Klänge Pl.11 1913

This is Wassily Kandinsky's 'Klänge Pl.11', and looking at this woodcut, I’m thinking about how the process of art-making can open up new ways of seeing and feeling. Kandinsky’s working here with just three colours, red, blue and white, forcing all the meaning out of these basic elements. Look at how he lets the white of the paper act as a kind of chaotic ground. The red and blue shapes lock together on top of the paper, like pieces of a strange puzzle. Your eye is drawn to the circle of red in the upper center, which seems to radiate energy outward, connecting all the other elements. The crude marks, like small dents in the paper, give it a tactile quality. I think of someone carving into the wood, wrestling with the material to find these essential forms, like Giacometti. It’s about embracing ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations. It becomes a space where different ways of thinking and experiencing the world can coexist, unresolved, open.