Biomorphic themes from the “Parisian period”.
Although Kandinsky had to leave Germany in 1933 due to political pressure, he did not allow the prevailing depressive prewar mood to enter his works. His Parisian paintings are marked by a lighter palette and the appearance of "organic" elements. He moved away from the stark geometries of the Bauhaus toward softer, more pliable forms — possibly influenced by the Parisian School surrealists such as Joan Miró and Jean Arp.
During the early years of his Parisian period, Kandinsky also experimented with sand and other techniques that were popular among Parisian painters in the 1930s (see the work Accompanied Contrast, 1935).
It is worth noting that the painter himself denied any influence of the surrealists on his own work. Art historian Vivian Barnett writes that this transition to biomorphic abstraction was driven by the painter's interest in the organic sciences — in particular, embryology, zoology, and botany. Even while teaching at the Bauhaus, Kandinsky studied microorganisms and insects, both through scientific periodicals and with the help of a microscope, conducting his own research. He owned several important handbooks and encyclopedias with illustrations, from which he could draw inspiration for his biomorphic and abstract experiments.
In the upper right corner of the painting Dominant Curve (1936), we can see something resembling a pink embryo, while in the upper left corner, against a green background, there is a suggestion of marine microorganisms. Perhaps such floating biomorphic images in pastel colors can be interpreted as signs of an optimistic view of the future — a hope for postwar rebirth and renewal.
