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| Wassily Kandinsky Accord Réciproque 1942 oil and ripolin on canvas Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne, Paris |
A Semi-Geometric Composition
Born in Moscow, Kandinsky lived for a long period in Germany, but was forced to leave in 1933. He passed the last ten years of his life in France, at Neuilly-sur-Seine. This canvas is a late work, produced in semi-seclusion. When he arrived in France the principles of geometric abstraction, under the influence of Mondrian, stood in opposition to Surrealism. Here, we witness a sort of reconciliation between the two – a work partially geometric, with basic figures (circles and rectangles), but accompanied by other forms, much freer and more organic.
The Grey Background
The canvas is divided into three sections, similar to a triptych. At first glance, one could suppose there is only one background color. In reality the effect is more subtle. We are confronted with two large dark objects (or subjects, if one prefers), two horn-shapes, tapering at the base and expanding above. Fine elements of these almost touch the frame at bottom and top. These two large dark forms are borders dividing background sections. Between the two, greyish green; at right, greyish yellow; at left, greyish pink.
The Horn on the Right
The two horns mirror each other. Each annexes a certain number of subordinate elements. Alongside the one on the right, we see a darker oblong placed toward the center and in front of it a complex grouping of narrow bars with comma-shapes superimposed, reminiscent of bananas or billowing sails. The bottoms of the four long bars intersect with a slender shape something like a boat. On the other side of this horn is a puddle containing a network of colored lines over a blue base. A pair of columns appears at lower right, above which rises a blue circle, then three ascending multi-colored forms (one resembling a hot-air balloon).
The Horn on the Left
The other horn displays a red flap pierced by small colored windows, square or rectangular. The flap on the other side is dihedral (two planes arranged like an open newspaper). Only the right page of this newspaper passes in front of the black horn, darkening as if transparent and taking on the color behind it. Pale commas spread across it. A pattern of small shapes covers the left page, geometric renditions of typeset lines as on a page of newsprint. Beneath the red flap another horn emerges, in miniature and in reverse, with a mosaic of soft colors. Above the newspaper-shape rises a mast carrying three crosstrees; above it a small blue disc, next to which is a sort of quiver with arrows.
The Center
Descending from on high, an abstract ice cream cone disports itself above a family of wild-colored circles, then a marquetry shield, and finally a rectangle ruled vertically like a grill and traversed by a zigzag.
A Snare for Representations
To describe a non-representational work with any precision, one is obliged to create figurative comparisons. In the act of discoursing about it, one transforms it – introducing terminology based on commonly recognizable objects simply in order to reference various features. At the time Kandinsky painted it, this work must have said many things to him, of which some fragment is preserved in the title. Multiple intentions are expressed through a given form that may initially reveal no objective reference. The canvas is a snare for representations. Earlier in his career the artist gave us ships, pieces of money, landscapes with houses, trees or bridges. In this final period, one senses that he wished to distance himself from these representations, but that he only managed this to a limited extent. The effort still allowed him to establish what we see, an alternative system of figuration, saturated with the qualities of music.
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| Wassily Kandinsky Murnau - Houses in the Obermarket 1908 oil on cardboard Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Wassily Kandinsky Painting with White Form 1913 oil on canvas Gemeentemuseum, The Hague |
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| Wassily Kandinsky Swinging 1925 oil on board Tate Gallery |
After an initial immersion in Russian folklore, Kandinsky went through a Fauve period devoted to intensely colored landscapes. This led him to the greater freedom of the Blau Reiter movement, which prefigured the leap to lyrical abstraction. Next came devotion to geometrical abstraction with circles, triangles and rectangles, succeeded by the use of more organic forms that yet remained non-identifiable. And then, at last, the final period of this Accord Réciproque, where the artist united the approaches to abstraction he had practised earlier.
– translated and adapted from Le Musée imaginaire de Michel Butor: 105 œuvres décisives de la peinture occidentale (Paris: Flammarion, 2019)