1913 – A Revolutionary Year
Only very rarely does a single year make its mark socompletely on the collective consciousness of a culture, and noneso vividly as 1913. The year 1913 is particularly important withinthe history of modern art, marked by events and works thatfundamentally changed the way art was conceived and understood.Across Europe and America artists of every sort set down new ideasand formulas for artistic ex-pression, and in turn some of themmade their defining contributions to modern culture.
In New York the Armory Show introduced the American public tothe European avant-garde (fig. 1), with Marcel Duchamp’s NudeDescending a Staircase No. 2 making its debut. Pablo Picassocontinued to reinvent Cubism with his use of papier collé toestablish the foundations of Synthetic Cubism; Umberto Boccionicreated his Futurist masterpiece Unique Forms of Continuity inSpace, and in Munich Wassily Kandinsky set about creating the mostcelebrated series of abstract paintings in the history of early20th century art. No other single year in the artist’s career canbe said to have produced so many masterpieces or such a coherentand magisterial body of work. Bild mit weissen Linien, executed ona grand scale and in dazzling colours, is one of the most importantpaintings by Kandinsky from this crucial year.
The major works of 1913 share a monumental quality, both inscale and ambition, that Kandinsky had not attempted to achievebefore, and which he would never truly attain again. It was a yearof prodigious achievement and prolific creation. There was a greatoutpouring of studies in ink, watercolour and oil for the primaryworks of the year such as Komposition VI and VII (figs. 5 & 6)and other major oils such as Bild mit weissen Linien which attestto the meticulous approach Kandinsky took to preparing each uniquecomposition.
The Path to Abstraction
From an early stage in his artistic career, Kandinsky wasaware that his pursuit of his own form of ex-pression was leadinghim toward an entirely new visual idiom. In a letter to his loverand fellow painter Gabriele Münter written on 2nd April 1904Kandinsky wrote: ‘Without exaggerating, I can say that, should Isucceed in this task, I will be showing [a] new, beautiful path forpainting susceptible to infinite development. I am on a new track,which some masters, just here and there, suspected, and which willbe recognised, sooner or later’. As predicted, in the years thatfollowed Kandinsky travelled further towards abstraction than anypainter previously, and in 1913 finally achieved it in a uniquelypure, lyrical form.
Kandinsky's first major breakthrough was his discovery thatcolour, when disassociated from representational concerns, couldbecome the principal subject of a painting. Taking his cue frommusical composition, Kandinsky determined that every colourcorresponded with a particular emotion or ‘sound’. For example, inhis first major theoretical text On the Spiritual in Art, publishedin 1911, Kandinsky likened different shades of green to stringedinstruments which matched his synaesthetic experience of colour,for example: mid-green sounded like the quiet, mid-range tones of aviolin, whilst yellow-green was perceived to be the higher notes ofthe violin, in contrast to blue-green as a muted alto-violin. AsWill Grohmann writes, ‘Colour becomes increasingly crucial...[yellow, white, carmine, pink, light blue and blue-green] transportthe subject to the sphere of dream and legend. This was thedirection of development. The painter distributes and links thecolours, combines them and differentiates them as if they werebeings of a specific character and special significance. As inmusic, the materials now come to the form, and in this respectKandinsky stands between Mussorgsky and Scriabin. The language ofcolour - just as in those composers - calls for depth, for fantasy’(W. Grohmann, op. cit., p. 61).
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This revelation was due in part to the journey the artist tookto Paris in 1906 and his acquaintance with Fauve paintings byDerain, Delaunay and Vlaminck, as well as his appreciation ofCézanne’s brushwork in his late works. Though, as Hans Roethelwrites: ‘when Kandinsky returned to Munich, ideologically andpractically, the ground was well prepared for abstract painting andyet it needed a final spark to come into being’ (H. K. Roethel& J. K. Benjamin, Kandinsky, London 1979, p. 25). In hisReminiscences Kandinsky recalled the precise moment at which the‘spark’ was ignited:
'Once, while in Munich I underwent an unexpectedly bewitchingexperience in my studio. Twilight was falling; I had just come homewith my box of paints under my arm after painting a study fromnature. I was still dreamily absorbed in the work I had been doingwhen, suddenly, my eyes fell upon an indescribably beautifulpicture that was saturated with an inner glow. I was startledmomentarily, then quickly went up to this enigmatic painting inwhich I could see nothing but shapes and colours and the content ofwhich was incomprehensible to me. The answer to the riddle cameimmediately: it was one of my own paintings leaning on its sideagainst the wall. The next day, by daylight, I tried to recapturethe impression the picture had given me the evening before. Isucceeded only half way. Even when looking at the picture sidewaysI could still make out the objects and that fine thin coat oftransparent colour, created by last night's twilight, was missing.Now I knew for certain that the subject matter was detrimental tomy paintings. A frightening gap of responsibility now opened upbefore me and an abundance of various questions arose. And the mostimportant of them was: what was to replace the missing object?' (W.Kandinsky, quoted in ibid., p. 25).
Through constant experimentation and extensive preparatorywork Kandinsky’s artistic means developed from an essentiallyfigurative Fauve style to pure abstraction. By 1910 he had foundthe language he sought, with sweeping lines, beautiful iridescentpatches of colour and kaleidoscopic compositions. Figurativeelements still feature, abstracted to their farthest point, butstill recognisable, and often alluded to in the titles that theartist gave to the works. Among the most advanced pictures of thoseyears were those entitled ‘Improvisations’ or ‘Compositions’ andnumbered sequentially, which is a clear allusion to their symphonicqualities.
However the source of inspiration for the main motifsKandinsky used in his works were all based in the same romanticvision of ‘Old Russia’ and folk stories that bewitched him from thebeginning of his career. Landscapes were either drawn from hisimmediate surroundings such as the bucolic countryside aroundMurnau and Munich or for his major compositions concocted out ofromanticised, lyrical scenarios featuring onion domed citadelspresiding over mountains, lakes and streams which are inhabited byhorses and people. Two preparatory watercolour studies Kandinskyproduced (figs. 8 & 9) reveal how he took the most recognisablemotifs of the tall-towered city in the upper left and the twohorses in the immediate foreground with the three-arched red bridgein the centre and energised them with colour and line in the finalwork. These motifs are clearly visible in all the main workscompleted in 1913 and are a key part of his most celebrated worksincluding Komposition VI (fig. 5), Komposition VII (fig. 6) andKleine Freuden (fig. 3).
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Kandinsky in Russia
In the first half of the decade, while resident in Bavaria,Kandinsky exhibited his works far and wide throughout Europe,America and his native Russia, gaining an impressive internationalfollowing. However in December 1914 Kandinsky felt compelled toreturn to Russia after nearly twenty years of living in Germany.The war in Europe threatened his way of life, and as a Russiancitizen he had to leave the country that he had adopted as hishomeland. Prior to his own emigration, in January 1914 Kandinskyselected a few important oils from 1913 to be exhibited at theGalerie Ernst Arnold’s Die Neue Malerei show, which included thepresent work, Bild mit weissem Rand, Bild mit grünem Mitte,Improvisation 34 (fig. 4) and Komposition VI (fig. 5) – all ofwhich are now in museum collections. Settled in Moscow, he barelypainted, concentrating on producing watercolours and establishinghimself in the city’s artistic circle.
In 1914 Kandinsky was invited to participate in the Springcollective exhibition at Odessa, and the choice of works from 1913he sent is telling – each seems to perfectly represent one of thefour key types of painting he produced that year – a more literalview of Dunaberg near Murnau (The State Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg), the lyrical, highly abstract Improvisation 34 (fig. 4,National Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic ofTatarstan, Kazan), the present work and the monumental KompositionVII (fig. 6, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). This group wassubsequently exhibited in Moscow at a landmark show entitled TheYear 1915, and over time each painting found a permanent home in aRussian museum.
Over the next four years, the artist witnessed the Revolutionand the rise of Communism as an essentially apolitical being, whoseart remained ostensibly unaffected by the social situation.However, he swiftly became a member of the Department of VisualArts in the People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment (NARKOMPROS) anda founding member of the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKHUK). In1919 as part of the programme to disseminate avant-garde artthrough the new Russia, hundreds of artworks were selected orpurchased by the Museum of Painterly Culture by the museum’scommittee, comprised entirely of artists, including AlexanderRodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin and Kandinsky. Bild mit weissen Linienwas purchased by the State and allocated initially to the museum inPenza, an industrial city south-east of Moscow.
Through schemes such as the Museum of Pictorial Culture andother cultural programmes, Kandinsky’s art made a profound impacton the on the artists of the Russian avant-garde. Sometimes chargedwith a lack of interest in the younger generation’s work, he wasnonetheless seen an inspirational figure by younger artists, inparticular the Constructivists who appreciated his dedication toabstraction. Writing in 1920 the critic Konstantin Umansky washighly supportive of Kandinsky, and stated unequivocally: ‘Theentire Russian art scene can be traced back to Kandinsky. If anyonedeserves a nick name, Kandinsky does; he should be called the“Russian Messiah”, his work has cleared a way for the victory ofabsolute art, although contemporary abstract art is now moving in adifferent direction. […] Kandinsky’s art found its logicalconclusion in Suprematism’ (quoted in Jelena Hahl-Koch, Kandinsky,Brussels, 1993, p. 243).
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Kandinsky’s Legacy
It was not only in Suprematism that the influence ofKandinsky’s Munich period paintings can be felt. At no other timeis his abstraction so lyrical, dynamic or ex-pressive, and itslineage is clearly distinguished in the art of the AbstractEx-pressionists working in post-war America. Though technicallyinnovative and ideologically different, the AbstractEx-pressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning,were indebted to Kandinsky and his pioneering art for taking thefirst steps on the path to abstraction in 1913.
Kandinsky’s legacy stretched far beyond those of the AbstractEx-pressionists and continues to influence artistic productiontoday, though grounded in a proliferation of symbolic and romanticideals which were born out of his own era, the raw energy of hiswork and prescient modernism transcends its original context.
The artist’s handlist II & III, no. 178
Will Grohmann, Wassily Kandinsky: Life and Work, London, 1959,no. 178, listed p. 333
Der Spiegel, no. 36, 1974, illustrated p. 123
Erika Hanfstaengl, Wassily Kandinsky, Zeichungen und Aquarelleim Lenbachhaus München, Munich, 1974, mentioned p. 175
Donald E. Gordon, Modern Art Exhibitions 1900-1916, Munich,1974, vol. II, listed no. 68, p. 781 & no. 42, p. 870
Hans K. Roethel & Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky, CatalogueRaisonné of the Oil-Paintings, London, 1982, vol. I, no. 470,illustrated p. 467
Vivian Endicott Barnett, Kandinsky Watercolours. CatalogueRaisonné, London, 1992, vol. I, mentioned pp. 314-315
Vivian Endicott Barnett & Helmut Friedel, VasilyKandinsky: A Colorful Life, New York, 1996, mentioned pp. 367 &642
Valery Turchin, Kandinsky in Russia, Moscow, 2005, listed p.437
Kandinsky. The Path to Abstraction (exhibition catalogue),Tate Modern, London, 2006, illustrated in colour p. 37
