Kandinsky, Matisse and Malevich

            ï»¿According to Wassily Kandinsky: Ê»An artist who sees that the imitation of natural appearances, however artistic, is not for him, the kind of creative artist who wants to express his own inner world, sees with envy how naturally and easily such goals can be attained in music, the least material of the arts today. It is understandable if he turns towards it and tries to find the same means in his own art. Hence the current search for rhythm in painting, for mathematical, abstract construction, the value placed today upon the repetition of colored tones, the way colors are set in motion.ʼ .
             Abstract art, is an art form not containing an image of the outside world. It has no starting or ending point in nature. "The artist no longer names, he expresses. It is for the spectator to catch, by his own reactions, the significance of what is expressed"1. According to Kandinsky, as stated, expressing one's own inner world is more meaningful, than to imitate nature. He also states that such goals can be easily attained in music. Therefore he believes artists have turned to musical qualities such as rhythm, mathematical, abstract construction and repetition. .
             It is questionable as to how successfully Kandinsky, and other creative artists have in fact, incorporated these elements into art of the painting form and have triumphed in expressing their own inner world. Viewing one's inner "necessity" poured onto a canvas, it cannot be expected of the evoked emotion to be unambiguous. Although Kandinsky and Malevich, as will be discussed later on, have pertained to the same goal, of expressing deeper and higher theories, they have explored and approached the idea in differing paths; approached, yet not reached. .
             The need to express an image through simpler means began when Henry Matisse tried to explore how far the image can be pared down, without destroying its basic properties. He used the rhythmic arrangement of line and color on a flat plane, thus reducing the image to a mere surface ornament.