Complex Simple 1939

This is Wassily Kandinsky’s ‘Complex Simple’, painted in oil on canvas, although the exact date of its making is unknown. Kandinsky’s abstractions are all about feeling, and in this one, you can see how he's making a world with shapes, colors and lines. Look at how the colors are laid down, thin and watery, kind of staining the canvas. It feels like he’s building up layers of thought, each one a little transparent. And the shapes! Hard edged but also blobby and organic, like they’re breathing. There's this squiggly orange figure up top, hanging out in a green shape. It’s playful and weird, like a little dance on the canvas. Kandinsky reminds me a bit of Joan Miró, both making these visual poems that don’t quite spell anything out, but hum with meaning. It’s like they’re both onto something that words just can’t touch.