Untitled Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Description of Wassily Kandinsky’s "Black and Purple" (1923)

The painting was created during the period when the artist painted his best works. After his return to Germany, he worked in an environment of revitalization of all art forms and attention to abstract painting among remarkable colleagues, which spurred the creative process and provided new ideas. In that period, the painter’s titles of canvases related to color or form and the absence of objectivity and semantics predominate. Implicit images are reminiscent of a cipher, hidden in geometric concepts.

The two significant configurations on the canvas Black and Purple are analogous to sailing boats sailing on the calm sea on the right, contrasted with the dark, intimidating cloud on the left, embodying the fading world at the moment of an eclipse. The impending storm has already caught up with the third boat, flying the flag of our country. In this vein, the painting has been interpreted as an illustration of Kandinsky’s departure from Russia.

However, the painting has many interpretations. This is exactly in line with the idea of the artist, who believed that the understanding and evaluation of art are individual for each viewer who should find in it its own essence. The usual interpretation of the painting is based on the descriptions of colors and forms left by the artist in his theoretical works. In the two coloristic centers are marked semantic centers: black and purple are crossed by even contrasting lines, representing drama and even one-upmanship. This is comparable to the philosophical notion of the struggle of opposites, the duel of light and darkness, the opposition of life and death.

Another noteworthy interpretation is associated with the teachings of the creator of the interpretation of sound through graphic images. Guided by his understanding of sound, specialists interpret the picture as an orchestra tuning its instruments. The sound transitions into colors and forms, dominating, layering, contrasting with each other. These euphonisms and cacophony must be perceived by the viewer and the coherence and inconsistency judged. Everyone can fantasize about the picture, but it should be remembered that in abstract art all meanings are eliminated, only the pure form is left: color, lines.