This piece that I found from the Museum of Modern Art is called “Picture with an Archer” by Vasily Kandinsky. The work was created in 1909, in Germany. Vasily Kandinsky, also known as Wassily Kandinsky, was a Russian painter and art theorist. He was one of the pioneers of abstract modern art, and the first modern artist to paint an entirely abstract piece. Kandinsky was an important figure who followed the Expressionism movement. In the Expressionism movement, an important theme was to use color and form to create an artistic experience that capture the sound, and emotions of the public.

I was drawn to this piece because it was aesthetically pleasing. It caught my attention at first glance because of its range of colors and creativity. All the colors in this piece are so vibrant that it’s hard to tell what’s going on in this piece. He uses an array of vivid, yet dark-ish colors, including blue, orange, red, pink, yellow, and green. Because of its vibrant paint and abstraction, it sparked my curiosity and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was going on in the piece. After a little bit of research, I found that the scene in this piece is set in his Russia, though he was living in Germany at the time. On the left, you can see men in Russian dress, on the right a horseman with a bow. Behind them are trees and a house. They all seem to be on hills or mountains.

You can tell from this painting that Kandinsky is not trying to paint a realistic objective scene, but rather trying to express emotion/thoughts. He tries to achieve this by distortion, exaggeration, and a dynamic application of his colors. His style is very bold, with lots exaggerated and swaying brushstrokes. I thought that what he was trying to convey was his emotional state of negative emotions (because of his dark colors) like anxiety and stress. I think he painted a setting of Russia even though he was living in Germany at the time to emphasize the idea of total abstraction. Because expressionism was all about the artist’s inner state and experience, copying from nature would only interfere that process.

I guess what I’m wondering about the painting is why include the the archer, Russian men in dress, and the house in the painting? What do they mean/signify?

Reference: http://www.worldsbestpaintings.net/artistsandpaintings/painting/140/