Life in the Image. On Wassily Kandinsky’s Approach to Painting

The starting point for the analyses presented in the article is Wassily Kandinsky’s book Point and Line to Plane, considered as the basis for interpreting his oeuvre. In his introduction to the book, the artist made the distinction between two aspects of experiencing every phenomenon – external and internal. Kandinsky’s intention was to aim towards “life”, although not through a faithful reproduction of its external manifestations. The artist wanted to discover “life” in the image by going beyond the traditional, mimetic understanding of painting.

In her article, the author, on the one hand, examines Kandinsky’s aspirations to bring art closer to life by accentuating the direct influence of artistic elements, whose “inner sound” would give the impression of communing with living entities. On the other hand, she analyses the artist’s theoretical concepts and painterly output in relation to theatre and performance art, that is disciplines that involve the activity of living people surrounded by real objects.