Tunis – Strand 1905

Wassily Kandinsky made this painting of a beach in Tunis with oil on canvas, and you can see how it came into being through the shifting, intuitive marks. I sympathize with him, standing there with his easel, trying to capture the light and the feel of the place. He's put down these strokes of pale yellows and blues with little daubs of brighter colors like the ochre and red. Look at the way the sky meets the sea, with those horizontal bands of color. It's like he's trying to flatten the space, bringing everything up to the surface of the canvas. I wonder if he was thinking about the Fauves when he made this. There's something about the way he's used color that reminds me of them. It's like he's pushing the boundaries of representation, trying to find a new way of seeing. And that's what painting is all about, isn't it? It's about artists engaging in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, and allowing for multiple interpretations.