The colorful life 1907

Wassily Kandinsky made this painting, “The colorful life,” sometime in the early 20th century, using oils to build up a layered landscape teeming with figures. The way he daubs and dashes paint onto the canvas is so intuitive, almost like sketching with color. You can see how the physical properties of the medium—the way the paint sits on the surface, thick in some places, thin in others—adds to the energy of the piece. Look at the way he renders the figures, they’re not quite representational but full of feeling. The painting is more like a dream or a memory than a specific scene. There’s a looseness here that feels really modern. I’m reminded of Arthur Dove, another artist who was interested in conveying inner states through abstraction, though Dove’s landscapes are quieter, more distilled. But like Dove, Kandinsky understood that painting isn’t just about depicting what we see, it’s about creating new ways of experiencing the world.