Kandinsky, Composition VII
13 ways of looking at 1913
Scandals! Scandals! Scandals!
i. the Balkan wars The First Balkan War officially broke out in 1912, when Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece allied against the rule of the Ottoman Empire The territories were then divided according to the Treaty of London, the Turks losing much of their land as a result
Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy pressured the process of division, demanding Albania’s independence
Consequently, the conflict resumed to become the Second Balkan War in 1913, resulting in a militarily powerful Serbia
This outcome then served as one of the causes for the outbreak of World War I with Serbia capable of challenging the Austro-Hungarian Empire
ii. composition VII The culmination A pioneer in abstract of Kandinsky’s painting, Kandinsky idea of freely flowing forms in believed in the absence of space is depicted in the particular objects and in the Composition VII "pure" interaction of colors and forms He also emphasized the
interconnectedness between music and Music was for him the other forms of art most important one, and Composition VII was a this is partly the reason culmination, because Composition VIII, why he created a series created a decade of ten paintings entitled later, had a new, geometric vision to it Compositions
iii. the rite of spring
The Observer (1913): "Le Sacre du Printemps [The Rite of Spring]: a musical impertinence"
Stravinsky according to the Oxford Dictionary of Music: an "archrevolutionary, an iconoclast out to destroy all the most sacred canons of musical aesthetics and grammar"
The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris on 29 May, 2013, making the audience riot and leave the theater in response. The piece is a product of a masterful collaboration: the composer Igor Stravinsky (above), choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, and Diaghilev’s company Ballets Russes. It is unclear whether the dance, the costumes or the music were the reason for the outrage, but most of the witnesses, while praising the choreography of Nijinsky, mention Stravinsky’s music as a main source of their discontent.
iv. skandalkonzert 31 March, 1913, Vienna. Another riot! A concert, conducted by Arnold Schönberg (whose invention of compositional structure has inflﾟuenced Kandinsky’s paintings), had the following program: ✴
Webern: Six pieces for orchestra, op. 6
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Zemlinsky: Four Maeterlinck songs, op. 13
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Schönberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1
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Berg: Two Altenberg songs
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Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
About a month before, Schönberg gave a concert called Gurre-Lieder, which was pleasantly received by the Viennese, who were used to hearing conventional music. This means, however, that they were even less prepared for the novelty that awaited them in March.
v. totem and taboo Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics is a book that was written by Sigmund Freud in September, 1913 This is Freud’s "first work on group psychology", as well as the reason why he and Carl Jung ended their friendships In this book, Freud introduces the famous Oedipus complex and develops his idea of the moral conscience and guilt, both of which are going to appear all throughout his later works
Sigmund Freud Museum
vi. unique forms of continuity in space Umberto Boccioni, the author of this sculpture called Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, had primarily been a painter; that is, until 1912, when he saw sculptural experiments in Paris. 1913 marked the beginning of Boccioni’s series of sculptures in motion
His idea of motion is much more focused on the environment that covers the figure as it moves
For instance, the limbs of this man are not clearly demarcated and sculpted; instead, they are deformed by the wind because of the speed of his movement
This is in line with the futurists’ claim that a work of art should be "destroyed" by the future generations, rather than preserved in the museums
The sculpture was originally made of plaster, but it had been cast in bronze long after Boccioni’s death
vii. literary works The first volume of Marcel Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time" comes out. Published "at his own expense" because it was refused by the publishers, it is called Swann’s Way and contains recollections of the main character’s past. Swann’s Way brings a unique vision of the way memory works, recounting his experience of 1909 when he likened his memory to chain association
Rabindranath Tagore is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for his collection of poetry Gitanjali. While the award is always described as having been given to him because of the East-West dialogue he apparently enabled, Tagore has much more to offer as an innovative poet. He "introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit"
Franz Kafka’s The Judgement, a short story that revolves around the talk a son is having with his father, is published. In his diary after he had written this work, he states: "This story, "The Judgment," I wrote at one sitting during the night of the 22nd-23rd, from ten o’clock at night to six o’clock in the morning. <…> The fearful strain and joy, how the story developed before me, as if I were advancing over water. . . . How everything can be said, how for everything, for the strangest fancies, there waits a great fire in which they perish and rise up again. . . . Only in this way can writing be done, only with such coherence, with such a complete opening of the body and the soul. . . . Thoughts about Freud, of course" (Kafka, The Diaries, pp. 212-213)
viii. the futurists tour in Russia The tour began in Moscow’s "Hall of the Society of Art Lovers". "To promote it, Burliuk had announcements printed on toilet paper. He organized a publicity stunt: a Futurist promenade along Kuznetsky Bridge, one of Moscow’s main streets, the poets marching with dogs and airplanes painted on their faces, dressed in top hats, garish ties, and frockcoats trimmed with rags, reciting their poetry to the crowd. Mayakovsky, wearing a bright yellow shirt with a wooden spoon as a boutonnière, was a natural performer. Standing a head taller than most everyone around him <…> Mayakovsky at turns cajoled, insulted and clowned. Some were amused and curious, others confused and outraged. Fights nearly broke out, police were called in: all in all, a tremendous public relations coup"
"While on their subsequent three-month lecture tour <…> poets would sometimes begin by sitting with each other on stage, drinking tea and casually conversing, as if the audience wasn’t there. Sometimes tea would spill into the orchestra pit, sometimes onto the audience. Sometimes they would perform with a grand piano suspended over their heads. They were heckled, booed and pelted with rotten fruit and bottles"
ix. inventions Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra, a much more comfortable alternative to a corset. Unsatisfied with the way corset looks coupled with the garments that were fashionable at that time, she and her maid combined two silk handkerchiefs and a ribbon to create the very first bra
Harry Brearley accidentally invents stainless steel when working for the company in Sheffield that produced "alloys for gun barrels". Originally called "rustless steel", the Sheffield stainless steel became strategically important later in the subsequent world wars
x. suffragettes
While most of the outrageous doings have been ascribed to men so far, women, apart from inventing bras, were engaged in a series of demonstrations as well. Various movements were repeatedly organized by them in an attempt to gain the right to vote. Thus, Emily Davison, who was part of the suffrage movement, has tried to attach a scarf to one of the horses at a horse-racing event and collided with it, killing herself and leading people to believe she had sacrificed herself for the suffrage movement. This event has long embodied the desperation of women in terms of the right to vote until Davisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true intentions of peacefully tying a scarf to a horse have been found out recently.
xi. bibliography ❖
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The Balkan Wars: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/ topic/50300/Balkan-Wars http://www.siger.org/albania/en/area-5albaniabalkans-1878-1913/
centenary-of-famous-skandalkonzert/ http://www.wienerzeitung.at/_em_daten/ _cache/image/wzo/ 0xUmFuZG9tSVYwMTIzNDU2N1nidusCFN xphSs5MK7fsdxIwKG5n4kekvWFcRUsRZy3 LSnEh3MKTy8bTOfyTeoIMcRD2MieASup.jp g https://www.theriteofspringat100.org/ reflection/skandal/!
Kandinsky: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/K/ kandinsky.html http://www.glyphs.com/art/kandinsky/ https://www.moma.org/pdfs/docs/ press_archives/7322/releases/ MOMA_1995_0002_2.pdf?2010! The Rite of Spring http://www.guitardownunder.com/ stravinsky.html http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/ from-the-archive-blog/2013/mar/26/rest-isnoise-stravinsky-reviews-archive http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/ music/classicalmusic/10061574/The-Rite-ofSpring-1913-Why-did-it-provoke-a-riot.html !
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Tbe Futurists Tour in Russia http://sensitiveskinmagazine.com/ mayakovsky/!
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Inventions https://sheffieldforgemasters.com/sfm/
http://www.simskultur.net/sites/default/ files/imagecache/gallery/sites/default/ files/artikel/wartezimmerLowRes.jpg http://pastdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2013/02/sigmund-freud-1938.jpg http://www.answers.com/topic/totem-andtaboo-psychoanalysis!
Literary Works http://courses.washington.edu/freudlit/ Kafka.handout.html http://www.britannica.com/nobelprize/ article-9070917 http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/ rguides/us/swanns_way.html!
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Totem and Taboo
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object.php?object_id=81179 http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/ umberto-boccioni-unique-forms-ofcontinuity-in-space.html!
Skandalkonzert http://seenandheard-international.com/ 2013/04/vienna-musicverein-celebrates-
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Unique Forms of Continuity in Space http://www.moma.org/collection/
company-structure/history/1900s http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/jacob.html! ❖
Suffragettes http://www.theguardian.com/society/ 2013/may/26/emily-davison-suffragettedeath-derby-1913