Last week I took the train to New York to see the Kandinsky show at the Guggenheim before it closed. Solomon Guggenheim was an early collector of Kandinsky’s paintings and the Frank Lloyd Wright museum with its upward spiraling exhibition ramp is a perfect setting to show off the abstract evolution of Wassily Kandinsky’s works. His career spanned both World Wars and evolved across much of the European continent. He contributed to artistic communities in Munich, Berlin, and Paris and was sought after by collectors in America. I was charmed from the first glimpse of his Russian fantasies, crowded colorful canvases that introduced some of his favorite symbols: horses, Moscow domes, and couples. In a short post I can’t detail his evolution as one of the most important abstract innovators in contemporary art, but I want to mention his interest in developing a painting style with musical characteristics as well as his theories about geometric forms.
Music has never been materialistic or dependent on realistic forms. Music has always spoken to our emotions and spirits. Kandinsky, who was influenced by the spiritualists of his time, including Rudolph Steiner’s Theosophists, began to give his works musical titles, Impressions, Improvisations, and Compositions, as he moved away from realistic forms. Schonberg, Kandinsky’s contemporary, was liberating music from tonal keys to focus exclusively on emotion while Wagner was composing leitmotivs to characterize the emotional characteristics of the protagonists of his operas. The audio tour of the Guggenheim exhibit included excerpts from musical compositions as one viewed the paintings. Needless to say, I’ve since downloaded some Schonberg slow movements to create a yoga play list.
I mentioned Kandinsky’s spiritual associations with circles in an earlier post. He developed theories about dots, lines, and angles as well. He begins his Point and Line to Plane (1926) with a discussion about the point.The infinitesimally small dot represents the space between words in writing, silence that forms a bridge between one thought and the next. In his paintings he enlarges his dots with veils of color creating a meditative effect. Yoga practice is all about finding the still, silent point within. When we follow our breaths, simply observing the natural ebb and flow, we begin to notice the still point between in breaths and out breaths. If we can rest our minds unhurriedly in the pause we experience a meditative moment between our thoughts and may tap into our calm, non-judgmental, compassionate mind. We can experience freedom, the ability to make choices in any moment, when we collect our wits in this pause. The more easily we can find this still point, the more easily we can derail impulsive, knee jerk reactions to momentary stimuli in our environment. This is particularly important for individuals who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Curiously, Kandinsky’s book includes sinuous, organic lines in addition to straight, geometric lines and angles. Viewing Kandinsky’s drawings and paintings, there is always a warmth and whimsy, in spite of his careful compositions. His colors are luminous and his brush strokes are expressive.
Inspired by Kandinsky, my theme this week in the Still Point, to the music of Schonberg. In his honor I will throw in other geometric shapes and whimsy as well. Can you find the still point in a triangle?
