Kia Vahland “True colours”

This collection of essays by Kia Vahland was first published in 2023. Vahland has extensively published on art history throughout her career and is a lecturer for art history in Munich, she is also the Artressort representative for Süddeutsche Zeitung.

This book can be understood as a companion or an examination of current events, as in the  case of Covid Crisis or the Ukraine War, which are often points of reference in the collection.

Each chapter´s title, almost like a guidance phrase, produces something unexpected from the artwork in focus, represented as a colored plate.

Although 500 years old, some painting could provide wisdom, strength or courage today. As we can learn from the various examples, humanity’s problems and issues might vary but are often similar throughout the ages.

The #Metoo- movement was startet even before 2017 on twitter. The artists Artemisia Gentileschi, was raped by another artist and could only recover herself after a trial. She depicts the trauma and terror in her famous "Susanna and the old men“. The two judges, honorable men having high status relying on their privilege could be regarded as an example of the persisting structures of society that maintain abuse of power.

Another example Vahland writes about is the idea of music and art being connected or essentially interrelated in a joint rapture. An artist that presents this idea in his works was Wassily Kandinsky, who was a big fan of Arnold Schönberg, and tried to grasp music on canvas with his synaesthesious mind.

„Guernica“ by Pablo Picasso is quite well known, depicting the horrors of the German bombardment of the Spanish town Guernica. Rather obliged is the tapiserrie replica in the UN. Headquarters in New York. At a press conference, addressing the Iraq war, the tapisserie was covered with a blue curtain, because these dark and reflecting black and white photographs depictions would be counterproductive to his appeal to justify the war. The power of images even if they are not realistic depictions, the power of art and the emotional communication via it, is undeniable.

To sum it up: This book is a great reflection on current issues, while immersing oneself in cultural and artistic heritage.

by Elisa Mirbach-Eder