Hilma Af Klint

I Love Circles, Squares and Triangles!

The Swan, No. 15 (1915)

Oil on Canvas 

I really like the work of Hilma Af Klint. I find her work even more intrigueing as her geometric and more abstract looking work was completed before abstract artists such as Kandinsky. I particularly like this image above. I am really attracted to geometric art. I like the simplicity and yet within it, there is so much depth. The black and white triangles at counterpoint and meeting on a horizon with a sun or moon rising or setting is a striking image and metahor. I love that the image is essentially made of a circle, a square and 2 triangles in a minimal pallete of mostly black and white, and yet the overall image feels so complex. I find it beautiful.

No. 2, Childhood (1907)

Oil on Canvas

I also like this image. I love the balance and contrast of the bold, slightly overlapping circles at the bottom of the painting, with the pastel and more floral circles at the top half of the painting. Again, the painting does suggest a strong metaphor, rather than just an attractive painting. The lavender and pinks seem to balance and be "anchored" by the strong textured royal blue and the yellow gold communicates with the gold and lemons above it. Hilma Af Klint said her paintings were inspired directly from the spirit world. They do have a strongly ethereal feel in my view. 

The Swan, No.17 (1914)

Oil on Canvas

I find I admire Hilma Af Klints attunement to the changes in the art world when I look at this image. She was not part of the network of abstract artists that were experimenting with this style and yet I don't think this painting would look out of place in the Bauhaus styles evolving some years later. 

What do we mean by Modernism?

Class discussion about some of the factors that influenced the emergence of the modernist era.

There is some debate about the start of the modernist movement, some saying it was establishing in 1900 but for the sake of the course the era of study is 1860 to 1960. Literature, music, design, art were all moving away from a traditional understanding and expression.

In small groups we discussed some of these influences:

The first and second world wars threw Europe into many changes. The requirement for ingenuity, survival and then something better to make such devestating and traumatic loss have some meaning was a huge force for change in the creative world.

There was tremendous social change that was being realised as a consequence of industrialisation and scientific changes and a sudden increase in the mechanisation of traditional industries including the craft industries that had started over 100 years previously. This left people either out of traditional roll and much poorer, or advantaged by these changes. A shift in how society viewed productivity and the rapidity with which it began to expect commodities, also shifted a mindset to speedier ways of producing art, as well as more available time to appreciate it. I believe a felt sense of change allows for other ways of seeing the world, objects and concepts including art. a greater openness to the new was available despite great resistence. The tension of this in the individual and collective psyche allowed for the emergence of the modernist movement and its many strands and isms.

The increases in technology included speedier and cheaper ways to travel and communicate, thus more people were exposed to more global influences of types of art and artifacts. This emerged in many artists work.

Industrialisation meant that housing and communities evolved around urban areas of manufacturing, thus creating bigger and bigger towns and cities and so people were presented with more diversity. Part of industrialisation also provoked some ideals about housing and community design such as Port Sunlight on the Wirral, an integral part of the community being an art gallery and library.

New technologies impacted the art world directly in the production of new and high quality art materials: paints, papers etc.

I think a huge contribution to the modernist movement is the emergence of psychoanalysis and an increasing curiosity and understanding of the unconscious level of mind and human functioning. The focus on symbol and metaphor paralleled the emergence of the abstract movement where the meaning was overtaking the importance of the representative object.

Society in terms of occupation, religious philosophy and values was diversifying. A desire for individuality and exploration was a powerful force in the individual and cultural psyche.

The library task produced many examples of the diversity of styles of art and design, and applications to pieces of art work, architecture, household objects, publicity posters, clothing and footwear. The discovery of artists influencing directly the design of furniture, clothing, building is very exciting. I selected a favourite artist: Piet Mondrian and found that his geometric, primary coloured squares were integrated into the design of the foyer of a university college building in 1923.

Food for Thought - Kandinsky Retrospective Exhibition at Vanderbilt University

In summary, 3 fascinating lectures held by Vanderbilt Universities office of community, neighbourhood and government relations. It explored aspects of Kandinsky's influences and some of the driving forces in his art and life. I was struck by a statement by Reverend Dr. Emillie M. Townes in the lecture relating to materialism, religion and spirituality:

"As I experience Kandinsky he is painting a world that is sacred in all aspects, turning different elements for us to enter into the painting. To be in conversation with our inner selves, the spiritual that is both deeply internal and sublimely transcendent. This does not call for religious belief. It calls for a willingness of the viewer to let go of the material world and experience depths of meaning not tied to comforting objects. Kandinsky is painting the inephable that he finds in a spiritual universe, sounds and colours. God is in the detail and need not be named."

I found this a hugely helpful window to explore not only the personal impact of Kandinsky's work but other painters that I am already drawn to, particularly Paul Klee, Georgia O'Keeffe, Mark Rothko and others.


Here is the link to this lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riunLgPcpBI

The following link is to the lecture: Exploring Connections Through Music. I found this helped me understand and "see" Kandinsky's work in this new dimension and helped me understand what he may be trying to communicate. Emotion through colour and form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CImYLB8NUGM

The final lecture which I also found illuminating was about the strong evidence that he was a synesthete. This extra sensorial experiencing is part of the gift within his art. The harmonies of the colour that he hears and communicates translate to me when I look at his work. It is dynamic and holds my attention, making me want to understand what he's saying and also what the colour language means, not as a functional language but an emotional language in the moment.

Here is the link to Kandinsky and Synesthesia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O14leHpm5fc

These lectures were all found on youtube.

I have selected a number of images that I love to stare at! The top image: study of improvisation 5 (1910), shows a less distinct style compared to his later work related to his time at the bauhaus and the influences of those contempories. His vibrant use of colour is consistent and marks all his work in my view. His work is distinctive to me whether he is painting with more formless shape, as in the third example or whether with more geometric shape such as the image immediately above: circles in a circle (1923). I love the balance of vivid colour with striking shape. The assemblage of the shapes, lines and background colours punches me in the guts in a really good way! They are beautiful, impactful and I do get a sense of the musicality from the "noise" of the resounding colours. They are not discordant and clashing but beautifully woven.    

Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944)

Wassily Kandinsky

I find the work of Wassily Kandinsky vibrant and engaging. His influences included his early life in Russia and his religious catholic upbringing. Many symbols and images are prominent in his work. Music and colour were also of paramount importance to him and when he painted he described experiencing colour as a language. Those that have explored his letters and diary entries suggest strongly that he was a synesthete. He experienced dynamic colour in the sound of certain kinds of music. The result of all these influences and capacities is pieces of work that are multi-sensorial and symphonic. He was among a number of artists who believed that this kind of art had the capacity to communicate a spiritual world that was beyond the material and had the power to transcend humanity to a higher level.