Improvisation #29 (The Swan)
Wassily Kandinsky
1912
41 3/4" x 38 3/16"
Oil on canvas
Credit: Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950

Essay: David Nolan

Kandinsky’s Improvisation (Swan) is a highly decorative non-objective painting composed of vibrant colors, and a variety of shapes and line set in an active swirling space. The name Improvisation is apropos in that, like many jazz pieces, Kandinsky takes certain themes and plays with them, getting the most variety he can out of each note he uses. He discards the melody (in the case of painting ­the illustrative content) in order to concentrate on the decorative and expressive aspects.

In observing this painting, as well as perhaps many non-objective paintings, some of the shapes resemble the appearance of a cloud, an eye, a gray baby that hangs from it, a house, a hill and so forth. Although there is no way to verify if it was the artist¹s intention to have any of them read as identifiable objects, as well as the fact that these objects become very strange in context to each other, for purposes of identifying the parts of this work, the objects that read as “eyeball” shall be referred to as such.

Kandinsky darkens the upper left corner forming an arch around the “eye” and continues that dark down the left edge containing that side of the composition and leading to the hill like shapes that begin to build a landscape-like setting for his objects to live in. It is a quirky relationship from this point of view, as the giant eye and other objects don¹t actually rest in it; some project out of it and others recede giving the painting an interesting spatial drama.

His shapes jumble and cluster together and are mostly set on angles, only to achieve stability by being balanced in opposition to other shapes. The upper right corner is an exception to this rule, laying horizontally and somewhat isolated from the other activity in the canvas.

It contributes to the effect of making the setting landscape-like in that it behaves like a distant horizon line, behind the masses of curvy hills and objects in space. The modeling he gives to the edge of many of his shapes gives them a slight bulk, like ravioli. This is by no means always the case, as he continually plays with the rules throughout, making some shapes flatter, others fading out or becoming terse scribble.

Kandinsky’s Improvisation partakes of a softness and playfulness. This is in part due to the vivid primary colors that fade away into the soft pastel atmosphere that is felt throughout. It is also due to the playfully improvised shapes that make up its objects. These objects begin to morph from one sort of shape to another, as is the case with the step formation on the ³eyelid² as it becomes less pronounced on the eyeball, more curvy on the saturated red unit below, and more faded and cloud-like on the pink shape left of the eyeball. Shapes that take on a cloud look are found throughout: First, there is a more pronounced magenta one on the right, that has the naiveté of a child¹s drawing of a cloud. Second, below there are gray ones that are more amoeba shaped. The gray amoeba clouds recede into space as they overlap like the Byzantine heads in religious iconography; the limited color of them helps the recession (as the surrounding colors and units are very vibrant). They are not the only gray shapes, (The hanging baby suspended from the eye on the left, for instance) and they vary their shape and darkness maintaining their unity with the rest of the picture. The magenta cloud is wrapped around by two blue lung-like masses, less cloud-like and more in keeping with the hilly motif at the lower left. This wrapping of blue unit occurs again not only with the hilly lower left shape around a hot orange unit but also on the right of the house above. These blue units focus the eye on an area where their cool, dark nature sets off the hot colors next to them. Within the magenta cloud are curious artifacts that appear to be simply experiments on the variations on a theme.

Among the flatter, less ravioli-like units there are at center the previously mentioned red step/cloud formation resting on a blue bird-like object (also suggestive of a naiveté, like that of the flattened Pennsylvania Dutch birds used in that tradition) that features arcs ending with a hook, as well as portions that fade of into a gradation of color or line. This is another of the artist¹s morphing themes as he plays with objects that become lines, or lines that become area lines. The line throughout has much variety and color, sometimes emphatic, mostly curving, though occasionally some marks are somewhat straight, some that form angles, hatches, scribbles, white scratches ‹as many different means of application as the artist could conceive. When not part of an object, they are marks applied to the canvas, as is the case where they are put on the blue hill, emphasizing its shape, and behaving like grass. Throughout, they contribute to the swirl and activity of the piece.

Kandinsky¹s light also plays a major role in his drama. As mentioned before, it has the effect of fading off in many spots and is punctuated against others. He sometimes uses the white of the canvas as his light, but also uses punctuations of white paint which stands out much more, giving a note of emphasis to his shapes. The light has the curves and swirls of the line itself. It is used as a channeling device from the lower right to upper left (in opposition to the amoeba gray clouds), undulating towards the horizon-like pocket of space in the upper right corner.

On the left side of the canvas, it functions with the darkened portions that lead the eye up towards the eye shape and separates that object from the dark. The lights take on this linear, separating theme throughout, as with the gray clouds, the windows on the house on the left side that rests above the hill-like shape that wraps around an orange lake and greenish path ­objects also separated by the white band. Yet another ³improvisation,² but he achieves a balance with it, just as he has done so with the color, the line, and the spaces.

The artist¹s use of color in this painting is another means of achieving the most variety he can. As was mentioned in the morphing of shapes and transitions of lights, the color itself takes on this theme. In areas such as the hill-like lumps on the lower portion, he bands the color, transitioning from blue to purple to green, with oranges and yellows blending in and out. In other places he moves from a cool to a warm, such as the house unit above. Everywhere he repeats the theme of “it was this, but is becoming that.”

His paint quality has a thin brushiness to it and combined with the fading to pastel colors, gives it the feeling of watercolor. This contributes to both the softness and the playfulness. The active brushwork gives the impression of a spontaneity and relates well with the scribble shapes he employs.

Though the painting is non-objective (despite the reference to objects throughout this essay), it does not exist outside the tradition of painters that have retained an illustrative aspect in their work. Improvisation¹s color scheme, line, light, decorativeness and swirl of activity are very reminiscent of the work of Henri Matisse, particularly, Matisse¹s Joy of Life, painted around 1906 ­six years earlier than Improvisation, which has many of the qualities previously described without discarding the illustrative aspect. It has the fauvist hot against cold color relations, the fading away of lights, the swirl and variety of line which also becomes area lines, a simplification that becomes abstraction in places, and naivete of shapes (the flattened trees or decorative tufts of grass for instance), and an overall attention to the emphasizing the decorative aspect.

Despite these leanings, Kandinsky manages to make the painting his own, by the softer pastel quality of the color and its rapid transitions, the sheer multitude of different kinds of shapes and markings he arrives at, and its spontaneity and playfulness that are of his personality and unlike that of other artists. Improvisation expresses an exuberance and a naiveté, much as I recall my nephew¹s way of drawing at a very young age. The drawing would be an action in itself; as he would draw some object, say a car, the crayons would be very forcefully applied, since it is a very solid object. Next a tornado would hit, a swirling scrawl that he draws just for the fun of the execution. While Kandinsky¹s painting is much more sophisticated in his use of balance, tradition and expertise of his medium, he imparts a child-like appearance to the work, and because of the morphing of shapes, a sequential action occurs as this shape becomes that one.