Kandinsky, with Red Spots

Standing in front of this Kandinsky painting, I was completely drawn in. Forget about analysis for a few minutes and just look. What do you feel? A sense of hope, of excitement? Maybe a feeling of joy? That's how I felt, in any case, the first time I saw it at the Guggenheim in Venice.

I like to think about how Kandinsky communicated this spirit--each sharply drawn diagonal line works with the color around it, and the color itself becomes line, to push all that energy from the artist, into the work, and into the viewer in turn. The red at the center of the work, in the three steep mountain peaks, draws the eye in and gives you a place to center your view.The yellow lines then draw you out and up, soaring through the painted sky, while the arc at the top of the work gives you a comfortable boundary and a smooth turn to look back at the rest of the work. The colorful blobs of blue and yellow and red, and the grouped shapes in the bottom half of the work are of interest, but they are always pushing you to look back up at that bright red center.

It's a beautiful work, and one that exemplifies true Abstract Expressionism--painting with feeling that needs no further explanation.