Wassily Kandinsky 'Cossacks' Artwork

Cossacks 1910-1 Wassily Kandinsky 1866-1944 Presented by Mrs Hazel McKinley 1938 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N04948

As a group, we decided to choose Kandinsky's 'Cossacks' as the piece of art to base our video essay on. The caption 'what emotion do you feel when you think of a colour?' was particularly thought-provoking for us, all especially after learning that the artist, Wassily Kandinsky, was a synaesthete and inspired each of us to think about the challenge of portraying this 'blending of the senses' in a piece of moving image.

Cossack[kos-ak, -uh k]

noun 1.
(especially in czarist Russia) a person belonging to any of certain groups of Slavs living chiefly in the southern part of Russia in Europeand forming an elite corps of horsemen.(http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cossack)

Kandinsky's 'Cossacks' was painted in 1910–1 when he was around 45 years old, during a transitional period in Russia. He believed that through his abstract works such as this, he could portray spiritual and emotional values, using colour and lines, although this piece supposedly related directly to a point  in his life (it is interesting to note that this piece was formerly called 'Battle'). Kandinsky suggests that Cossacks is a snapshot of his view of Moscow during this revolutionary period, and each part of the painting seemingly represents different objects that he saw at this time. For example, the Russian cavalrymen in tall orange hats in the foreground of the painting, or the two horses rearing up against each other with interlocking legs. The underlying tone of conflict and violence is apparent in the piece, through the use of clashing diagonal lines and unsettling assymetry. We assume that Kandinsky's trait of being a synaesthete also influenced this text significantly, as many the abstract elements, which do not clearly relate to particular objects, can be assumed to have stemmed from Kandinsky's other senses. For instance, the rainbow may represent a collection of sounds of smells that he experienced.