Forms and colours : Malevitch, Mondrian and Kandinsky

Résumé du document

"The representation of an object, in itself, is something that has nothing to do with art," claims Malevitch. In abstract art, there is no more representation of an object and also there is not even the conception, like there was in cubism. The object completely disappears. The abstraction of Kandinsky, Malevitch and Mondrian is complete, which would have been unimaginable a few decades before. They created something completely new.

At the first sight, their work may seem to be meaningless. But, the fact is that their paintings are not just about forms and colours. There is a theory beyond their work. They are both painters and philosophers. Before, there were academic painters who created technical miracles, but with abstraction, a global thought on the art appeared in the world. So, what are the reasons for such a radical approach to art? What are they searching through geometrical forms and colours? Bringing a change in the way of doing art, Kandinsky, Malevitch and Mondrian want to rediscover notions such as emotion, purity, nature that have been forgotten by representation.

Extraits

[...] Forms and colours: Malevitch, Mondrian and Kandinsky representation of an object, in itself, is something that has nothing to do with claims Malevitch. In abstract art, there is no more representation of an object and also there is not even the conception, like there was in cubism. The object completely disappears. The abstraction of Kandinsky, Malevitch and Mondrian is complete, which would have been unimaginable a few decades before. They created something completely new. At the first sight, their work may seem to be meaningless. [...]

[...] These choices can also show the will of Malevitch to steer clear of mysticism and of traditional symbolism. For these reasons, he applied the square and the cross that are neutral forms. According to him, this type of forms constitutes the beginning for a new form of painting. For Kandinsky, it is the point that has a particular meaning. Kandinsky has written Du point et de la ligne au Plan in 1925 to support his theory. In this essay, he explained that the point and the line are completely autonomous from anything else and that they express something without the help of any other forms or representation. [...]

[...] They searched emotions and the reality of things. These theories are expressed in their paintings through different forms and colours. Another abstract idea is that the painting has to be pure and clear. In fact, to express their philosophical ideas, they adapt forms and colours to them. Geometrical forms are chosen with care as they convey a strong meaning. Forms represent exactly what the artist wished to say, what the emotion that they wished to pass on. Several forms are rejected because they remember academic art. [...]

[...] It is a strange sensation because we know we are feeling something but it is so hard to identify. Kandinsky continued the same method with his other paintings. For instance, the painting Composition VII has an incredible strength. There is a lot of movement, lines seem to come from nowhere with violence. And the colours are precise. So, Kandinsky applied forms and colours to express different feelings, it is a real language of emotion. The artists, Mondrian, Malevitch and Kandinsky also wished to rediscover the true nature. For Malevitch, it was very simple. [...]

[...] Piet Mondrian held the most interesting theory about nature. He is the perfect example of this new type of painter-philosopher. He doesn't have an educational back ground; he is not the one whom we can call an intellectual. But he was really interested in philosophy, especially in Schoenmaekers' philosophy. Schoenmaekers claimed: want to penetrate nature so that the inside construction of reality will be revealed”. And Mondrian, in this theory, found a perfect philosophical justification to his abstract painting. Art becomes a way to represent nature with almost mathematical accuracy. [...]