Page 201 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Influences in the Abstract Painting of Vasily Kandinsky
I
The Byzantine element in Kandinsky’s painting is a phenomenon which is frequently noted by the researches of his work. However, it is a phenomenon which hitherto has not been given the attention it truly merits. In both recent and older bibliographies we find no comprehensive or any particularly methodological enquiries into the “Byzantine Kandinsky.” Whereas, for example, with regards to Malevich there is an insightful publi- cation entitled The Byzantine Malevich, written by Yannis Ziogas and published in 2000.1 Undoubtedly, one of the main reasons for this shortcoming of the existing relevant liter- ature is the puzzling complexity that one encounters when attempting to provide a pre- cise answer to the following question: How exactly is the Byzantine element apparent in Kandinsky’s purely abstract compositions?
In this context, on a cursory glance, it may appear overly ambitious that we aim to examine the nature and extent of the influence that the aesthetics of Late Byzantine painting has exercised on Kandinsky’s artistic development. In completing this immense task, we shall be primarily aided by our collective reference to the selected visual mate- rial. Kandinsky is one of the enigmatic founder-figures of Modernism and is regarded as the father of abstract painting. In light of this fact, we shall systematically examine in this chapter those aspects of his art which, in our view, appear to discreetly conduct a significant aesthetic dialogue with Late Byzantine painting.
It is common knowledge among scholars that Kandinsky’s abstraction emerged as a result of his complex, theoretical inquiry into painting, ethnography, music, art theory, art history, and other disciplines. Notwithstanding the various influences in his work,
1 This book is written in Greek and has not yet been translated to English. See: Γιάννης Ζιώγας, Ο Βυζαντινός Μάλεβιτς (Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Στάχυ, 2000).
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