SOURCE: "Kandinsky at the Klavier: Stevens and the Musical Theory of Wassily Kandinsky," in The Wallace Stevens Journal Vol. 16, No. 2, Fall, 1992, pp. 151-60.

In the following essay, Faherty explores Wallace Stevens's interest in Kandinsky's work.

In June 1952, Stevens wrote to the Irish poet and art historian Thomas McGreevy:

It made Kandinsky for me. I had not seen much of his work up to then and certainly not enough to make it possible to see it as a minor cosmos, which it is. It is the sort of thing that is wholly esthetic and wholly delightful. And from that point of view it seemed valid. (Brazeau)

While it is clear from this comment to McGreevy that Stevens was by no means unfamiliar with the Russian painter, it is also clear that he had been reserving his judgment on Kandinsky's achievement until he had had a chance to see a...