Labarthe once said, "I always wanted to do this: a show about painting with painters," and has certainly accomplished his dream in Wassily Kandinsky, a dramatic documentary in the collaborative art series by Naxos of America, Inc. and Arthaus Musik. The Russian-born painter was highly educated in music, literature, and philosophy that charged his love of painting. By the age of 30, his heartfelt desire caused him to abandon lifestyle and career by devoting himself exclusively to his artistic expression.
Kandinsky stated that drawing and painting "lifted him out of reality," and that "each color lived its own mysterious life." Evolving from his representational art was an interpretive language of minimized motifs and essential lines that encrypted his emotions and desires. Colors affected him on a grandiose level and he wrote poems and books about their psychological and psychic powers on the inner spirit, as described in his essay, "Ober das Geistige in der Kunst" ("On the Spiritual in Art").
Recurrent in his abstract paintings were his two beloved symbols from the beginning to the end of his career -- his initial horseman which was finally replaced by the romantic circle. His brilliantly colored and designed abstracts deliver a sense of balance and enjoyment as seen in Kandinsky's renown work, "Der Blaue Reiter," (The Blue Rider). At the end of his career, you'll find even the minimized motifs and lines filling up the canvasses with an explosion of expressive impact.
The documentary silently pans throughout the artist's works as the paintings themselves deliver narrative. There is also an overall narration of what is happening to the artist as he "walks" throughout the stages of his works as a viewer of the exhibit.
Undoubtedly, Kandinsky was affected by the political environments and acts of war that raged around him. He involved himself in painting, traveling, teaching and upholding the artistic movements of the time in an effort to escape the ugliness of its reality. After Bauhaus, he retired to Paris where his art took on a welcomed freedom.
Wassily Kandinsky is a documentary that illustrates the impact Kandinsky made on the art world. We are forever thankful that his "spirit" lives on in his books, poems, and paintings leading a pathway to nourish the inner spirit of our beings. This particular documentary gave me the hunger to learn more about the artist and a desire to feel his "Stimmung" in my own life and work.
Bonus features consisted of only a trailer which featured short documentaries on artists Chagall, Magritte, and Manet. A text, "Impressum" by Steffi Schultzke, translated by Kennedy-Unglaub Translations, gives a more in-depth biography of Kandinsky, the artist, and his accomplishments. I only wish that subtitles would appear in the language that is selected so I can dually watch the subtitles as well as the film itself at the same time -- this would provide a great convenience to students of the documentary.
