Moscow I 1916

Wassily Kandinsky’s "Moscow I," now hanging in the Tretyakov Gallery, is an oil on canvas, and a trip! It's a kaleidoscopic jumble of blues, reds, oranges, whites. Kandinsky's marks dive and soar, building up a dense, layered surface. I can imagine him, brush in hand, circling the canvas, maybe lost in thought, maybe lost in feeling – each stroke an attempt to capture something just beyond words. That big, swooping arc at the top – is it a rainbow? A wave? And those little black dashes, are they birds taking flight, or thoughts escaping? I love how he lets the paint do its thing, not trying to control it too much, but letting it run and drip and blend. Thinking about his contemporaries and the broader sweep of art history, it is as if he's in a constant conversation with other painters, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. Here he embraces the abstract, trusting in the power of color and form to evoke emotion. It's about feeling, rather than seeing.