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How does Blue Mountain show Wassily Kandinsky’s movement toward abstraction?
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Wassily Kandinsky
Painting with Green Center, oil on canvas by Wassily Kandinsky, 1913; in the Art Institute of Chicago.
In the painting Blue Mountain (1908–09), Wassily Kandinsky’s movement toward abstract art is clearly underway, marking a significant transition in his artistic style.1
The work demonstrates this evolution through several key characteristics:
- Schematic Forms: The objects within the painting are rendered in a simplified, schematic manner rather than through realistic representation.1
- Nonnaturalistic Color: Kandinsky employs colors that do not correspond to the natural appearance of the subjects, prioritizing emotional and expressive impact over literal depiction.1
- Dreamlike Atmosphere: The overall effect of the composition is that of a dream landscape, signaling a departure from the 19th-century realism that initially influenced his work.1
By moving away from the "distracting business of depicting recognizable objects," Kandinsky sought to develop a visual "language" of colors, lines, and shapes capable of evoking deep emotions and expressing general ideas. Blue Mountain serves as a vital step in this process, bridging his earlier influences and his eventual breakthrough into purely nonfigurative painting.1