Nina Kandinsky in Akhtyrka 1917

Curator: Ah, a bright veranda scene. "Nina Kandinsky in Akhtyrka", painted in 1917 by Wassily Kandinsky. Editor: It strikes me as incredibly peaceful. Almost idyllic, but with this underlying buzz—a nervous energy. You can practically hear the cicadas in the background! Curator: The composition is so fascinating here, especially in relation to his other, later, abstract work. See how he anchors it with this geometric perspective of the table and the porch structure? But the forms of the figures and garden are less defined. There is also this impasto that provides the texture; the materiality further enlivens what otherwise might appear an ordinary domestic scene. Editor: Almost as if he is about to pull away, and turn the scene behind the figures and on the table into pure emotion—something elemental about that contrast between his subjects. I almost feel the pressure on him, a tension of memory—maybe even an unwillingness to confront these concrete shapes—and I feel drawn to consider the significance of this year, 1917. So much turbulence in Russia… Kandinsky would leave soon, wouldn't he? It is almost like the idyllic setting exists separate from these world events. Curator: Precisely! This period reflects the artist attempting to reconcile representational form with his burgeoning impulse toward abstraction. Notice the flattened picture plane and how color begins to operate more independently, liberated from its descriptive role? You can begin to detect inchoate forms and chromatic tensions foreshadowing his later geometric abstractions. Editor: It's really kind of poignant seeing him at this crossroads. We understand it today from the other end—the pure abstraction is here already but yet just latent—and here you just can't but pause for reflection on the tension embedded there by Kandinsky's expressionism. What an invitation, for all of us, to witness such tension. Curator: Well said. The piece gives insight into the restless innovation, doesn't it, even amid moments of calm observation. Editor: True, and that stillness itself feels full of anticipation for what’s just beyond the veranda's edge.