WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.379 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, we are immersing 00:00:03.379 --> 00:00:05.639 ourselves in the mind of a man whose paintings 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:09.740 might look, well, like pure color and chaos at 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:12.679 first glance. Wassily Kandinsky. Exactly. But 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:15.099 he was actually one of the most, you know, rigorous, 00:00:15.220 --> 00:00:18.219 systematic. thinkers of the modern era. Absolutely. 00:00:18.980 --> 00:00:23.160 Kandinsky, living 1866 to 1944, he's rightly 00:00:23.160 --> 00:00:25.879 called a pioneer of pure abstraction in Western 00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:28.120 art. But just calling him a painter kind of misses 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:29.980 the mark, doesn't it? It really does. He was 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:31.839 an art theorist. He didn't just sort of stumble 00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:35.189 into non -objective painting. He codified it. 00:00:35.229 --> 00:00:37.469 He built this whole language for it. A language. 00:00:37.549 --> 00:00:39.950 Yeah. A complete, rational, philosophical, even 00:00:39.950 --> 00:00:43.609 spiritual language linking color, form, sound, 00:00:43.630 --> 00:00:46.710 and, well, the human soul. Okay. So our mission 00:00:46.710 --> 00:00:49.210 today for you listening is to kind of give you 00:00:49.210 --> 00:00:50.789 the shortcut to understanding that language. 00:00:51.049 --> 00:00:52.869 We're going to trace his incredible journey. 00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:55.289 From a successful law career, believe it or not. 00:00:55.310 --> 00:00:58.250 Right. To becoming this artistic prophet who 00:00:58.250 --> 00:01:00.689 basically shattered, what, 3 ,000 years of tradition. 00:01:00.990 --> 00:01:03.490 Ah. The idea that painting had to show reality. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:06.439 And the real kicker, the initial shock factor, 00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:09.439 is just how late he started. 30. 30 years old. 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:12.019 That's when he began his formal studies, life 00:01:12.019 --> 00:01:14.959 drawing, sketching, anatomy, the absolute basics. 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:17.159 Imagine the guts that took. I mean, that's usually 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:19.040 when you're settled, right? Peak career time. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.819 And he just throws it all away for the art world's 00:01:21.819 --> 00:01:24.439 uncertainty. And that decision, and pretty much 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:26.680 every radical move he made afterwards in his 00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:30.159 art, it was all driven by this one core idea 00:01:30.159 --> 00:01:33.340 he called... Inner necessity. That's the key, 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:35.599 isn't it? That's what we're digging into. This 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:38.760 belief that art must come from inside, spiritual, 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.239 emotional, not just copying what you see. We 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:45.560 need to watch how that idea pushed him. First 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:48.180 out of law and then, well, to completely reinvent 00:01:48.180 --> 00:01:52.680 painting itself. OK, so to really grasp how huge 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:55.019 that career change at 30 was, let's look at his 00:01:55.019 --> 00:01:57.439 life before art school. He wasn't exactly a struggling 00:01:57.439 --> 00:01:59.560 artist type from the start. Not at all. Born 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:02.239 in Moscow, well -to -do family, very cultured. 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:04.400 He took the most structured path you can imagine, 00:02:04.579 --> 00:02:07.099 law and economics, excelled at it. And he was 00:02:07.099 --> 00:02:10.219 successful, too, right? Lecturing. Yeah. By 1892, 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:13.300 he'd married his cousin, Anja Chimiakina, and 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:15.379 was already lecturing in jurisprudence at the 00:02:15.379 --> 00:02:17.939 University of Moscow. A respected intellectual. 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:21.120 Set for life, you'd think. But something else 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.680 was pulling at him. Always. This private, almost 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:27.539 spiritual fascination with color. He talked about 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:29.800 it starting way back in childhood, how certain 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:32.759 colors just hit him differently, stimulated him. 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:34.599 So it wasn't just liking pretty colors, it was 00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:37.900 deeper. Much deeper, almost mystical. And that 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:40.319 connection, that became the engine, you know, 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:42.680 for his later theories about... color symbolism 00:02:42.680 --> 00:02:45.300 and psychology was there a specific moment when 00:02:45.300 --> 00:02:48.460 this really broke through well a big early crack 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:51.039 in that structured life came during an ethnographic 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:55.060 research trip in 1889 he was only 23. went up 00:02:55.060 --> 00:02:57.560 to the vlog to region north of moscow on academic 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:00.180 business studying the law that was the mission 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:02.580 yeah provincial law but what really stayed with 00:03:02.580 --> 00:03:05.080 him was the visual experience the houses the 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:08.150 churches there decorated with these shimmering, 00:03:08.150 --> 00:03:10.830 vibrant colors. He said it felt like he was literally 00:03:10.830 --> 00:03:13.629 moving into a painting. Not just looking at it, 00:03:13.650 --> 00:03:16.650 but inside it. That's a key difference. Exactly. 00:03:16.930 --> 00:03:20.449 And he noticed the folk art, those bright reds, 00:03:20.449 --> 00:03:23.270 yellows, blues, often against dark backgrounds, 00:03:23.490 --> 00:03:26.909 this visceral sensory thing totally outside the 00:03:26.909 --> 00:03:29.389 academic world. It really hit him. You can see 00:03:29.389 --> 00:03:31.530 its influence on his early work. But the real 00:03:31.530 --> 00:03:33.650 crisis moment, the one that points towards abstraction. 00:03:34.439 --> 00:03:36.860 That came later. Yes, a few years later, just 00:03:36.860 --> 00:03:39.240 before he finally ditched Moscow for Munich in 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.280 1896, seeing Monet's haystacks. Ah, the famous 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:45.900 story. This is crucial for understanding abstraction, 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:48.419 isn't it? Because it wasn't straightforward admiration. 00:03:48.979 --> 00:03:51.379 Not at all. It was conflict. He went to an exhibition, 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:54.319 saw the painting, the catalog says haystack, 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:56.919 he looks, and he just cannot recognize the object. 00:03:57.219 --> 00:03:59.719 Which... For his trained, logical mind. It was 00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:02.439 a problem. His inner necessity back then, his 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:03.960 intellectual side, screamed that the painter 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:06.620 had no right to paint indistinctly. He felt actual 00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:09.340 pain, confusion, the object was missing. His 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:11.639 whole worldview challenged by a blurry painting. 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:14.199 But then, and this is the genius part, that other 00:04:14.199 --> 00:04:16.180 inner necessity, the emotional, spiritual one, 00:04:16.220 --> 00:04:18.480 took over. Despite the confusion, the painting 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:21.620 gripped him. Emotionally. It stuck with him. 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:24.639 Impressed itself ineradicably on my memory, he 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:28.079 said. He suddenly saw the fairytale power and 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:30.639 splendor of painting itself, working independently 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:33.660 of a clear subject. So color and just the act 00:04:33.660 --> 00:04:36.250 of painting. could move the soul on their own. 00:04:36.430 --> 00:04:38.569 That was the revelation. If painting could do 00:04:38.569 --> 00:04:41.230 that without needing an object, then painting 00:04:41.230 --> 00:04:43.970 was inherently abstract, just like music. Which 00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:46.269 leads directly to his ideas about synesthesia. 00:04:46.569 --> 00:04:49.370 Immediately. He wrote those famous lines, color 00:04:49.370 --> 00:04:51.550 is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmony, the 00:04:51.550 --> 00:04:54.709 soul is the piano with many strings. The artist 00:04:54.709 --> 00:04:56.910 just plays the notes on this visual keyboard. 00:04:57.250 --> 00:04:59.230 And he connected it beyond painting too, Wagner. 00:04:59.490 --> 00:05:03.129 Yes, he cited Wagner's opera Lohengrin. He felt 00:05:03.129 --> 00:05:06.079 Wagner was pushing. music beyond just melody 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:08.800 into this purely expressive emotional space. 00:05:08.899 --> 00:05:11.120 That was the final push, really, the intellectual 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:13.899 and spiritual fuel he needed. To finally ditch 00:05:13.899 --> 00:05:17.220 law and head to Munich in 96, to actually study 00:05:17.220 --> 00:05:19.639 art. Right. So in Munich, he studied first at 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:21.839 a private school, Anton Auschwitz, then got into 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:24.399 the Munich Academy. And this is where his personal 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:26.680 life gets really intertwined with his art. Gabriel 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:30.370 Minter. Yes. The German artist. He started as 00:05:30.370 --> 00:05:33.230 her teacher, but they became partners romantically 00:05:33.230 --> 00:05:37.449 and artistically from about 1902 to 1916. They 00:05:37.449 --> 00:05:39.709 traveled a lot, Europe, North Africa, soaking 00:05:39.709 --> 00:05:41.990 up all the new art movements. And you can see 00:05:41.990 --> 00:05:43.670 him processing all this in his work from the 00:05:43.670 --> 00:05:46.389 early 1900s, right? Starting to break down reality. 00:05:46.889 --> 00:05:49.509 Definitely. He's using these broad areas of color, 00:05:49.629 --> 00:05:52.209 moving away from fiddly details. Look at Sunday, 00:05:52.410 --> 00:05:55.220 Old Russia from 1904. It's this fanciful scene, 00:05:55.379 --> 00:05:57.480 peasants and nobles, but the color is already 00:05:57.480 --> 00:05:59.620 starting to dominate the forms. And couple on 00:05:59.620 --> 00:06:02.620 horseback, 1907. There you really see him experimenting. 00:06:02.939 --> 00:06:05.439 Using techniques like pointillism, those dots 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:07.480 of color to flatten the picture plane, make it 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:09.600 less about depth, more about the surface. Plus 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:12.300 the fulvest influence. Wild colors. Exactly. 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:14.759 The colors are totally non -naturalistic. He's 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:17.160 using color purely to express his inner feeling, 00:06:17.300 --> 00:06:20.000 his experience, not to accurately describe a 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:21.980 horse or people. Which brings us to a really 00:06:21.980 --> 00:06:24.579 pivotal piece. Yeah. The Blue Rider from 1903. 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:27.800 Ah, yes. Here are the subject, a figure on a 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:29.459 horse. It's almost swallowed up by the way it's 00:06:29.459 --> 00:06:31.439 painted. The details are blurry and distinct. 00:06:31.740 --> 00:06:34.560 It's more about the colors, that intense blue 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:37.480 especially, and the sense of movement. And it's 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:40.060 the intentional blurring, the disjunction. He's 00:06:40.060 --> 00:06:42.699 making you work, making you engage with the paint 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:45.959 and color, not just recognize a story. It's not 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:48.680 pure abstraction yet, but it's a huge step. He's 00:06:48.680 --> 00:06:51.079 clearly prioritizing expression over representation, 00:06:51.459 --> 00:06:53.720 setting the stage for everything that came next. 00:06:53.980 --> 00:06:57.579 Okay, so by the late 1900s, Kandinsky's definitely 00:06:57.579 --> 00:07:00.660 choosing spiritual, emotional color over just 00:07:00.660 --> 00:07:02.759 painting what he sees. But he's an intellectual, 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:05.459 right? He needs more than just... Feeling. He 00:07:05.459 --> 00:07:08.120 needed to justify it to prove this radical shift 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:11.199 wasn't just, you know, random splashing. So he 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:13.660 dove deep into theory. And that theory was heavily 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:15.639 shaped by spiritual movements. Theosophy comes 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:17.879 in here. Vitally important. He officially joined 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:21.180 the Theosophical Society in 1909. Madame Blavatsky's 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:23.319 writings were a huge influence. What was the 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:25.610 connection? What did theosophy offer him? Well, 00:07:25.629 --> 00:07:28.009 Theosophy proposed that creation itself wasn't 00:07:28.009 --> 00:07:30.490 random. It was structured, a geometric progression, 00:07:30.870 --> 00:07:33.709 starting with a single point, then unfolding 00:07:33.709 --> 00:07:36.250 into basic shapes, circles, triangles, squares. 00:07:36.610 --> 00:07:39.990 Ah, so it gave him a framework. If the spiritual 00:07:39.990 --> 00:07:42.660 world is built on geometry, Then he could use 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:44.939 geometry and color to tap into that spiritual 00:07:44.939 --> 00:07:47.439 truth, but without having to paint traditional 00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:50.019 religious scenes. It was a bridge. And you see 00:07:50.019 --> 00:07:52.819 that geometry pop up later in his theories about 00:07:52.819 --> 00:07:55.800 shapes and lines. Directly. And Theosophy even 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:58.079 offered a kind of visual language. He looked 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:01.079 at books like Thought Forms by Annie Besant and 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:03.899 Leadbeater. What were those? They had these illustrations 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:06.439 trying to visualize things like the human aura 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:10.639 or emotional states as colorful, geometric, non 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:12.899 -representative. Presentational forms like abstract 00:08:12.899 --> 00:08:15.800 diagrams of feelings pretty much and Kandinsky 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:18.259 absorbed that he translated those visuals of 00:08:18.259 --> 00:08:20.860 invisible states into his own developing abstract 00:08:20.860 --> 00:08:23.519 vocabulary But this kind of thinking I imagine 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:25.699 didn't sit well with the mainstream art world 00:08:25.699 --> 00:08:28.970 back then Not at all. In 1911, his ideas were 00:08:28.970 --> 00:08:31.550 seen as way too radical. He actually split from 00:08:31.550 --> 00:08:34.129 the main Munich Artists Association, the Neue 00:08:34.129 --> 00:08:37.090 Künstlervereinigung München, after they rejected 00:08:37.090 --> 00:08:40.750 one of his increasingly abstract works. What 00:08:40.750 --> 00:08:44.470 did he do? Retreat? Nope. Doubled down. He immediately 00:08:44.470 --> 00:08:46.690 got together with other like -minded artists, 00:08:47.009 --> 00:08:49.629 Franz Marc is the big name, along with Gabriel 00:08:49.629 --> 00:08:52.990 Münter and founded Der Blaue Reiter. The Blue 00:08:52.990 --> 00:08:55.389 Rider Group. Named after his painting. Exactly. 00:08:55.429 --> 00:08:58.009 It became the banner for the German avant -garde, 00:08:58.049 --> 00:09:01.309 pushing for this emotional, expressive, spiritual 00:09:01.309 --> 00:09:03.769 path towards abstraction. And they were active. 00:09:04.070 --> 00:09:06.350 Exhibitions, publications. Oh, yes. They put 00:09:06.350 --> 00:09:09.169 out the really influential Blue Rider Almanac, 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:11.309 held two major exhibitions. They were making 00:09:11.309 --> 00:09:14.610 waves. But then... World War I. World War I interrupted 00:09:14.610 --> 00:09:17.789 everything in 1914. Kandinsky, being Russian, 00:09:17.950 --> 00:09:20.309 had to go back to Moscow. But the impact of that 00:09:20.309 --> 00:09:22.509 period, especially the Blue Rider, it wasn't 00:09:22.509 --> 00:09:24.750 just the paintings, was it? It was his writing. 00:09:24.950 --> 00:09:28.009 Crucially, yes. Around 1910, he started writing 00:09:28.009 --> 00:09:30.750 what became his masterpiece of theory concerning 00:09:30.750 --> 00:09:33.470 the spiritual in art, published in 1911. This 00:09:33.470 --> 00:09:36.389 was huge. A manifesto, really. It was a defense, 00:09:36.710 --> 00:09:39.529 a promotion, a philosophical grounding for abstract 00:09:39.529 --> 00:09:42.769 art based on that idea of inner necessity, internal 00:09:42.769 --> 00:09:45.200 emotion. What made it so revolutionary? He laid 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:47.980 out this rigorous argument that color and form 00:09:47.980 --> 00:09:50.899 could and should be used on their own, completely 00:09:50.899 --> 00:09:53.500 separate from describing the real world. It wasn't 00:09:53.500 --> 00:09:56.539 decoration. It was a spiritual need. And people 00:09:56.539 --> 00:09:59.519 noticed. Immediately. The international art world 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:02.159 took note. Michael Sadler published the English 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:05.980 translation in 1914, which was massive for legitimizing 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:08.879 abstract art in Britain and the U .S. Parts even 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:11.320 showed up in Wyndham Lewis's radical magazine 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:14.590 blast. So the book had a direct impact. on collectors 00:10:14.590 --> 00:10:17.590 too. Absolutely. Sadler's father, Michael Sadler, 00:10:17.629 --> 00:10:20.389 actually bought several Kandinsky works in 1913, 00:10:20.629 --> 00:10:23.690 including an abstract piece, Fragment for Composition 00:10:23.690 --> 00:10:27.029 7, some of the very first abstract Kandinsky's 00:10:27.029 --> 00:10:29.250 to land in a major British collection, thanks 00:10:29.250 --> 00:10:31.769 to the book's influence. This really elevates 00:10:31.769 --> 00:10:33.990 him beyond just being a painter. He saw himself 00:10:33.990 --> 00:10:36.250 differently, didn't he? He really did. He saw 00:10:36.250 --> 00:10:38.929 himself almost as a prophet. He used this amazing 00:10:38.929 --> 00:10:41.370 metaphor in the book. The authentic artist, the 00:10:41.370 --> 00:10:43.929 one creating from inner necessity, stands alone 00:10:43.929 --> 00:10:46.230 at the very tip of an upward moving pyramid. 00:10:46.429 --> 00:10:48.700 What does the pyramid represent? Art history 00:10:48.700 --> 00:10:51.279 or maybe human consciousness, the base is like 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:54.019 the common understanding of beauty. But the whole 00:10:54.019 --> 00:10:56.220 pyramid is constantly moving up, progressing 00:10:56.220 --> 00:10:58.899 into the future. And the artist at the top is... 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:02.080 Making discoveries, seeing things others can't 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:04.600 yet grasp. What seemed weird or inconceivable 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:06.940 yesterday, like that Monet haystack he couldn't 00:11:06.940 --> 00:11:09.159 recognize, becomes normal today. And what's avant 00:11:09.159 --> 00:11:11.919 -garde and confusing now? Becomes tomorrow's 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:14.860 common knowledge. So the modern artist for Kandinsky 00:11:14.860 --> 00:11:17.899 had this almost moral duty to... to lead the 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:20.340 way, to bring about that future reality. That's 00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:22.399 a heavy responsibility. And you see that sense 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:25.899 of drama of being at a turning point in his big 00:11:25.899 --> 00:11:28.960 paintings from that time, the compositions. Definitely. 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:31.320 Especially the first seven compositions leading 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:34.419 up to World War I. He was obsessed with eschatology 00:11:34.419 --> 00:11:37.259 and times, the coming of a new age, a massive 00:11:37.259 --> 00:11:39.539 spiritual shift. So the themes are huge. Apocalypse, 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:42.519 rebirth. Massive cosmic themes. Destruction, 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:46.559 creation, death, rebirth. He's drawing on... 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:49.820 huge biblical stories, Noah's Ark, the four horsemen, 00:11:49.940 --> 00:11:53.000 the resurrection, but translating them into this 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:56.519 new non -literal visual language. There's this 00:11:56.519 --> 00:11:59.799 feeling of urgency, chaos, cosmic events unfolding. 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:02.679 But crucially, they aren't illustrations of those 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:05.620 stories. If you look at Composition 7 from 1913, 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:07.799 maybe his most complex piece ever. You won't 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:10.519 find Noah or horses. Right. It's this swirling 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:13.480 storm of color and lines. He used what he called 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:15.899 veiled imagery, hidden symbols, fragments of 00:12:15.899 --> 00:12:18.379 shapes, arches, not to tell a story, but as symbols, 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:20.899 archetypes of that destruction creation cycle 00:12:20.899 --> 00:12:23.120 he felt was happening right then. He's painting 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:25.220 the feeling of the apocalypse, the spiritual 00:12:25.220 --> 00:12:27.860 upheaval, not the event itself. OK, so let's 00:12:27.860 --> 00:12:29.720 get into the nuts and bolts here. How did he? 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:31.779 actually do this how did he translate that huge 00:12:31.779 --> 00:12:34.820 spiritual vision into paint the key seems to 00:12:34.820 --> 00:12:36.759 be his synesthesia right that crossing of the 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:39.720 senses hearing colors seeing sounds he didn't 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:41.940 just experience this he built his theories around 00:12:41.940 --> 00:12:44.250 it he thought it was how art worked He believed 00:12:44.250 --> 00:12:46.289 it was the mechanism for communion between the 00:12:46.289 --> 00:12:49.210 artist and the viewer. The artist feels something 00:12:49.210 --> 00:12:51.970 that creates a sensation that becomes the artwork. 00:12:52.269 --> 00:12:55.149 The artwork then generates a sensation in you, 00:12:55.289 --> 00:12:57.710 the viewer, which hopefully triggers a similar 00:12:57.710 --> 00:13:00.090 emotion. It's a chain reaction. And he got really 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:01.990 specific about the connections, didn't he? The 00:13:01.990 --> 00:13:04.389 color sound pairings. Well, yeah, famously specific. 00:13:04.570 --> 00:13:07.009 And they really stick with you. Like yellow for 00:13:07.009 --> 00:13:10.210 him was the color of middle C played on a brassy 00:13:10.210 --> 00:13:13.340 trumpet. Loud, sharp, aggressive. Exactly. Exactly. 00:13:13.340 --> 00:13:15.539 But other colors had totally different vibes. 00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:18.919 Red was like a tuba, maybe low brass, strong, 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:21.980 heavy, earthy. And green? Green was quieter, 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:25.299 more like a sustained violin note, restful still. 00:13:26.029 --> 00:13:29.529 Blue was the deepest, maybe a cello evoking coldness, 00:13:29.610 --> 00:13:32.070 the heavens, spirituality. And black and white? 00:13:32.169 --> 00:13:34.809 Black was the color of absolute closure, silence, 00:13:34.929 --> 00:13:37.309 the end. While white was the opposite silence, 00:13:37.549 --> 00:13:40.190 but full of potential, like a pause before creation 00:13:40.190 --> 00:13:42.669 begins. So when he combined colors, he wasn't 00:13:42.669 --> 00:13:45.139 just thinking visually. He was thinking acoustically. 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:49.000 He was composing chords. Color combinations produced 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:51.700 vibrational frequencies, just like piano chords 00:13:51.700 --> 00:13:54.120 or cello chords, instruments he actually played 00:13:54.120 --> 00:13:56.379 as a kid. Wow. And he didn't just keep this in 00:13:56.379 --> 00:13:58.059 his notebooks, right? He actually put it into 00:13:58.059 --> 00:14:00.759 practice. Massively so. The most famous example 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:03.259 is probably his stage design for Mussorgsky's 00:14:03.259 --> 00:14:06.240 pictures at an exhibition. It premiered in Dessau 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:09.500 in 1928. That sounds incredible. What did he 00:14:09.500 --> 00:14:12.419 do? It was like a living synesthetic manifesto. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:15.460 The shapes, the colors on the stage backdrops, 00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:17.480 lighting, they were all synchronized with the 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:20.240 music exactly following his detailed notes. So 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:23.080 as the music changed. The colors and forms changed. 00:14:23.159 --> 00:14:24.919 When the pitch went up, maybe the color shifted 00:14:24.919 --> 00:14:27.580 from deep blues and reds to bright yellows and 00:14:27.580 --> 00:14:30.139 whites. When the rhythm got frantic, the shapes 00:14:30.139 --> 00:14:33.279 might get sharper, more agitated. It was a moving 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:35.799 abstract landscape driven entirely by sound. 00:14:35.899 --> 00:14:38.120 That perfectly illustrates the concept. But let's 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:41.200 jump back a bit to 1913 to show how deep the 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:43.580 sound connection went in his actual painting 00:14:43.580 --> 00:14:46.860 process. The story behind Composition 6. Ah, 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:50.159 the flood anecdote, yes. It really shows the 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:53.159 power of sound over intellect for him. He'd been 00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:55.399 working on this huge painting for months, right? 00:14:55.539 --> 00:14:58.440 Yeah. Trying to evoke flood, destruction, rebirth. 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.799 Made over 30 studies, sketches, really detailed 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:06.299 preparations. But he was totally blocked, stuck. 00:15:06.779 --> 00:15:09.019 Why? He knew what he wanted to paint. He knew 00:15:09.019 --> 00:15:11.559 intellectually, yes. But he was trying too hard, 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:14.279 trapped in the idea of the flood, trying to force 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:17.299 the symbols. He couldn't access that. Inner necessity. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:20.039 So how did he break through? It was Gabrielle 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:22.399 Minter who suggested something radical. She told 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:24.440 him, forget the meaning, forget the intellect. 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:27.740 Just repeat the German word, uberflute deluge. 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:30.679 or flood over and over again like a mantra focusing 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:32.919 on the sound purely on the physical sound the 00:15:32.919 --> 00:15:34.919 vibration of the word not its meaning and it 00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:37.820 worked amazingly yes the moment he let go of 00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:39.840 the concept and just immersed himself in the 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:42.440 sound that inner necessity unlocked he stopped 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:44.360 trying to illustrate and let the sound guide 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:47.360 the paint he finished that massive complex swirling 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:50.399 canvas in just three days incredible it shows 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:52.940 his abstraction wasn't just intellectual games 00:15:52.940 --> 00:15:57.120 it was this deep almost trance -like spiritual 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:00.720 process accessed through sound. But that very 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.629 individualistic spiritual approach? Well, it 00:16:04.629 --> 00:16:06.230 was about to clash with the real world. World 00:16:06.230 --> 00:16:09.350 War I sends him back to Moscow in 1914. And then 00:16:09.350 --> 00:16:11.509 the Russian revelation happens. Exactly. So from 00:16:11.509 --> 00:16:15.389 about 1918 to 1921, he gets heavily involved 00:16:15.389 --> 00:16:17.870 in the cultural politics of the new Soviet state. 00:16:18.029 --> 00:16:20.590 Trying to shape the new art world. Yeah. He collaborated 00:16:20.590 --> 00:16:23.350 on art education, museum reform. He even helped 00:16:23.350 --> 00:16:25.129 set up the Museum of the Culture of Painting 00:16:25.129 --> 00:16:27.429 he was trying to contribute. But the Soviet climate 00:16:27.429 --> 00:16:29.169 wasn't really aligned with his ideas, was it? 00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:31.840 Not really. The dominant movements emerging like 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:33.960 constructivism and productivism, they were all 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:36.600 about utility, materialism. Art had to serve 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:38.659 the state, serve industry, be practical. And 00:16:38.659 --> 00:16:41.539 Kandinsky's focus on inner necessity, spirituality, 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.080 individual expression. It was completely out 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.600 of step. It was seen as foreign, too bourgeois, 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:49.080 too subjective, not useful for the collective. 00:16:49.580 --> 00:16:53.039 His spiritual outlook just didn't fit the argumentative 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:56.580 materialism of Soviet society. So he was sidelined. 00:16:56.700 --> 00:16:59.740 Pretty much. His influence waned, opportunities 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:02.759 dried up. So when Walter Gropius invited him 00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:05.859 in 1921 to come teach at the Bauhaus in Germany. 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:08.440 He did good. Gratefully, yes. It marked another 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:12.160 huge shift, leaving the expressive, almost chaotic 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:15.759 energy of pre -war Europe for the structured, 00:17:15.940 --> 00:17:19.259 theoretical world of the Bauhaus. So the Bauhaus 00:17:19.259 --> 00:17:22.759 era, starting for Kandinsky in 1922, this was 00:17:22.759 --> 00:17:25.059 incredibly important for him. The whole point 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:28.180 of the Bauhaus was merging art, craft, technology. 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:30.440 Making modern design for the masses, essentially. 00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:33.079 Right. And this structured theoretical environment 00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:35.700 was perfect for Kandinsky to really dig into 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:38.420 and formalize those geometric ideas that have 00:17:38.420 --> 00:17:40.299 been floating around since his theosophy days. 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:42.039 And he wasn't just a minor figure there, was 00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:44.539 he? Oh no, he was central. He taught the basic 00:17:44.539 --> 00:17:46.680 design course for new students, advanced theory, 00:17:46.839 --> 00:17:49.420 painting workshops, even classes on form psychology. 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:52.079 He really thrived on putting structure to his 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:54.519 ideas. And integrating geometry points, lines, 00:17:54.700 --> 00:17:57.200 planes into his existing color theories. Exactly. 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:00.039 And this intense focus on formalizing everything 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:02.819 led to his second big book, Point and Line to 00:18:02.819 --> 00:18:05.519 Plane, which came out in 1926. What was in that 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:09.180 one? More theory. Yes. but incredibly detailed. 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:12.299 It was like an academic treatise on form. He 00:18:12.299 --> 00:18:14.960 analyzed the psychological, emotional impact 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:18.059 of different lines, angles, shapes. Give us an 00:18:18.059 --> 00:18:20.319 example. What's the feeling of a straight line? 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:24.140 Well, for Kandinsky, a horizontal line felt cold, 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:28.480 passive, stable, heavy. but a vertical line that 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:31.779 was warm, active, light, dynamic. Kind of diagonal? 00:18:31.980 --> 00:18:35.660 Tension, speed. He was basically creating an 00:18:35.660 --> 00:18:38.180 emotional dictionary for every single geometric 00:18:38.180 --> 00:18:40.599 element. It sounds almost scientific. It was 00:18:40.599 --> 00:18:43.240 incredibly systematic. And interestingly, his 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:45.559 research was happening at the same time as Gestalt 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:47.900 psychologists were studying how our brains perceive 00:18:47.900 --> 00:18:50.500 and organize visual information. The Bauhaus 00:18:50.500 --> 00:18:52.660 was a real hub for that kind of thinking. So 00:18:52.660 --> 00:18:54.200 he wasn't just making it up. He was grounding 00:18:54.200 --> 00:18:57.079 it in contemporary psychology. Trying to, yes. 00:18:57.319 --> 00:19:00.440 And he also formalized the links between primary 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:03.259 shapes and colors. The sharp triangle he linked 00:19:03.259 --> 00:19:05.400 with that aggressive color, yellow. The square. 00:19:05.859 --> 00:19:08.420 Stable intellectual square went with calm flat 00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:11.579 red. And the circle. Ah, the circle became really 00:19:11.579 --> 00:19:13.119 important for him at the Bauhaus, didn't it? 00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:16.940 Hugely important. He saw the circle, no beginning, 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:20.819 no end, as the most peaceful shape. And crucially, 00:19:20.859 --> 00:19:23.839 he felt it represented the human soul. The soul. 00:19:23.980 --> 00:19:26.859 How so? Like it's a perfect, complete, self -contained 00:19:26.859 --> 00:19:31.660 form floating peacefully within the chaos of 00:19:31.660 --> 00:19:33.819 the universe. And you see this shift reflected. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:37.019 Directly in his paintings from this time. More 00:19:37.019 --> 00:19:39.900 geometry. Clearly. His style becomes much more 00:19:39.900 --> 00:19:42.380 precise. Lots of circles, angles, straight lines, 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:45.599 grids. A great example is Yellow Red Blue from 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:48.980 1925. A painting, right. Huge, two meters wide. 00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:52.440 And it really shows how he's moved on from, say, 00:19:52.579 --> 00:19:55.119 the Russian constructivists who were more focused 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:57.980 on pure utility. What's going on in it? You've 00:19:57.980 --> 00:20:00.279 got the main elements, a big vertical yellow 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:03.039 rectangle, this inclined red cross shape, and 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:06.039 a large dark blue circle, those primary color 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:08.160 shape pairings he theorized about. But it's not 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:10.680 just those three shades. No, it's complex. They're 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:12.500 set against this background filled with other 00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:14.460 things, winding black lines, little scattered 00:20:14.460 --> 00:20:16.900 circles, checkerboard patterns. It's not simple. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.200 What's the effect? It forces you to look deeper, 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:22.319 as he said. It's not about just identifying yellow, 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:24.900 rectangle, blue, circle. It's about feeling the 00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:27.339 tension and the harmony between all these different 00:20:27.339 --> 00:20:29.559 elements, the colors, the lines, the shapes, 00:20:29.619 --> 00:20:32.039 all interacting on the canvas. And while he was 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:34.779 deep in teaching and theory at the Bauhaus, he 00:20:34.779 --> 00:20:37.180 was still connected internationally. Yes. He 00:20:37.180 --> 00:20:40.099 helped start another group, Die Blauvier, the 00:20:40.099 --> 00:20:43.640 Blue Four, in 1923. With Klee and Feininger. 00:20:43.740 --> 00:20:46.859 And Alex Yovanyolansky. This was mainly for promotion. 00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:49.880 outside Germany, especially in the U .S., a dealer 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:52.559 named Galka Shire really championed them, bringing 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:55.539 their European abstract art to America. But this 00:20:55.539 --> 00:20:58.259 whole period of intense creativity and theoretical 00:20:58.259 --> 00:21:00.859 work at the Bauhaus, it was happening against 00:21:00.859 --> 00:21:02.559 a darkening political background in Germany. 00:21:02.740 --> 00:21:05.720 Increasingly so. The rising right wing, and especially 00:21:05.720 --> 00:21:08.920 the Nazis, hated the Bauhaus. They saw it as 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:12.240 degenerate, un -German, communist, Jewish, all 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:14.480 their usual smears. So the school was under pressure. 00:21:14.660 --> 00:21:17.220 Constant pressure. It was forced to move first 00:21:17.220 --> 00:21:20.460 from Weimar to Dessau in 1925, then again to 00:21:20.460 --> 00:21:23.240 Berlin in 1932, trying to survive. But they couldn't 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:26.839 escape the Nazis. Ultimately, no. After a massive 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:28.980 smear campaign and direct government pressure 00:21:28.980 --> 00:21:31.680 from the Nazis who had taken power, the Bauhaus 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:33.779 was finally forced to dissolve itself in July 00:21:33.779 --> 00:21:37.380 1933. And for Kandinsky and many others. It meant 00:21:37.380 --> 00:21:41.160 exile. He had to leave Germany, which led him 00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:43.400 to France for the final chapter of his life. 00:21:43.559 --> 00:21:46.720 So Kandinsky ends up in France, near Paris, in 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:49.940 Neuilly -sur -Seine from 1934. And this starts 00:21:49.940 --> 00:21:52.660 his final period, right? the great synthesis 00:21:52.660 --> 00:21:55.059 that's what it's often called because he really 00:21:55.059 --> 00:21:57.180 starts integrating everything the expressive 00:21:57.180 --> 00:21:59.980 color from his early russian days the spirituality 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:03.079 from theosophy and the geometric rigor from the 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:06.069 bauhaus How did his style change in this final 00:22:06.069 --> 00:22:09.009 phase? It softened again, in a way. He moved 00:22:09.009 --> 00:22:10.549 away from the really strict Bauhaus geometry 00:22:10.549 --> 00:22:13.089 and started using what are called biomorphic 00:22:13.089 --> 00:22:15.890 forms. Biomorphic. Meaning, like, shapes derived 00:22:15.890 --> 00:22:18.369 from life, but not literal representations. They 00:22:18.369 --> 00:22:20.349 often look sort of like microscopic organisms 00:22:20.349 --> 00:22:23.690 or amoebas, embryos, tiny sea creatures, supple, 00:22:23.690 --> 00:22:25.990 curvy, non -geometric outlines. What was he going 00:22:25.990 --> 00:22:28.130 for with those? It seems like he was searching 00:22:28.130 --> 00:22:31.569 for universal life forms, the absolute basic 00:22:31.569 --> 00:22:34.970 building blocks of existence, almost like painting 00:22:34.970 --> 00:22:37.109 life seen under a microscope. And the color. 00:22:37.210 --> 00:22:39.569 The color compositions often consciously recalled 00:22:39.569 --> 00:22:42.309 Slavic folk art, those bright colors he loved 00:22:42.309 --> 00:22:45.029 from his youth. So a real fusion of his Russian 00:22:45.029 --> 00:22:47.549 roots and all his theoretical development. And 00:22:47.549 --> 00:22:49.690 he used black differently too, didn't he? Yes, 00:22:49.690 --> 00:22:52.289 black became very important, but not just as 00:22:52.289 --> 00:22:55.230 closure like in his earlier theory. He used it 00:22:55.230 --> 00:22:59.119 more as a... cosmic background a void which made 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:01.500 the bright biomorphic forms floating within it 00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:03.960 seen even more vibrant. And he experimented with 00:23:03.960 --> 00:23:07.089 texture, adding sand. Occasionally, yes. Mix 00:23:07.089 --> 00:23:09.670 sand with the paint to get this granular, earthy, 00:23:09.670 --> 00:23:12.509 rustic texture, adding another physical dimension 00:23:12.509 --> 00:23:15.009 to the abstract space. And his last major works 00:23:15.009 --> 00:23:17.829 come from this period. His final two big compositions, 00:23:18.190 --> 00:23:21.430 Composition IX from 1936 with these strong diagonal 00:23:21.430 --> 00:23:23.569 lines pointing towards a kind of embryo shape 00:23:23.569 --> 00:23:26.990 in the center, and then Composition X in 1939. 00:23:27.289 --> 00:23:30.099 What's that one like? It's majestic, like fragments 00:23:30.099 --> 00:23:33.299 of stars or colorful filaments bursting and floating 00:23:33.299 --> 00:23:35.559 against this deep, infinite black background. 00:23:35.779 --> 00:23:38.779 It feels very cosmic. He actually became a French 00:23:38.779 --> 00:23:42.119 citizen that same year, in 1939. But even in 00:23:42.119 --> 00:23:43.900 France, he couldn't escape the shadow of the 00:23:43.900 --> 00:23:46.720 Nazis. No. His work was prime target for them. 00:23:46.839 --> 00:23:49.359 It was prominently featured in that infamous 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:52.299 degenerate art exhibition they staged in 1937. 00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:54.839 What did they show? Various pieces, including 00:23:54.839 --> 00:23:58.359 a painting from 1916 called Zweier Leirot, which 00:23:58.359 --> 00:24:01.559 is now considered lost. For the Nazis, his art, 00:24:01.660 --> 00:24:04.400 driven by inner necessity, was just proof of 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:07.380 weakness, intellectual rot, degeneracy, and the 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:09.779 physical destruction was devastating. When the 00:24:09.779 --> 00:24:12.500 Nazis raided the Bauhaus earlier, in the 30s... 00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:14.519 They confiscated his work. They confiscated his 00:24:14.519 --> 00:24:16.960 first three compositions. Think about that. The 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:19.539 absolute pinnacles of his breakthrough into expressive 00:24:19.539 --> 00:24:22.019 abstraction, gone. They were later destroyed 00:24:22.019 --> 00:24:24.059 during World War II. too, an unbelievable loss 00:24:24.059 --> 00:24:26.599 for art history. Just tragic. Yeah. But despite 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:28.940 those losses, his importance today is undeniable, 00:24:29.059 --> 00:24:30.579 right? You just have to look at the art market. 00:24:30.700 --> 00:24:33.019 Absolutely. His auction prices consistently reflect 00:24:33.019 --> 00:24:35.799 his status as a giant of modern art. Any specific 00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:39.200 examples? Well, back in 2012, one of his early 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:41.700 expressionist studies, Study for Improvisation 00:24:41.700 --> 00:24:47.000 8 from 1909, sold for $23 million. Wow. And more 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:50.960 recently, 2016, a big Bauhaus -era abstract, 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:56.130 Rigide... Courbet from 1935 went for $23 .3 million. 00:24:56.529 --> 00:24:58.349 And that one has an interesting history too. 00:24:58.490 --> 00:25:01.369 It does. Solomon R. Guggenheim himself bought 00:25:01.369 --> 00:25:03.569 that painting directly from Kandinsky back in 00:25:03.569 --> 00:25:06.410 1936. Shows that major collectors recognized 00:25:06.410 --> 00:25:09.289 his importance very early on. But that connection 00:25:09.289 --> 00:25:11.609 to the pre -war and war era also brings complications, 00:25:11.869 --> 00:25:15.259 doesn't it? the issue of Nazi -looted art. Yes, 00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:17.980 that's an unavoidable and important part of his 00:25:17.980 --> 00:25:20.400 legacy now. We have to look impartially at the 00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:22.440 claims that have emerged against museums holding 00:25:22.440 --> 00:25:25.119 works acquired during that period. It highlights 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:27.200 the moral complexities. Have there been significant 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:29.619 cases involving Kandinsky's work? There have. 00:25:29.799 --> 00:25:31.339 There was a claim against the Beiler Foundation 00:25:31.339 --> 00:25:34.400 over Improvisation No. 10 related to its post 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:36.440 -war history, which was eventually settled. But 00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:38.279 the most high -profile one recently involved 00:25:38.279 --> 00:25:41.029 a painting called Painting with Houses. Yes, 00:25:41.089 --> 00:25:43.690 that case got a lot of attention. The painting 00:25:43.690 --> 00:25:46.369 originally belonged to a Jewish family, the Leuensteins. 00:25:46.750 --> 00:25:49.490 It ended up with the city of Amsterdam in 1940, 00:25:49.869 --> 00:25:52.890 right after the Nazi occupation began. And the 00:25:52.890 --> 00:25:55.369 family's heirs tried to get it back? For years. 00:25:55.569 --> 00:25:58.130 There were legal battles. Court rulings initially 00:25:58.130 --> 00:26:00.390 allowed the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam to 00:26:00.390 --> 00:26:02.869 keep it, arguing it was hard to definitively 00:26:02.869 --> 00:26:05.849 prove it was a forced sale under duress. But 00:26:05.849 --> 00:26:08.950 that changed. Yes, the moral argument eventually 00:26:08.950 --> 00:26:12.299 won out. In 2021, the Amsterdam City Council 00:26:12.299 --> 00:26:14.759 revisited the case and decided to return the 00:26:14.759 --> 00:26:17.460 painting to the Leunstein heirs. They acknowledged 00:26:17.460 --> 00:26:19.980 the impossible situation Jews faced under Nazi 00:26:19.980 --> 00:26:23.299 occupation and the moral weight attached to acquisitions 00:26:23.299 --> 00:26:26.099 from that time. It's a powerful reminder that 00:26:26.099 --> 00:26:28.500 the history behind the art matters just as much 00:26:28.500 --> 00:26:30.539 as the art itself, where it's a price tag. Absolutely. 00:26:30.619 --> 00:26:32.180 The market value doesn't erase the historical 00:26:32.180 --> 00:26:35.640 context. Hashtag tech tech outro. So as we wrap 00:26:35.640 --> 00:26:37.759 up this deep dive on Kandinsky, I mean, the main 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:39.599 takeaway seems pretty clear. He wasn't just splashing 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:42.279 paint. He was like the chief architect of abstraction. 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:45.460 He really was. He fundamentally changed the game, 00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:48.160 didn't he? He proved that abstract art wasn't 00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:51.380 just about making pretty patterns. It was serious, 00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:56.420 spiritual, logical, all driven by that core idea. 00:26:56.680 --> 00:26:59.420 Inner necessity. And his life itself was just 00:26:59.420 --> 00:27:02.019 constant movement geographically. Russia, Germany. 00:27:02.549 --> 00:27:06.630 France. And artistically, Impressionism, Fauvism, 00:27:06.910 --> 00:27:09.069 Blue Writer Expressionism, Bauhaus Geometry, 00:27:09.289 --> 00:27:11.569 that final synthesis. It shows that listening 00:27:11.569 --> 00:27:13.849 to that inner voice, that inner necessity, it's 00:27:13.849 --> 00:27:16.210 maybe the toughest path, the most demanding critic 00:27:16.210 --> 00:27:18.890 you can have. So let's go back one last time 00:27:18.890 --> 00:27:22.589 to his idea of the artist as a prophet, standing 00:27:22.589 --> 00:27:24.230 at the top of that pyramid, seeing the future. 00:27:24.309 --> 00:27:26.569 Right. He predicted that what seemed inconceivable 00:27:26.569 --> 00:27:28.910 yesterday would become normal today. And his 00:27:28.910 --> 00:27:31.619 work is proof. that radical abstraction is now 00:27:31.619 --> 00:27:34.779 in every major museum, sells for millions. It 00:27:34.779 --> 00:27:37.720 became conceivable, even necessary. So what does 00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:39.500 that mean for us looking around today? Well, 00:27:39.559 --> 00:27:41.200 it makes you wonder, doesn't it, what revolutionary, 00:27:41.420 --> 00:27:44.039 maybe totally confusing abstract forms are being 00:27:44.039 --> 00:27:47.180 created right now, maybe in AI art or weird complex 00:27:47.180 --> 00:27:50.619 music or even theoretical physics that seem baffling 00:27:50.619 --> 00:27:53.000 today. But might actually define how we understand 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:56.359 beauty or truth a generation from now. Exactly. 00:27:57.420 --> 00:28:00.440 What new kind of non -recognition like Kandinsky 00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:03.420 felt with Monet are you experiencing today? What 00:28:03.420 --> 00:28:06.440 confusing thing might turn out to be tomorrow's 00:28:06.440 --> 00:28:09.000 big revelation, tomorrow's splendor? Something 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:10.799 to definitely think about. Keep that question 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:13.440 with you. Yeah. Thank you for joining us for 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:14.019 The Deep Dive.