Music in Painting
The trip to the Guggenheim museum certainly enriches my experience of the exploration of modern art. I have a chance to observe many paintings painted by great artists in person rather than reading from books; it helps me to appreciate and understand these paintings better. There is one painting called composition 8, by Vasily Kandinsky, struck me and lasted in my mind for a longer time than many others paintings did. I actually learned about this painting in my art class in China several years ago, and it was a bit exciting to finally see it in person. Kandinsky emphasizes on geometric forms in this painting to establish a universal aesthetic language and to expand his own pictorial vocabulary. His belief in the expressive content of abstract forms is clearly indicated in Composition 8. The colorful, interactive geometric forms create a pulsating surface that is alternately dynamic and calm, aggressive and quiet. The importance of circles in this painting is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium. Kandinsky suggests that everything in the world exists in balance and harmony.