Landscape with Rain 1913

Wassily Kandinsky made this untitled painting of a landscape with rain using oil on canvas sometime in the first half of the 20th century. The image is awash with blocks of color, like an approaching storm front seen through a heat haze. I’m drawn to the way he approaches paint, almost like watercolor, in these translucent layers and overlapping pools of color. It feels both immediate and inevitable, like the painting came together through a series of intuitive decisions. Look at the way the black vertical lines bleed into the ochre field behind, giving the impression of a downpour. The texture isn’t particularly thick or worked; rather, it feels more like the paint was allowed to flow and find its own way. For me, this speaks to a belief in the inherent qualities of the medium, letting the process guide the final image. It reminds me a little of Arthur Dove, another artist who found a way to capture the feeling of a place through pure color and form. But in the end, it’s all Kandinsky, with his own unique blend of intuition and intention.