Intersecting Lines

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was marked by an energetic and contradictory era in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. He is considered one of the representatives of the "Silver Age" of Russian art, an era that brought an unprecedented heyday to the visual and performing arts as well as to literature and music. The interests of the artist included music (he played the violin himself), the study of mysticism and occultism as well as a taste for Russian folk art. He also dealt with the doctrine of the harmony of colors. It is exactly these manifold impulses and feelings that flow into his work and culminate in 1911 in the painting "The Last Judgment / Composition V". Today, this is regarded as the first abstract image of modern art history.

In this sense, the "cutting lines" of 1923 must also be considered. The artist consistently renounces natural models. By not even trying to depict familiar phenomena, he avoids all contradictions and comparisons. He goes further in this project than about the French Cubists of his time. A painter like Fernand Léger built his paintings out of crystalline or cubist forms, giving them an extraordinarily plastic appearance. There is nothing in the "cut lines" of this. Both geometry and stereometry reject Kandinsky as a means to an end. However, as the artist breaks with familiar ways of seeing and image, he gives us the key to - if you will - understand the work. Because this way we are encouraged to see colors and shapes as if they were something completely new. A free fantasy like the "cut lines" requires openness and curiosity in the eye of the beholder.

The name of the picture is program: In his unmistakable formal language Kandinsky designs a wild "confusion" of straight and curved lines, squares, triangles, circles and ellipses. A clearly marked foreground or background can not be determined; Likewise, conventional categories such as "above" and "below" fail. Finally, the picture can be viewed from left to right as well as vice versa. The attempt to reconcile certain forms with real existing objects is obvious. For example, the blue area with the colored dots in the upper left corner of the picture could be a palette. The grid or the rectangle with checkerboard pattern also evokes associations with the familiar world. However, these things present themselves out of any known context and thereby gain their autonomy. They exist solely as components of the artistic work. This view is supported not least by the completely free lines and surfaces. Clearly, the picture shows how Kandinsky sought new ways of expression. The fact that he used existing forms such as triangles or squares is in the nature of things. For every artist appeals to a more or less proven range of forms. Even Kandinsky can not completely free himself in the "cutting lines". Nevertheless, he does not confront us with a fixed, immovable statement. The "cut lines" are foreign to any dogmatic approach. The picture is an invitation to the beholder to let the casual composition and the interplay of the colors appear without any ulterior motive.