Klänge Pl.11 1913

This woodcut print, Klänge Pl.11, by Wassily Kandinsky, pulsates with abstract forms rendered in blue and red. Imagine Kandinsky, leaning over the block, carving away at the wood, each gouge a decisive act in a symphony of shapes. I can imagine him thinking, "How can I convey the sensation of sound through purely visual means?" The red sun or flower is pretty explosive. The snake slithering at the bottom seems to be up to no good. There's a tension here, between representation and pure abstraction, a give and take. It reminds me a bit of some of the early 20th-century experimental theater work that was happening at the time. Kandinsky, like other artists of his time, such as Schoenberg in music, sought to push beyond the representational, delving into the emotional and spiritual core of experience. It's all part of this big conversation that keeps on going.