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Gregg S. Reed

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Drawing Assignment by Vasilii Kandinsky

Drawing Assignment by Vasilii Kandinsky
Drawing Assignment by Vasilii Kandinsky

(JPEG) I photographed a drawing that has been on my living room wall for many years. It is the result of a drawing assignment that my teacher at the University of Minnesota adopted from Vasilii Kandinsky.

Drawing Assignment by Vasilii Kandinsky | Media List

  • icon Drawing Assignment by Vasilii Kandinsky

    (JPEG) I photographed a drawing that has been on my living room wall for many years. It is the result of a drawing assignment that my teacher at the University of Minnesota adopted from Vasilii Kandinsky.



Statement

In 1974 my main drawing teacher at the University of Minnesota, Lynn Gray, gave our class the assignment to follow a set of instructions expressed as rules from Vasilii Kandinsky, I remember. In the class, the students did not give the source of the instructions much attention. The rules indicated what direction each line should run in each cell of the drawing. At the time, I was not aware of Kandinsky's teachings, although I had bought a small square book in full color with a plastic-covered white cover in a tightly fitted colored box about Klee and Kandinsky in high school, which was the first fine art book I read. I worked all night on following the rules specifically, but they allowed a latitude of creativity. By the middle of the night, the drawing on my drawing table was livlier than the rigorous instructions made me expect. When I displayed the drawing in class, Lynn Gray called it a "noble" drawing. Years later, I have become familiar with the art of the Russian and eastern European avant garde. In the mid-1990's I displayed the drawing above a table for two at the Muddy Waters Cafe in a show of my art collection. I was called in to install more, as a crew arrived to film an Oldsmoble commercial there. Maybe the drawing can continue to hold my attention.

Reviews

"a noble drawing."--Lynn Gray, studio arts professor, University of Minnesota

"a significant drawing"--Peter Seitz, design professor, Minneapolis College of Art and Design