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Synaesthesia, Harmony and Discord in the Work of Wassily Kandinsky & Arnold Schoenberg 1909-1914 Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in History of Art to the School of Humanities in the University of Buckingham Nicolas Nelson September 2015
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Synaesthesia, Harmony and Discord in the Work of Wassily ... · I hereby declare that my thesis/dissertation entitled ‘Synaesthesia, Harmony and Discord in the Work of Wassily Kandinsky

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Page 1: Synaesthesia, Harmony and Discord in the Work of Wassily ... · I hereby declare that my thesis/dissertation entitled ‘Synaesthesia, Harmony and Discord in the Work of Wassily Kandinsky

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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1

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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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

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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

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Furtherassociatedvocabulary/technicalterms

Asynchronus–notoccurringatthesametime

Sonology–studyofsound

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Appendix4–ADiagrammaticDivisionoftheSenses

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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

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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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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

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