Avant-Garde an Analysis of Duchamp and Kandinsky

Avant-Garde

An Analysis of Duchamp and Kandinsky

This paper discusses the relationship of Marcel Duchamp's 1917 Dada "sculpture," or "found art" Fountain and Wassily Kandinsky's 1923 abstract portrait On White II. Duchamp's Fountain, a urinal on which he simply painted the signature "R. Mutt" before displaying it at the Society for Independent Artists exhibit in New York. Made of porcelain and designed to be used as a urinal, Duchamp used it to illustrate the absurdist principles that governed the Dada movement. Kandinsky's On White II, on the other hand, is an oil-on-canvas (105 x 98 cm) that goes beyond surrealism to portray the abstract, spiritual side of things.

Duchamp's Fountain may be considered "avant-garde" because it was certainly a new and original way of expressing the absurdism of the Dada movement. In fact, it was so "avant-garde" that it upset many of the followers of Dada, and Duchamp promptly quit the movement following the exhibition. The urinal was supposed to be an anti-aesthetic, as was another piece of "readymade" art that Duchamp found: a bottle-rack. His Dada art was avant-garde because it literally illustrated the absurdity of Dada; however, the absurdists of Dada did not appreciate the illustration: they took themselves more seriously than that; -- they were looking for aesthetics. By dumping aesthetics for ironic statement, Duchamp broke with past, present and future artists -- Duchamp rejected it all.

Kandinsky's On White II is avant-garde because it helped pioneer the abstract movement that propelled modern artists through the 20th century. It broke down conventional patterns and representations in its attempt to represent the spiritual, abstract principles of the world.

If Duchamp was rejecting all art (criticism) by submitting a urinal to an exhibit, Wassily Kandinsky was doing just the opposite -- buying into it. Kandinsky started off his art career somewhat late -- he was first a lawyer -- and when he entered the art world, it was through very vibrant and colorful pointillist portraits. Inspired, however, by the impressionism of Monet, Kandinsky ventured into the expressionist movement and into the abstract, of which On White II is a prime example.

Kandinsky's On White II represents the resiliency of the avant-garde style -- despite the kind of absurdist criticism brought forward by Duchamp. On White is dynamic, abstract, and full of energy. If it rejects anything of old traditions, it is merely the presence of an obvious narrative. Kandinsky's abstract painting soaks up the subjective character of modernism, but boldly proclaims its life through the interaction of line and color. It goes even beyond the confines of surrealism to pure abstraction. It disregards absurdity and avant-garde cynicism, as expressed by Fountain, and attempts to represent in abstract form the "spirit" of art. For Kandinsky art was primarily concerned with the "spiritual" side of life, not the "physical." Kandinsky stated as much in his book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Unlike Duchamp, there was nothing absurdist about Kandinsky.