Improvisation 19 1911

Wassily Kandinsky made this oil on canvas called Improvisation 19. Look at those blues washing into each other, and that great big whoop of a black line swooping across the top. What’s that? An eclipse? A tear in the cosmos? It must have been a wild ride to make this painting, with Kandinsky slinging paint, maybe dancing around the canvas, feeling those colors vibrate against each other. I think he's really feeling it; he wants to express something beyond what we already know. Those heavy, drippy black lines feel like they’re holding everything together, even as the colors threaten to explode. There is a real energy in the work, as if the painting is always moving. That's the thing about painting, isn't it? It's like a conversation that never ends, with artists riffing off each other across time, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways.