Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting with White Border
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting with White Border Details
About the Author Elsa Smithgall is curator at The Phillips Collection; Tracey Bashkoff is curator of collections and exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum; Gillian McMillan is senior conservator at the Guggenheim Museum; and Elizabeth Steele is head of conservation at The Phillips Collection. Read more
Reviews
Like many others (apparently) I was doubtful about buying a fairly expensive 136 page book about only one painting which was bound to be rather dry as it had to contain 9 pages of scribbled preparatory drawings owned by the Stadtische Gallery in Munich.What I found instead was the first Kandinsky book consciously designed to be a visual feast. Achieved firstly by eliminating boring dualities by never having opposing pages filled in the same way. Next the designers mixed-in every colored sketch or watercolor related to the Painting with White Border. Thus one gets interesting sub-sections devoted to Troikas (sled pulled by 3 horses), St. George and later works using the border device. Throw-in 8 double-page spread enlargements of the central area of these paintings and one is constantly blown away by Kandinsky's technical virtuosity - particularly in his vibrant watercolors.However I found the most valuable visual aid to be a photograph of the Guggenheim's painting and the Phillips's Sketch #1 standing side by side. Firstly the "sketch" is much bigger than one would think. Second, only in this photo can one appreciate the "depth-effect" of the big picture which one never gets with a flat-on reproduction. Here (if one looks hard enough) St. George and his lance comes to the forefront with everything around him receding in a series of plains. So rather than the white border what makes this painting so relevant is it provided the impetus to fully dissolve space later on in 1913 in Composition 6 which has the same descending diagonal design but with the area St. George occupied now the entrance to a white abyss.With the further complexities of Composition 7 coming soon afterwards it's commendable that editor Elsa Smithgall decided to edit out all such tempting diversions and concentrate on just one painting. Making this book a perfect entree for Kandinsky doubters who feel overwhelmed when faced by his incredibly diverse output. For those who want notes and references they are all here too but mainly one gets beautiful accurately printed reproductions on page after page. One can but hope this is the first of many attempts to zero in on specific paintings and watercolors which help to illuminate the process by which a genius eventually arrives at the perfect solution.
