Biomorphic themes from “Parisian period”.

01/05/2015

Though Kandinsky had to leave Germany in 1933 because of political leverage, he did not allow predominating depressive prewar mood enter his works. His Parisian paintings are marked with a lighter palette and appearance of “organic” elements. He deviates from rough Bauhaus geometrics and tends towards softer and more pliable forms, which maybe occurred under the influence of Parisian School surrealists such as Joan Miro and Jean Arp.

During the first years of Parisian period Kandinsky also experimented with sand and other techniques which were popular among Parisian painters in the 30-s (see the work “Accompanied Contrast”, 1935).

It is worth mentioning that the painter himself denied the influence of surrealists on his own works. Vivian Barnett, an art historian writes that this transition to biomorphic abstraction was made due to the painter’s interest in organic sciences, in particular embryology, zoology and botany. Even while working in Bauhaus Kandinsky studied microorganisms and insects both with the help of scientific periodicals and a microscope doing his own researches. There are several important handbooks and encyclopedias with illustrations owned by him, where he could draw inspiration for creating his biomorphic and abstract experiments. In the upper right corner of the picture “Dominant Curve” (1936) we can see something resembling a pink embryo, while in the upper left corner against the green background there is a semblance of marine microorganisms. Perhaps such floating biomorphic images in pastel colors can be interpreted as signs of optimistic view to the future, hope for postwar rebirth and renovation.