Marcel Duchamp and Vassily Kandinsky

As an aspiring art history major, I was pretty excited when I recognized some names when reading Flanagan's text. I was especially excited when I found Marcel Duchamp and Vassily Kandinsky. Though I know some of their artworks, I am not completely fluent in the movements they founded and advocated. As a result, I researched on both artists.

One of Marcel Duchamp's most famous artworks would be The Fountain, which he made in 1917. What was interesting about this piece is that it was a urinal with some words written on it. The point of the piece was to demonstrate ready-made art and how our culture since the Industrial Revolutions changed to become one with a high nature of factory-made items. This made me think about how our play has changed today from being outside in nature versus staying in and playing with our mass produced toys.

The Russian artist Vassily Kandinsky was heavily involved in the artistic movement Abstract Expressionism. A lot of the art during this period was non-representational. The use of color was very important during this time because a lot of the paintings were not exactly what they seemed. Flanagan talked about Kandinsky and his text Concerning the Spiritual in Art. While many of his works were not representational, that made the color so much more important; this is because color had the ability to evoke feelings and emotions. Therefore, the artist would be able to use this to help the viewer depict the painting.