Klänge Pl.13 1913

Klänge Pl.13 is a woodcut by Wassily Kandinsky, and the way he's carved these blocks feels so intuitive. There is a real sense of him working by feel, responding to the material. The color palette is limited – blues, purples, oranges, browns – but it's how he uses them that's interesting. The textures he coaxes out of the wood grain give this such a handmade feel. Look at that brown shape, almost like a raft, and the way the grain runs through it. You can almost feel the knife moving through the wood, digging in and gouging out. It is this combination of flat areas with expressive textures that makes this work so visually interesting. There's a definite relationship with German Expressionism, but it's also pointing towards something else, something more abstract. This piece feels like a conversation.