Artist Research - Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was a painter during the beginning of the 20th century. He is known as one of the pioneers of abstract art.

Much of his work relates to the fact that he has synaesthesia, a phenomenon where people can hear a sound and instantly name a colour or shape. Senses are therefore experienced through each other, which can create very interesting artwork or poetry. This is apparent in Kandinsky's work as the lines and colours create a composition with a sense of musicality in the piece. I find his work very interesting as it seems to appeal to other senses, giving it an added dimension to his paintings. The colours are extremely vibrant and bright, creating an interesting visual to the art piece. Kandinsky believed that “yellow could disturb, while blue awakened the highest spiritual aspirations.” (Miller, 2014), adding a very strong importance to colour within his work.

Many of his works are titled with musical names such as “improvisation” or “composition”.

His work also reminds me of Paul Klee’s work, which is heavily based on abrasion, using lines and shapes and colours to express his feelings through his work. Both these artists interest me as I would like to create a visualisation of music in my animation. As music is a non visible, non tangible element of the world, i would like to explore the idea of abstraction in my work.

Both these paintings are very interesting to me as they have opposing backgrounds. Composition

VIII has a white background making the colours seem quite fresh and almost muted as they lean more towards cold, blue colours. Tensions calmees however, has a dark background which makes the colours seem more vibrant, more yellow.

These geometric shapes have several similarities, as there is the use of triangles and circles which are apparent in both pieces . However, none of his paintings are the same, which perhaps gives the idea of arbitrary and randomness to the placement of the lines. Tensions calmees interests me because, as the name suggests, it feels as though tensions have been relaxed. This could be emotional tension, such as feeling calm after something emotional has happened. This could also be about string tension being released, as shown by the pendulum drawn, which relates to the idea of constant movement, without strain.

Week 1

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