I’m a simple guy with simple tastes. I certainly would not call myself pretentious, but I was most dismayed to find that when conducting a little impromptu survey amongst my young Judo students, I found that not one of them had even the remotest idea about art. Not one. I don’t know if they are an isolated group, but it struck me as a little sad that these kids are missing out on something really quite special.
I’m no expert at all. I took A-Level art at college and failed it miserably. Actually, I never knew it was possible to fail art. Surely art is all about self expression. I should have used the “my lack of preparation for this exam is my demonstration of apathy amongst youth” line. Surely I’d have walked off with an “A”?
Anyway. To the point. I thought I’d use this little corner of my blog to highlight some works of art that particularly grab me. Some will be classical, so will be from unknown amatures, but all will have one thing in common – I like them. As I said, I’m in no way pretentious. I like a piece of art because I think it looks nice, not because the colours the artist doesn’t use spell out some mystical words of wisdom. If that sort of interpretation of art is for you – then great. But for me, it comes down to something a little more basic. Something inside flicks a switch in my appreciation department.
Today I want to take a quick look at an artist that I really enjoy – Wassily Kandinsky. I’ll not recite his biography, but the basic information you need is that he was a Russian artist that lived 1866-1944 and is regarded by many as the first true abstract artist. I remember first discovering him at college when I had to do a project on the use of shapes and colour. I flipped through a load of art books and eventually came across a piece of his called Composition VIII
Composition VIII by Wassily Kandinsky
Something about this image grabbed me. The more I looked at it the more I saw. I guess the picture is whatever you want it to be – that’s the beauty of an abstract piece. To me though, it invokes images of the excavations in Egypt that were such big news at the time. If you glance over the image, you see nothing more that random shapes and colours, but take time to really look at the piece and it can open up to you.
I went on to find some of his other works, and I’ll not lie, some of them I really disliked. But others I thought were amazing.
Composition VI by Wassily Kandinsky
This composition seems so dark and storm-like but at the same time seems really busy without being too cluttered. I can’t really put my finger on exactly why I like this one, but it flips that switch.
Twighlight, by Wassily Kandinsky
The thing that grabbed me about this painting was the amazing colours. There’s something very soothing about this one that seems a direct contrast of styles to Composition VI.
I could go on for a while, but I don’t think that www.wassilykandinsky.net would appreciate me stealing any more of their bandwidth. I will get these images re-hosted asap, but in the mean time if you’re interested in learning more about this artist, or seeing any of his other pieces, then I recomend the following sites:
Well that’s it for my first “Art Box”. Like I said, nothing too pretentious. Do you like art? Do you want to submit your own “Art Box”? Do you think it’s all a load of crap? Well, tell me.
thanks for the post, a good read