Murnau with church I 1910

Kandinsky made this painting, Murnau with church I, sometime in the early 1900s with oil on canvas. He's really pushing and pulling at our perception of what a landscape, or even a painting, could be. Look at how the colors aren't really trying to mimic reality; they're doing their own thing. The paint application is so direct, you can almost see him making each stroke, each decision. I find myself drawn to the top-right corner, where the dark blue peeks out from behind the white and pale yellow forms. It's like a glimpse into another world, or maybe just another layer of the painting. Kandinsky reminds me a little of Arthur Dove, pushing abstraction while still winking at the landscape. These artists invite us to see beyond the surface, to feel the painting as much as we look at it.