It was difficult to choose among the early 20th Century works, as they are particularly attractive to me. However, I finally settled on the works of Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, and Joan Miro. The four works chosen have several things in common in addition to their era and type. All of the works are about people and civilization, and they are filled with a pure delight in life, a zest for living and joy. While the styles are abstract, their content is not totally unrecognizable. They handled color quite differently, and their methods of creating shapes and shadows are unique to each artist to the point that each artist’s work is easily identified from its unique treatment of the shape of objects and the use of light and shadow.
Two works of Kandinsky were included: one from his early work and one from the later period. In spite of his maturity as an artist by the time of the later work, his style is marked in both paintings. His treatment of color in the twenty years between In Grey and Composition X has actually become, to me, less refined. The colors are purer in Composition X, and the objects are sharply defined against a black background, perhaps suggesting our place in the universe.
I preferred the muted colors, the varied textures and shading, and the interesting multiple angles and planes of the earlier work. However, the later work is possibly more accessible, and the people are much easier to see. There is a delight in the entire landscape of “In Grey,” perhaps in his whole environment, but the artist seems to not have placed himself in the picture at all, since the geometric planes are not aligned, with some at odd angles, there is no way to tell from which viewpoint the artists is painting.
It seems as if he moved each time he painted a different part of life, a different section of the canvas. Perspective is mixed and a bit jumbled, but this is part of the painting’s great attraction. The later painting is actually much simpler in its content, expressed in sharper, cleaner lines, but perspective is completely absent. The players/dancers are floating in space, unattached to the earth. Some quotes from Kandinsky explain some of what I have observed.
“Black is like the silence of the body after death, the close of life.” (Wassily Kandinsky, 1911). “Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings.” (Web Museum, Paris 2008) According to the Web Museum, Kandinsky was an accomplished musician, and he claimed that he heard music when he saw color. The music is certainly in his paintings, both in the presence of musical objects, the suggestion of movement, and the placement of objects on the canvas, which seem to form a visual harmony in images that are anything but static. Since the requirement was to choose three words, I would use the later Kandinsky, which appears to be two people creating music and dancing in space, perhaps even in space-time, somewhere between this reality and some other reality.
Some considered Kandinsky to be an abstractionist, while others say he was more expressionist. So perhaps we should call him an abstract expressionist. Encyclopedia Brittanica calls him a nonfigurative painter. A strict examination of works and dates can show, therefore, that Kandinsky does not quite deserve to be called, as he often is, the “founder” of nonfigurative painting; at least, he cannot be called the only founder. But, when this historical point is conceded, he remains a pioneer of the first importance. (Encyclopedia Brittanica 2008)
From the same time period, I chose a painting by Joan Miro, which seemed to match in theme, though the title was just as lacking any referral to human civilization, “Dutch Interior.” One might assume it is still life, but the main human figure and the animals in the picture are anything but still. I would say that “life” would be a more apt label. That figure seems to be surrounded by animals, all friendly and probably domesticated, maybe his pets. The colors are brighter than Kandinsky’s, and the textures and shading are not as complicated as Kandinsky’s earlier work but less sharp-edged than his later work.
The use of perspective is also skewed in this painting, with pieces of the “wallpaper” of existence peeling off, and life is spilling through in both directions. Miro is considered a surrealist, so peeling pieces of existence would not be out of character. Much of his work looks quite minimalist, but many works are actually very full of objects and action, quite alive and also not static, but showing motion.
The encyclopedia says of Miró, “ (he) painted “dream pictures” and “imaginary landscapes” in which the linear configurations and patches of color look almost as though they were set down randomly, as in The Policeman (1925). In paintings such as Dog Barking at the Moon (1926), he rendered figures of animals and humans as indeterminate forms. Miró signed the manifesto of the Surrealist movement in 1924, and the members of the group respected him for the way he portrayed the realm of unconscious experience. (Encyclopedia Britannica 2008)
It seems that this artist was experimenting with different colors, planes and content, since much of the posters offered of his work are quite interestingly in “elementary school colors”, bright pinks, greens, yellows, blues, and purples. The colors he used are not “primary” colors, but still quite bright and definitely connected to children. All of his work is infused with a child-like wonder and joy. The work included here seems to be a wonderfully busy day inside a Dutch house.
Marc Chagall has several styles which are characteristically his, including work like “I and the Village”. His paintings are generally peopled and often include animals of all sorts. His use of shading and tones in his colors is so masterful, it creates a landscape of its own and defines its own perspective. Of all the three artists, Chagall seems to have the most spiritual joy included in the images. Here we see peaceful and happy figures contained in more peaceful happy figures stemming directly from the power of chi and tree of life, portrayed against the quiet background of the village. People and animals are seen at all sorts of angles, quietly amused and immersed in dreaming a collective dream of existence in the rural village of the background.
Chagall’s use of color and shading is the most sophisticated of the three artists, and he includes so much textural detail that the objects in the painting seem to be sculptures. Of the three artists, the presence of the artist is most apparent in Chagall’s work, even though this painting seems to be contained entirely within the artist’s mind. Encyclopedia Britannica says, “He presented dreamlike subject matter in rich colours and in a fluent, painterly style that—while reflecting an awareness of artistic movements such as Expressionism, Cubism, and even abstraction—remained invariably personal.”
So it is no wonder that I had a hard time classifying him. Chagall’s official sites call him a post-impressionist. However, this work, though distinctly different from the others has the same lively feel to it, as one can clearly see the many things which are going on here. In looking through all the official resources, I was struck by the mention of his autobiography as “My Life”, itself a lyric prose poem, is an important work in Chagall’s career.” (Marc Chagall’s Biography 2008) Chagall received many prizes and much recognition for his work. He was also one of very few artists to exhibit work at the Louvre in their lifetime. (Marc Chagall’s Biography 2008)
While these three artists represent different styles, they are all from the same time period, and the content of the works chosen is quite similar. The techniques are different, though they all play with perspective and reality. More than anything else, the tone and feel of these works is very close. They all beckon the audience to enter into a fantasy dream world inside the mind of the artist, but which is really no less real than what we perceive as our world.
These works are more than illustrations of the world the artists saw. They are expressions of how they felt about what they saw. They communicate love and joy and wonder on the surface, and the messages they convey on the deeper level are ineffable here in words. Perhaps that is why these artists painted. These paintings communicate what they could not communicate in any other way.
References
Chagall, Marc, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition. Web.
Kandinsky, Wassily. 2008, In Encyclopædia Britannica., from Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition. Web.
Marc Chagall’s Biography, 2008. Web.
Miró, Joan. 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition. Web.
Web Museum, Paris 2008. Web.
Witcombe, Christopher, Art History Resources on the Web, 2008, Early Twentieth-Century Art. Web.