Kandinsky and the Blue Rider: from the Lenbachhaus, Munich

at Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo
23/11/2010 - 06/02/2011

Wassily Kandinsky, The Bride (1903)

It was the first time for us to see exhibition together after moving to the new place.

Wassily Kandinsky is not a small name, but my passion for his abstract art when I was a novice learner of the history of western art has long gone. As years have gone by, abstract arts only appear 'interesting' to me now. My adolescent admiration for the complexity and incomprehensibility that abstraction always represents was probably born of a feeling of discontent itself, a dissatisfaction with the world that, as I thought, had misunderstood and taken light of its young people.

The exhibition, Kandinsky and the Blue Rider, however, featured the works of him and his fellow painters, the blue riders, showing their development of styles and change in artistic taste. Kandinsky's works from his early period amazed me with its vibrant and luxurious colors, the comparatively realistic organisation is shaped by impressionistic stroke and brush. These earlier works updated my knowledge about the artist. It might be true that he did not become a real phenomenon in the world of arts until his abstract masterpieces, but these early efforts do tell something about the young artist, who experimented styles, struggled to find his own vision, and labored on canvas as often as he wanted.

The maturation of techniques and styles is always the thing that an established artist is known for, and the long years before this climax are commonly regarded as merely a prelude. The works from his early period might not be particularly unique, but they are characterised by a sense of clarity : clear shape and color, which still engages its viewers with an inexplicable mystery.


Rather than to Kandinsky, I was drawn to a painting by Alexei Jawlensky, Maturity, in the exhibition room.















Alexei Jawlensky, Maturity (1912)
Photo: The Personal Website of Joan Laurie Anderson


The application of the bright colors: scarlet red, yellow, green and blue, are impressively telling about its title, Maturity. As K suggested, it might be about sexuality or puberty, an awkward stage of life that any teenager has to undergo. Sexuality is probably one of the imbedded issues as noted by the black spot, a persistent acne (?), on the young man's left cheek. To me, however, these strong and distinctive colors seem to boldly visualize a broader scope of the overall awkwardness and confusion that a young man might experience in human relationship, sexuality, self-knowledge, and life. The sharp edges of colored patches resist any light-hearted mix-up. There are no blurry boundaries. Nothing can be, or should be, taken for granted easily, and reconciliation between the world and the self is never a convenient choice.

Standing in front of the painting, I was experiencing a sudden return of my teenagehood memory. About a month ago, some high school friends turned up on facebook all of a sudden. A high school group was then formed, and since then an excitement about finding long-lost friends has lasted for a couple of weeks among the members of the group. That part of teenage life has long been buried somewhere in my memory, far far underneath beyond my reach.

It is interesting to see and feel the memory resurging, but it is not necessarily a happy experience per se. Although that stage of life has been more than a decade away by now, the pain and melancholy that maturation inflicted on an immature self prove to be very difficult to revisit. They are those edgy and irreconcilable colors which still firmly occupy the places where they have been.