Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

He had turned the warm, occasionally hot colors of the earlier paintings into light, cool
greens and blues. A seemingly inextricable maze of delicately interwoven forms covered the
center of the painting. Despite its size it appeared lighter, more spacious than the previous
versions. The room was too small to see the painting from an appropriate distance.
Kandinsky took them through the house. He showed them a selection of Impressionen
painted between 1911 and 1912. He had started with representational subjects, many with a
religious content, Russian and Bavarian saints, several St. Georges. Slowly the human form
dissolved into abstract signs. A yellow cow filling most of the canvas—according to Steiner
yellow is female. Your Anima is yellow! One canvas, called Impression 19, Konzert, reminded
Alexandra of the evening at the Dahls—you are right, the black grand piano, Steiner, the
guests. Still earlier: Murnau almost fully representational—and among these smaller paintings
a dreamscape, Woman in Moscow, 1912.
A disembodied Russian woman floating above a street scene, her left arm partially
missing, the other hand holding a small dog on a flower stand, half-hidden behind the woman a
fiaker in flight, and floating suspended a large, black blob…An apparition? On the street a pink
spot. A rose? A faded puddle of blood? A discarded female napkin?
Kandinsky, Woman in Moscow
Alexandra stood rooted before the painting, magically attracted by the black blob flying
above the scene. She blurted. "Her name is Nina."
Kandinsky took a step backwards. He tucked his chin in and stared at Alexandra. "How did you
guess? Are you clairvoyant?"
"Sometimes I am, and I dislike myself for it. I met Nina in St. Petersburg many years
ago."
For the rest of the evening Kandinsky was despondent, his high spirits suddenly gone.
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