanceStep’paintingsin1962:stepsequencesoftheFoxtrotand
Tango as schematic diagrams much in the way that Gino Severini captured
‘Dynamics of Form’, the staccato rhythm of musical pizzicato in polychromy. A.
Rodchenko’s‘ExpressiveRhythm’anticipatesPollockwithhisinterestinjazz;bebop
and free-form jazz synonymous with the famous New York 5 Spot club that he
frequented.With Lestor Young on sax, andDizzy Gillespie on rhythm and tempo,
Pollockclaimedjazzwastheonlycreativethinghappeninginhiscountryotherthan
painting. In contrast, De Stijlwent for the static not the dynamic to illustrate the
rhythms of a Russian Cossack dance in Theo van Doesburg – the artist who also
lookedattheTarantellaandRagtime.
Kandinsky thus started a fashion for systematic translations of musical
compositions into paintings. Schoenberg’s pupil Webern’s work has been
interpreted by the painter L. Veronesi, for example,who sought to document the
sculptural and architectural qualities in his works such as ‘Neugeboren’. The
controversialandexperimental inKandinskyresurfaces intheworkofYvesKlein.
Klein wrote a monotone, one-note silence symphony in 1949, made up of a
sustainedDmajorchord,whichhoversandgiveswaytosilenceforthesamelength
of time(20minutes in total).Klein’smonochromepaintings in ‘InternationalKlein
Blue’(IKB)haveasenseofmysticismandalso‘theinfiniteexpansionoftheuniverse.’
BluewasthecolouroftheskyandforKlein,ofthespirit.Thisresonatesfurtherwith
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the influence of Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Blue was, of course,
Kandinsky’shallmarkcolour,hencetheBlueRider.
ItmaywellbethatSchoenbergandKandinsky’slegacyextendstotheexperimental
performance pieces of Klein, in which he began using nude models as ‘living
paintbrushes’ in his Anthropomorphies such as the ‘Monotone Symphony’ (1960).
Similarly themove to ‘plastic sound’withmotorised sound and noise sculptures,
suchas theStravinskyFountain inParisby JeanTinguelyandNikideSaintPhalle
commemorates Kandinsky’s contemporary compatriot Igor Stravinsky, who
similarlychosetoembarkuponthepathtoabstractionviaabackdropofdissonance.
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Appendix1-ModernDevelopments/ExperimentsrelatedtoSynaesthesia
CheltenhamMusicFestival11.07.15
James Mayhew, children’s author and illustrator ‘brings a musical gallery to life
before your eyes’Watch as fantastical creatures and landscapes take on a life of
theirownasJamespaintsMussorgsky’smagicalPicturesatanExhibition
JohnStuartReid(b.1948)
Anacousticsengineerwhohascarriedoutacousticsresearchconcludesthatsonic
energy is spherical or bubble-shaped; an oscillation of sinusoidal motions. He
created the CymaScope to produce analogs of sound andmusic –musical pitches
causeapatterntoformontheinstrument’smembrane.
http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/history.html
MichaelTorke(b.1961)
Composer,Synaestheteandcolourmusicianwhocomposedhisseriesoffivepieces
calledColourMusic.Heworkswithcolour-keyassociation.
NeilHarbisson(b.1982)
British-borncontemporaryartistand‘cyborgactivist’isthefirstpersonintheworld
withanantennaimplantedinhisskull
His‘wifienabledantenna’allowshimtohearextra-terrestrialcoloursfromspace.
Hewaseffectivelycuredofhisextremecolourblindnessin2004whenhewasfitted
with the devicewhich converts 360 colours into different sounds. He now paints
withafullcolourpaletteandcan“hear”colourshe’dnotpreviouslybeenabletosee.
More recently a profoundly deaf student at the University of Edinburgh put on a
sound-basedartshow.
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2005article‘Nature’
is the work of a professional musician with music colour and music-taste
synaesthesia. Whenever she hears a specific musical interval, she automatically
experiencesatasteonhertonguethatisconsistentlylinkedtothatmusicalinterval.
Hermusical-synaesthetictastesareinstantaneous,automatic,andalwayscorrect.
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Appendix2-Synaesthesia&ScientificDevelopments
Contemporaryscientificdevelopmentsregardingthebrain:
Newtechniquecalleddiffusionspectrumimaging,translatesradiosignalsgivenoff
by the white matter into a high-resolution atlas of that neurological internet.
Bundles of nerve fibres form hundreds of thousands of pathways carrying
informationfromonepartofthebraintoanother.422
In terms of the brain’s wiring: a network of some 100,000miles of nerve fibres,
calledwhitematter, connects the various components of themind, giving rise to
everythingwethink,feelandperceive.423
Aneuroscientisthasplacedanelectrodeintheregionofamouse’sbraininvolvedin
visualperceptionandthennotedwhethernearbyneuronsfirewhentheanimalsees
aparticularimage.424
Chromotherapy:
McGillcolleaguesPeterMilnerandJamesOlds,bothneuroscientists,placedasmall
electrode in thebrainsofrats, inasmallstructureof the limbicsystemcalledthe
nucleusaccumbens.Thisstructureregulatesdopamineproductionandistheregion
that“lightsup”whengamblerswinabet,drugaddictstakecocaine,orpeoplehave
orgasms–OldsandMilnercalleditthepleasurecentre.
Gray matter – density of receptor cells on neurons that respond to
neurotransmitters – molecules such as dopamine, serotonin and glutamate that
modulatecommunicationamongbraincells
Graymatterpeaksearliest inwhatarecalledprimarysensorimotorareasdevoted
tosensingandrespondingtosight,sound,smell,tasteandtouch.425
422NationalGeographic,February2014,Page38(Article)423Ibid.Page26424Ibid.Page55
Page 106
97
But:
(Modernlife)Multi-taskingcreatesadopamine-addictionfeedbackloop,effectively
rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external
stimulation.Thistweaksthenovelty-seeking,reward-seekingcentresofthebrain,
causingaburstofendogenousopioids.Askingthebraintoshiftattentionfromone
activitytoanothercausestheprefrontalcortexandstriatumtoburnupoxygenated
glucose, the same fuel they need to stay on task. Each of those delivers a shot of
dopamineasyourlimbicsystem.426
425JayN.Giedd,Articleonthebrain,ScientificAmerican,June2015426DanielJLevitin,‘WhytheModernWorldisBadforYou’,Neuroscience,TheObserver,18thJan2015(Article)
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Appendix3-SynaestheticStrainsandTraits:AReferenceGuide
Chromesthesia
Theassociationofsoundswithcolours–coloursaretriggeredbycertainsounds.
Canaidperfectpitch:abilitytohear/seecoloursaidsthemtoidentifycertainnotes
Dysaesthesia
Stimulusofonesenseisperceivedassensationofadifferentsense,aswhenasound
producesasensationofcolour–linkedtotouch
Grapheme-ColourSynaesthesia
Associatedwithletters,numbers
Ideasthesia
Activationsofconceptsevokeperception-likeexperiences
Lexical-GustatorySynaesthesia
Spokenandwrittenlanguagecausesindividualstoexperiencetasteseg.Thetaste
foraminorkey=bitter
Saidtobegeneticlinks
V1inthebrain–dealswithbasicvision
Misophonia
Aneurologicalorder,possiblylinkedtoSynaesthesia,inwhichnegativeexperiences
aretriggeredbycertainsounds
Phoneme-ColourSynaesthesia
Colourassociatedwithhearing
Synopsia
Abilitytohearcolourandseesound
Page 108
99
Furtherassociatedvocabulary/technicalterms
Asynchronus–notoccurringatthesametime
Sonology–studyofsound
Page 109
100
Appendix4–ADiagrammaticDivisionoftheSenses
Page 110
101
Appendix5-SonologyandMappingSound
Algorithms
Computermappingisusedtochartthepatternsofdolphinvocalisation:visualand
auditory information in different parts of the neocortex. Computers today, can
convertthesoundofdolphinsintowordsandplaythemthroughaheadset.
Essentiallythisisaseriesofstochasticoscillations;ululations.427
Cymatics
The art of turning sound into visiblepattern, that is often geometric innature, to
understandthelexiconofdolphinlanguage.Whilstnowtechnicallyhighlyadvanced,
this‘pictureworld’hasitsoriginsinEgyptianhieroglyphics.
Soundfrequencyisrecordedonaspectrograph,whichvisuallydisplaysthevarying
frequencies.
Dolphins
Theirgarruloussounds:whistlesandclicksarepartofasound/sensorysystemto
detectobjectsunderwaterusingechoescreatedbysounds.Soundtravelsfourtimes
asfastinwaterasinair.428
Echolocation
Thesphereofbatsonarandsignals–soundpulsesorbiosonar.Thisisconnectedto
ultrasoundandmedicalimaging,wherebysoundwaveschartthefrequencyasbeing
abovetheupperlimitofhumanhearing,asperadogwhistle.
427JoshuaFoer,‘UnderstandingDolphins’Intelligence’,NationalGeographic,May2015(Article)428Ibid
Page 111
102
Appendix6-BiographyofWassilyKandinsky
TheartisticcareerofKandinsky(1866-1945),whobegantopaintattheageofthirty,
mayconvenientlybedividedintofourmajorperiods:
Munich(1896-1911)
After experimentationwithSymbolismand Impressionism,Kandinskyevolvedhis
ownExpressioniststyle,andbecamealeaderofthatmovement.
Munich(1911-1914)toMoscow(1914-1921)
ThisphasebeganwithKandinsky’screationof the firstabstractpainting,andwas
characterizedbywhirling,chaoticcompositionsthatreliedalmostentirelyoncolour
andtexturefortheircontent.
Bauhaus(1921-1933)
The geometric shapes used by the Russian Constructivists,which Kandinsky only
tentatively experimented with in Moscow, now became the central structural
elementsinhispainting.
Paris(1933-1944)
Kandinsky made a paradoxical return to the figurative, with shapes inspired by
simplebiologicalforms(cells,embryos.&c.)
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103
KeyDates
1896 ExhibitionofMonet’sHaystacksseriesinMoscow
1897 MunichSecessionexhibition–Jugendstilwork
1900 ExhibitionbytheMoscowArtists’Association,Moscow
1901 KandinskyiselectedpresidentofthePhalanxArtists’Exhibiting
Society
1902-8 ExhibitswithBerlinSecession
1904 ExhibitsintheParisSalond’Automne
1905 ExhibitsattheSalondesIndépendantsinParis&withtheMoscow
Artists’Association
1906-7 ExhibitswithDieBrücke,Salond’Automne,BerlinSecession
1908 ExhibitsinSalondesIndépendants,Paris
1909 Movestowardsnon-figurativeworkbutwhichcontainssymbolsof
naturalobjects.NeueKünstlervereinigungMünchenisfounded
1910 1stabstractwork“Ifeltmuchmoreathomeintherealm
ofcolourthaninthatofline”
1911 ConcertofArnoldSchoenberg,Munich.
FirstDerBlaueReiterexhibition,OntheSpiritualinArtispublished
1912 SecondDerBlaueReiterexhibition
1913 ExhibitsattheArmoryShowinNewYork,CompositionV1&V11
1919 Term‘AbstractExpressionist’isappliedtohiswork
1920 Co-founderofINKhUK
1922 TakesuppostattheBauhaus
1923 Firstone-manshowinNewYork
1924 KandinskyfoundsDieBlaueVier
Page 113
104
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