Kandinsky has taken cannon fire, explosions and deep-sea splashes, experiences
with a specific impact on each sense, and made them strictly visual. He
accomplishes this with what appears to be a chaotic arrangement of elements.
The result is to create a strong, successful impression of these things in the
viewer’s mind. |
While some elements on the picture plane can be identified, in actuality the
subject of this work are ideas, such
as explosion, burst, fire and the like.
While the canvas is full of action and bursting with color, the impact the
composition has in the viewer’s mind is the primary point. This oil on canvas
painting is only feebly tethered to anything recognizable in reality. Shapes interlock, collide and create gaps to build the basic global format of
the composition. Color strategy seems
to morph from a primary triad, bleeding into secondaries, tints and muddied
hues. Lines are used to represent the expanding gas of cannon explosions, fence
barriers (or unspent bullets) and buildings.
The manner in which elements are arranged, how they collide, and the haphazard
way they seem to be thrown against a flat surface results in an overall decorative
sense of space. In actuality, space is used to masterful effect, and
subordinate to the message, because its moments of contradiction underscore the
chaotic overall character of this work. This work does not respect negative space; the
result is the canvas seems to be moments from bursting like a bubble with the
positive elements of shape and color spilling out. I believe this work is pictorially
unbalanced.
All lines are haphazard and quite gestural, but vary between meanderingly-lengthy
and abrupt. Edge definition runs the gamut from clearly incised to amorphous. There
are a handful of elements that are in a state of balance. For example, the
value range is evenly employed from beginning to end, color purity is nearly as
fleshed out, and, while positive space crushes negative, the chaotic
arrangement of elements is actually quite homogenous.
Contrasts are the norm in this work. Areas that harmonize are difficult to identify.
The result, in my opinion, is primary areas of eye rest are equivalent and
therefore negate each other; each observer will have her or his own path of
attention to follow. The frame that defines this work is the only stable, clearly defined and
geometric element available. The viewer is probably not positioned “anywhere”
viewing the scene, but rather the scene could be what is taking place inside
the warm miasma of the viewers mind.
This is a particularly important work in my vocabulary. It is one of the few
works I am aware of that does not rely on pattern or texture as a vital
component to its expression. In addition, I would argue it’s one of only a few
I know of that is purely pictorially unbalanced. There are a handful of formal
arguments that make this work completely original.
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