Munich – English Garden 1901

This is a landscape by Kandinsky, *Munich – English Garden*, and he's used oil paint, thick and juicy, to make it. I love the feeling of the path curving along the bottom edge there. Imagine him standing there. What was he thinking? Was he agitated? What was the weather like? You can see how he’s built up the surface of the painting, stroke upon stroke, in short jabs of colour. The overall feeling for me is one of optimism, but there are also some heavy dark greens and blues looming in the background. Everything shimmers. There’s a dialogue with the Impressionists happening here, that’s for sure, but something else is starting to happen too. It feels like Kandinsky is about to launch into something totally new. That moment right before a big leap is always interesting to me. You can feel the tension in the painting itself.