Kandinsky Red Square in Moscow

        

           Moscow in Red Square by Vassili Kandinsky in 1916 has a lot going on. If indeed the painting is supposed to be somehow representative of Red Square in Moscow, the viewer gets this overwhelming feeling of motion when looking at this painting. There is also a impression that the city is floating off in a universe unto itself.  The traditional rules of perspective have been broken here and the city seems to be attached to nothing, and it even seems to have little parts shooting off of it. I noticed what appeared to be the Kremlin (or so I had a hunch), a little up from the bottom on the right. In order to see what was really going on in this painting I started searching through images of Red Square, the Kremlin and Moscow on Wikipedia just looking for quick pictures. Interestingly when I look up a map of Moscow there is a circular part, in which the Red Square and the Kremlin are right in the middle of, and on the map there are a few little areas jutting out and one great big area that juts out to the south east.  In the painting we see a large yellow circle in the middle of it, with different parts jutting out.  On the bottom right we see what I believe is St. Basil Cathedral, which in real life is very colorful, and sort of reminds me of a candy shop. In the painting it is pink and yellow, so still very colorful.  If from there we move up and to the left in a sweeping circular motion, we see a white tower with a pink circle in it towards the top and a gold circle on top.  I believe this is supposed to be Spasskaya tower with it’s clock face  at the top and it’s  gold peak with a star on top, though the star was added after this painting.  Next to the tower, to the left we see three towers, which I believe represent the Assumption Cathedral.  To the left of that is the Kremlin Palace.  If we move down the painting there is something that almost looks like a road, starting towards the bottom and going off into the distance, getting narrower as it goes up and around.  It is packed with little blue and red squares.  I think this is supposed to be Red Square itself.

            While you can tell what some of these buildings are supposed to be they aren’t drawn realistically and perspective is completely thrown out the window.  The painting seems to spin in a circle, and in fact that are several things that give that impression, including the blue and orangy yellow streaks near the top.  Those streaks set the city in motion.  The birds too, simple little black  lines shaped like the letter V all throughout the sky, seem to give the impression that someone just scared them all out of the trees they were resting in, or that there is no rest, or no place for them to rest.  In the top left there some indistinguishable things going on.  Those could be waves, or it could be some sort of an explosion (I can’t imaging what that might have been in 1916), and there is a little brown S in the midst of that mess, and I can’t even begin to imagine what that might be. It could be a volcano exploding, but again, I’m not recalling anything like that, but either way it seems like there is something raining down, or shining down on the city.  There also seems to be something almost raining down on the right side too.  In the center it appears that there  is a couple, a man and a woman perhaps watching a sun rise or a sun set, which would be the giant yellow circlish shape in the center.

            From looking at Kandinsky’s painting, one is left with a feeling of Russia.  It is a feeling of busyness and motion. It is a feeling of chaos and explosion.  It is a city of crowds, especially Red Square. One can see all the sights at once, just by spinniung around.  The bright colors give the painting a happy feel.