The Bear 1907

Here's Kandinsky, going way back, before he became fully abstract, making ‘The Bear’ with these incredible, luminous colors. You can see the brushstrokes, each mark seems intuitively placed, defining the shapes of the figures and the landscape, like puzzle pieces clicking together. I imagine Kandinsky, brush in hand, wrestling with the canvas, pushing and pulling the paint, guided by some inner rhythm. What was he thinking as he laid down these strokes of green, brown, and blue? Did he feel like he was wrestling a bear himself? I keep thinking about that big black bear, the way it dominates one side of the canvas. Then, the man with the pitchfork and the young girl huddling nearby. What are they feeling? Maybe they are scared. Maybe they are interested. Artists are always talking to each other, across time and space, inspiring each other to see and feel in new ways. For Kandinsky, painting was a way of making abstract his inner feelings. So the painting remains open, alive with possibility, inviting us to bring our own stories and experiences to it.