The Aesthetics of Composition in Abstract Artwork: June 2006

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Artwork of the month: Kandinsky's Compositions

Kandinsky painted ten compositions, as he saw everything else as a study leading up to these ten pure works. Unfortunately the first three compositions were destroyed in World War II. Fuck you Hitler. You want a reason to stop war, be outraged at the destruction of these masterworks.

Kandinsky has always been my largest influence. These works were planned out as complete statements, pure works of emotion, philosophy, and spirituality. For Kandinsky, each one of these were the peaks of his work in the moment he created them.

I have had the luck to be able to view most of them.

"Composition IV"

1911, oil on canvas

Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

"Composition V"

1911, oil on canvas

Private collection

"Composition VI"

1913, oil on canvas

State Hermitage museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

"Composition VII"

1913, oil on canvas

The Tretyakov State Gallery, Moscow Russia.

I have traveled to the Guggenheim in New York many times only to spend time with this work. "Composition 8" is where I feel Kandinsky reached his top. This painting speaks to me retrospectively, and reminds me of where I am going. I will travel to see it again many times.

"Composition VII"

1923, oil on canvas

Guggenheim, New York

"Composition IX"

1936, oil on canvas

The Center Pompidou, Paris France.

"Composition X"

1939, oil on canvas

Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

These masterworks have been a major part of my education as an artist. I have always felt that I can not only relate to these works, but that I can see their truths and where Kandinsky was headed philosophically.

"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for color, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential."

-Wassily Kandinsky.

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Bowling Alley studies

For the Bowling Alley series of oil paintings, I furthered my study of the Hebrew language, the history of economic politics from the view point of Ludwig Von Mises, and the landscape of Minneapolis. These drawings are simple and helped me figure out where the paintings were going.

These were okay studies...

...I like simply working from the moment and ink leads to that.

Friday, June 2, 2006

"Bowling Alley" series of paintings

This series of paintings was created from 2000 to 2002. I worked on it at three separate studios over those three years. The first one was created surfing the Presidential election of 2000. We all knew at that moment that we were going to war in Iraq...the second G. Bush won the election. It was a seriously depressing day. The tragedy caused by Bush is felt around the globe. And we haven't even started to feel the money end of it. Mark my words...We are headed for the biggest financial crisis our nation has ever seen. All of it can be blamed on the unethical use of government to make a select few people a lot of money while everyone else is raped for every penny they own. Save every penny you make now, as you will need it when our nation's economy eventually crashes because of our illegitimate president George W. Bush.

Artists Statement

The use of title in this series is intended to present the cultural metaphor of a Bowling Alley to communicate a general view of the condition and direction of current events. If one were to look at political language as a bowling ball just released, hurtling blindly with a calculated force, and one were to look at us, the people, as pins, one might see how spin works.

Adam M. Considine 2002

Bowling Alley 1 "The Election of 2000"

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Bowling Alley 2 "The Robotic Lion"

oil on canvas

36" x 60"

Bowling Alley 3 "The Streetlight and the Machinegun"

oil on canvas

36" x 60"

Bowling Alley 4 "The Factory and its Master"

oil on canvas

36" x 48"

Bowling Alley 5 "War Crimes"

oil on canvas

20" x 80"

Bowling Alley 6 "Angel"

oil on canvas

36" x 36"

Bowling Alley 7 "The Lion"

oil on canvas

50" x 50"

(Bowling Alley #8, "Mad Cow a," is missing forever. Someone purchased it and I can't find them or remember who they were. I did not have time to take a photo when it was sold.)