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Guest
writer/correspondent
wtRobina—also
known in this series
as Clay
Gold—sent an
email when he was in
Paris to say he was
about to see a
Kandinsky exhibit,
“The Music of
Colors.” There
was a lot of
suspense on his side
and mine at that
prospect, and of
course I asked him
to report back. I
wasn’t
surprised that his
remarks were
personal, informed
and evocative; I was
surprised by the
extensive online
materials that
accompanied the
show. In this
Kandinsky Anew
entry, we are lucky
to have access to
both
wtRobina’s
remarks and the
show’s online
materials.
Here is the first
paragraph of the
longer introductory
texts you will find
at the link, along
with images and
multiple videos:
https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/fr/activite/exposition/28824-kandinsky?openinbrowser=true
“Rarely has
music played such an
important role in a
painter's work
as it did for
Wassily Kandinsky.
By presenting nearly
200 works and
objects from his
studio, the Musée
de la
musique-Philharmonie
de Paris and the
Musée national
d'art
moderne-Centre
Georges Pompidou
have joined forces
to reveal the
fundamental place of
music in his daily
life, in his
vocation as an
artist, and in the
evolution of his
practice towards
abstraction.”
After the show, Clay sent:
"The exhibition was good but smaller than I expected.
There was a
headset which
relayed mostly the
music of Mussorgsky
and Schoenberg, plus
some Bach and the
sounds of Russian
church bells in the
beginning. The
music/sound changed,
room by room, to
provide an
impression of the
influence of that
medium on Kandinsky
in various periods.
I enjoyed this
aspect as you can
imagine. There were
a few items from the
home/studio - see
the records and
palette in the
photos - plus a few
other bits and
pieces. It was
interesting for me
to see some of the
earlier work.
"There was also
a 3-screen digital
(animated)
representation of
the Music Room at
the Bauhaus, which
was pretty cool
combined with
appropriate music on
the
headset—you'll
have to imagine the
music.
"It
was quite well put
together and I
enjoyed learning
more about the
musical influence.
There was nothing
(or very little)
about the plays,
however, which was a
shame."
Clay also sent me
many photos he had
taken at the show.
For me, the one that
was most striking of
all—and
I’m always
hungry for Kandinsky
images I
haven’t yet
seen!—was the
vertical wall
exhibit of his vinyl
record collection!
Kandinsky’s record collection.
Photo by wtRobina
*
Scrolling down at the exhibition’s link, we find a section with the
heading, “Towards a Synthesis of the Arts,” with an image from
Kandinsky’s singular 1928 staging of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an
Exhibition.”
In 2022, this Kandinsky Anew series took on this staging with
Giovanni Vinciguerra’s engaging 3-part series, “Kandinsky Stages
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.” Here is Part 1: From
Music to Theatre to Theory
https://www.scene4.com/archivesqv6/2022/may
-2022/0522/lissatylerrenaud-k0522.html
And near the bottom of the show’s online materials, there is a
trove of video lectures and other presentations that focus on
Kandinsky’s relationships to Western music and familiar
composers.
In 2020, for this series, Nadia Podzemskaia gave us a fascinating
window onto Kandinsky’s little-known music life in Russia. Here
are names and important figures far beyond the ones familiar to
most non-Russians, suggesting whole areas missing from our
typical understanding of Kandinsky’s orientation and influences:
Kandinsky in Russia: The Language of Music
by Nadia Podzemskaia
https://www.scene4.com/archivesqv6/2020/mar
-2020/0320/lissatylerrenaud-k0320.html
*
wtRobina, Guest Writer
wtRobina is a sound engineer, poet and author with a broad
affection for the intangible, the absent, and the abandoned.
Accordingly, he writes for "The Annihilation of Disbelief" at
Substack. In a former incarnation, as Clay Gold, he co-wrote
"Parallelist" (with Laura Moody) for Aldeburgh Festival,
numerous experimental film soundtracks (for Filmgruppe Chaos),
and a graphic operator's manual entitled Operation of a Complex
Fuzzbox. His other books, including Technical Manifesto for the
Deviant Sound Engineer, can be found on Amazon.
He lives in Canterbury, Kent, in the UK.
https://wtrobina.substack.com/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TECHNICAL-MANIFESTO
-DEVIANT-SOUND-ENGINEER/dp/B09KN7W1RF
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