Kandinsky - Landscape With Red Spots, 1913
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Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of
abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...
in
western art The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period bet ...
. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in
Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
, where he graduated from Odessa Art School. He enrolled at the
University of Moscow Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...
, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession, he was offered a professorship (chair of
Roman Law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...
) at the
University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.
(today Tartu, Estonia). Kandinsky began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30. In 1896, Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying first at
Anton Ažbe Anton Ažbe (30 May 1862 – 5 or 6 August 1905) was a Slovene realist painter and teacher of painting. Ažbe, crippled since birth and orphaned at the age of eight, learned painting as an apprentice to Janez Wolf and at the Academies in Vienn ...
's private school and then at the
Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...
. During this time, he was first the teacher and then the partner of German artist
Gabriele Münter Gabriele Münter (19 February 1877 – 19 May 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding mem ...
. He returned to Moscow in 1914 after the outbreak of World War I. Following the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
, Kandinsky "became an insider in the cultural administration of
Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (, born ''Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov''; – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissariat for Education, People's Commissar (minister) of Education, as well ...
" and helped establish the Museum of the Culture of Painting. However, by then, "his spiritual outlook... was foreign to the argumentative materialism of Soviet society" and opportunities beckoned in Germany, to which he returned in 1920. There, he taught at the
Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
school of art and architecture from 1922 until the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
closed it in 1933. He then moved to France, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and producing some of his most prominent art. He died in
Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...
in 1944.


Early life

Kandinsky was born in Moscow, the son of Lidia Ticheeva and Vasily Silvestrovich Kandinsky, a tea merchant. One of his great-grandmothers was Princess Gantimurova. Kandinsky learned from a variety of sources while in Moscow. He studied many fields while in school, including law and economics. Later in life, he would recall being fascinated and stimulated by colour as a child. His fascination with colour symbolism and psychology continued as he grew. In 1889, at age 23, he was part of an
ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
research group that travelled to the
Vologda Vologda (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda (river), Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. Population: The city serves as ...
region north of Moscow. In ''Looks on the Past'', he relates that the houses and churches were decorated with such shimmering colours that upon entering them, he felt that he was moving into a painting. This experience, as well as his study of the region's folk art (particularly the use of bright colours on a dark background), were reflected in much of his early work. A few years later, he first likened painting to composing music in the manner for which he would become noted, writing "Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmony, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul". Kandinsky was also the uncle of Russian-French philosopher
Alexandre Kojève Alexandre Kojève (born Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kozhevnikov; 28 April 1902 – 4 June 1968) was a Russian-born French philosopher and international civil service, civil servant whose philosophical seminars had some influence on 20th-century Frenc ...
(1902–1968).


Artistic periods

Kandinsky's creation of abstract work followed a long period of development and maturation of intense thought based on his artistic experiences. He called this devotion to
inner beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes them pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, art and taste are the main subjects of aesthetics, one of the fields of st ...
, fervor of spirit and spiritual desire "inner necessity"; it was a central aspect of his art. Some art historians suggest that Kandinsky's passion for abstract art began when one day, coming back home, he found one of his own paintings hanging upside down in his studio and he stared at it for a while before realizing it was his own work, suggesting to him the potential power of abstraction. In 1896, at the age of 30, Kandinsky gave up a promising career teaching law and economics to enroll in the
Munich Academy The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...
where his teachers would eventually include
Franz von Stuck Franz Ritter von Stuck (February 23, 1863 – August 30, 1928), born Franz Stuck, was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, and architect. Stuck was best known for his paintings of ancient mythology, receiving substantial critical acclaim with ...
. He was not immediately granted admission and began learning art on his own. That same year, before leaving Moscow, he saw an exhibit of paintings by
Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
. He was particularly taken with the impressionistic style of '' Haystacks''; this, to him, had a powerful sense of colour almost independent of the objects themselves. Later, he would write about this experience: Kandinsky was similarly influenced during this period by
Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
's ''
Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wo ...
'' which, he felt, pushed the limits of music and melody beyond standard lyricism. He was also spiritually influenced by
Madame Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian-born mystic and writer who emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international foll ...
(1831–1891), the best-known exponent of
theosophy Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
. Theosophical theory postulates that creation is a geometrical progression, beginning with a single point. The creative aspect of the form is expressed by a descending series of circles, triangles, and squares. Kandinsky's book ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art'' (1910) and ''Point and Line to Plane'' (1926) echoed this theosophical tenet. Illustrations by John Varley in ''
Thought-Forms ''Thought-Forms: A Record of Clairvoyant Investigation'' is a Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophical book compiled by Theosophical Society Adyar, Theosophical Society members Annie Besant, A. Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater, C. W. Leadbeater ...
'' (1901) influenced him visually.


Metamorphosis

In the summer of 1902, Kandinsky invited
Gabriele Münter Gabriele Münter (19 February 1877 – 19 May 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding mem ...
to join him at his summer painting classes just south of Munich in the Alps. She accepted the offer and their relationship became more personal than professional. Art school, usually considered difficult, was easy for Kandinsky. It was during this time that he began to emerge as an art theorist as well as a painter. The number of his existing paintings increased at the beginning of the 20th century; much remains of the landscapes and towns he painted, using broad swaths of colour and recognisable forms. For the most part, however, Kandinsky's paintings did not feature any human figures; an exception is ''Sunday, Old Russia'' (1904), in which Kandinsky recreates a highly colourful (and fanciful) view of peasants and nobles in front of the walls of a town. ''Couple on Horseback'' (1907) depicts a man on horseback, holding a woman as they ride past a Russian town with luminous walls across a blue river. The horse is muted while the leaves in the trees, the town, and the reflections in the river glisten with spots of colour and brightness. This work demonstrates the influence of
pointillism Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism ...
in the way the depth of field is collapsed into a flat, luminescent surface.
Fauvism Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...
is also apparent in these early works. Colours are used to express Kandinsky's experience of subject matter, not to describe objective nature. Perhaps the most important of his paintings from the first decade of the 1900s was '' The Blue Rider'' (1903), which shows a small cloaked figure on a speeding horse rushing through a rocky meadow. The rider's cloak is medium blue, which casts a darker-blue shadow. In the foreground are more amorphous blue shadows, the counterparts of the fall trees in the background. The blue rider in the painting is prominent (but not clearly defined), and the horse has an unnatural gait (which Kandinsky must have known) . This intentional disjunction, allowing viewers to participate in the creation of the artwork, became an increasingly conscious technique used by Kandinsky in subsequent years; it culminated in the abstract works of the 1911–1914 period. In ''The Blue Rider'', Kandinsky shows the rider more as a series of colours than in specific detail. This painting is not exceptional in that regard when compared with contemporary painters, but it shows the direction Kandinsky would take only a few years later. From 1906 to 1908, Kandinsky spent a great deal of time travelling across Europe (he was an associate of the
Blue Rose A blue rose is a flower of the genus ''Rosa'' (family Rosaceae) that presents blue-to-violet pigmentation instead of the more common red, white, or yellow, through use of artificial means such as dyes. Blue roses are often used to symbolize myst ...
symbolist group of Moscow) until he settled in the small
Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
n town of Murnau. In 1908, he bought a copy of ''
Thought-Forms ''Thought-Forms: A Record of Clairvoyant Investigation'' is a Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophical book compiled by Theosophical Society Adyar, Theosophical Society members Annie Besant, A. Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater, C. W. Leadbeater ...
'' by
Annie Besant Annie Besant (; Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was an English socialist, Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist and campaigner for Indian nationalism. She was an arden ...
and
Charles Webster Leadbeater Charles Webster Leadbeater (; 16 February 1854 – 1 March 1934) was a member of the Theosophical Society, Co-Freemasonry, an author on occult subjects, and the co-initiator, with J. I. Wedgwood, of the Liberal Catholic Church. Orig ...
. In 1909, he joined the
Theosophical Society The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S.A. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the ...
. ''The Blue Mountain'' (1908–1909) was painted at this time, demonstrating his trend toward abstraction. A mountain of blue is flanked by two broad trees, one yellow and one red. A procession, with three riders and several others, crosses at the bottom. The faces, clothing, and saddles of the riders are each a single color, and neither they nor the walking figures display any real detail. The flat planes and the contours also are indicative of Fauvist influence. The broad use of color in ''The Blue Mountain'' illustrates Kandinsky's inclination toward an art in which colour is presented independently of form, and in which each color is given equal attention. The composition is more planar; the painting is divided into four sections: the sky, the red tree, the yellow tree, and the blue mountain with the three riders. File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1901 - Akhtyrka.jpg, ''Akhtyrka'', 1901,
Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing the Städtische Galerie (English: Municipal Gallery) art museum in Munich's ''Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between ...
, Kunstarealm, Munich File:Kandinsky Sunday.jpg, ''Sunday (Old Russian)'', 1904,
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located a ...
, Rotterdam File:Kandinsky - Lied (Chanson), 1906.png, ''Lied'' (''Chanson''), 1906 File:Wassily Kandinsky - Reitendes Paar - GMS 26 - Lenbachhaus.jpg, ''Couple on Horseback'', 1906–07,
Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing the Städtische Galerie (English: Municipal Gallery) art museum in Munich's ''Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between ...
, Munich File:Blue Mountain by Vasily Kandinsky, 1908-09.JPG, ''Blue Mountain'', 1908–09,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...
, New York File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1908 - Houses in Munich.jpg, ''Houses in Munich'', 1908,
Von der Heydt Museum The Von der Heydt Museum is a museum in Wuppertal, Germany. The Von der Heydt Museum includes works by artists from the 17th century to the present time. History The museum is housed in the former city hall of Elberfeld, which in 1902 became ...
, Wuppertal File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1909 - Murnau train et château.jpg, ''Murnau, train & castle'', 1909,
Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing the Städtische Galerie (English: Municipal Gallery) art museum in Munich's ''Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between ...
, Munich


Blue Rider Period (1911–1914)

Kandinsky's paintings from this period are large, expressive coloured masses evaluated independently from forms and lines; these serve no longer to delimit them, but overlap freely to form paintings of extraordinary force. Music was important to the birth of abstract art since it is abstract by nature; it does not try to represent the exterior world, but expresses the inner feelings of the soul in an immediate way. Kandinsky sometimes used musical terms to identify his works; he called his most spontaneous paintings "improvisations" and described more elaborate works as "compositions." In addition to painting, Kandinsky was an art theorist; his influence on the history of
Western art The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period bet ...
stems perhaps more from his theoretical works than from his paintings. He helped found the
Neue Künstlervereinigung München The Neue Künstlervereinigung München (N.K.V.M.), ("New Artists' Association Munich") was an Expressionism art group based in Munich. The registered association was formed in 1909 and prefigured ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider), the first ...
(Munich New Artists' Association), becoming its president in 1909. However, the group could not integrate the radical approach of Kandinsky (and others) with conventional artistic concepts and the group dissolved in late 1911. Kandinsky then formed a new group, ''The Blue Rider'' (''
Der Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (''The Blue Rider'') was a group of artists and a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name ...
'') with like-minded artists such as
August Macke August Robert Ludwig Macke (3 January 1887 – 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly activ ...
,
Franz Marc Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (8 February 1880 – 4 March 1916) was a German painter and printmaking, printmaker, one of the key figures of German Expressionism. He was a founding member of ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider), a journal whose ...
,
Albert Bloch Albert Bloch (August 2, 1882 – March 23, 1961) was an American Modernist artist and the only American artist associated with Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group of early 20th-century European modernists. Biography Bloch was born on ...
, and
Gabriele Münter Gabriele Münter (19 February 1877 – 19 May 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding mem ...
. The group released an almanac (''The Blue Rider Almanac'') and held two exhibits. More of each were planned, but the outbreak of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in 1914 ended these plans and sent Kandinsky back to Russia via Switzerland and Sweden. His writing in ''The Blue Rider Almanac'' and the treatise "On the Spiritual in Art" (which was released in 1910) were both a defence and promotion of abstract art and an affirmation that all forms of art were equally capable of reaching a level of spirituality. He believed that colour could be used in a painting as something autonomous, apart from the visual description of an object or other form. These ideas had an almost-immediate international impact, particularly in the English-speaking world. As early as 1912, ''On the Spiritual in Art'' was reviewed by
Michael Sadleir Michael Sadleir (25 December 1888 – 13 December 1957), born Michael Thomas Harvey Sadler, was a British publisher, novelist, book collector, and Bibliography, bibliographer. Biography Michael Sadleir was born in Oxford, Oxford, England, the ...
in the London-based ''Art News.'' Interest in Kandinsky grew quickly when Sadleir published an English translation of ''On the Spiritual in Art'' in 1914. Extracts from the book were published that year in
Percy Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited '' Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ...
's periodical ''
Blast Blast or The Blast may refer to: *Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner *Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front *A planned explosion in a mine, ...
,'' and
Alfred Orage Alfred Richard Orage (22 January 1873 – 6 November 1934) was a British influential figure in socialist politics and modernist culture, now best known for editing the magazine '' The New Age'' before the First World War. While he was working a ...
's weekly cultural newspaper ''
The New Age ''The New Age'' was a British weekly magazine (1894–1938),credited as a major influence on literature and the arts during its heyday from 1907 to 1922, when it was edited by Alfred Richard Orage. It published work by many of the chief politi ...
''. Kandinsky had received some notice earlier in Britain, however; in 1910, he participated in the Allied Artists' Exhibition (organised by
Frank Rutter Francis Vane Phipson Rutter (17 February 1876 – 18 April 1937)"Rutter, Frank V. P.", ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007. Retrieved froukwhoswho8 August 2008. was a British art art critic, c ...
) at London's
Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...
. This resulted in his work being singled out for praise in a review of that show by the artist Spencer Frederick Gore in ''The Art News''. Sadleir's interest in Kandinsky also led to Kandinsky's first works entering a British art collection; Sadleir's father, Michael Sadler, acquired several wood-prints and the abstract painting ''Fragment for Composition VII'' in 1913 following a visit by father and son to meet Kandinsky in Munich that year. These works were displayed in
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
, either in the university or the premises of the
Leeds Arts Club The Leeds Arts Club was founded in 1903 by the Leeds primary school teacher Alfred Orage and Holbrook Jackson, a lace merchant and freelance journalist, and was one of the most advanced centres for modernist thinking, radical thought and experim ...
, between 1913 and 1923. File:Untitled (First Abstract Watercolor) by Wassily Kandinsky.jpg, Untitled ''First Abstract Watercolor'', 1910–1913,
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
, Paris File:Kandinsky - Die Kuh PA291123.jpg, ''The Cow'', 1910,
Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing the Städtische Galerie (English: Municipal Gallery) art museum in Munich's ''Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between ...
, Munich File:Kandinsky Study for Improvisation V MIA 67342.jpg, ''Study for Improvisation V'', 1910 File:Wassily Kandinsky, 1911, Reiter (Lyrishes), oil on canvas, 94 x 130 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.jpg, ''Lyrical'', 1911 File:Vassilly Kandinsky, 1912 - Landscape With Two Poplars.jpg, ''Landscape With Two Poplars'', 1912 File:Vassily kandinsky, con l'arco nero, 1912.JPG, ''Mit Dem Schwarzen Bogen'', 1912,
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
, Paris File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1913 - Landscape With Red Spots.jpg, '' Landscape with Red Spots, No 2'', 1913 File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1913 - Color Study, Squares with Concentric Circles.jpg, ''Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles'', 1913 File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1913 - Composition 6.jpg, ''Composition 6'', 1913 File:W. Kandinsky - Bild mit rotem Fleck.jpg, ''Painting with a Red Stain'', 1914


Return to Russia (1914–1921)

From 1918 to 1921, Kandinsky was involved in the cultural politics of Russia and collaborated in art education and museum reform. He painted little during this period, but devoted his time to artistic teaching with a program based on form and colour analysis; he also helped organize the
Institute of Artistic Culture The Institute of Artistic Culture ( abbreviated to ИНХУК/INKhUK) was a theoretical and research based Russian artistic organisation founded in March Moscow in 1920 and continuing until 1924. Origins It was established under the authority of th ...
in Moscow (of which he was its first director). His spiritual, expressionistic view of art was ultimately rejected by the radical members of the institute as too individualistic and bourgeois. In 1921, Kandinsky was invited to go to Germany to attend the
Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
of
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...
by its founder, architect
Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...
.


Back in Germany and the Bauhaus (1922–1933)

In May 1922, he attended the
International Congress of Progressive Artists International Congress of Progressive Artists was organised by Young Rhineland (Junge Rheinland), with help from the November Group, the Darmstadt Secession and the Dresden Secession in Düsseldorf, 29-31 May 1922. The aim of creating an intern ...
and signed the "Founding Proclamation of the Union of Progressive International Artists". Kandinsky taught the basic design class for beginners and the course on advanced theory at the
Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
; he also conducted painting classes and a workshop in which he augmented his colour theory with new elements of form psychology. The development of his works on forms study, particularly on points and line forms, led to the publication of his second theoretical book (''Point and Line to Plane'') in 1926. His examinations of the effects of forces on straight lines, leading to the contrasting tones of curved and angled lines, coincided with the research of Gestalt psychologists, whose work was also discussed at the Bauhaus. Geometrical elements took on increasing importance in both his teaching and painting—particularly the circle, half-circle, the angle, straight lines and curves. This period was intensely productive. This freedom is characterised in his works by the treatment of planes rich in colours and gradations—as in ''Yellow – red – blue'' (1925), where Kandinsky illustrates his distance from the
constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...
and
suprematism Suprematism () is an early 20th-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstract art based upon "the supremacy of p ...
movements influential at the time. The ''Yellow – red – blue'' (1925) of several main forms: a vertical yellow rectangle, an inclined red cross and a large dark blue circle; a multitude of straight (or sinuous) black lines, circular arcs, monochromatic circles and scattered, coloured checker-boards contribute to its delicate complexity. This simple visual identification of forms and the main coloured masses present on the canvas is only a first approach to the inner reality of the work, whose appreciation necessitates deeper observation—not only of forms and colours involved in the painting but their relationship, their absolute and relative positions on the canvas and their harmony. Kandinsky was one of ''Die Blaue Vier'' (''The Blue Four''), which was a group that was formed in 1923 with
Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
,
Lyonel Feininger Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger (; July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City. In 1887 h ...
and
Alexej von Jawlensky Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (; 13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941), surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expressionist painter active in Germany. He was a key member of the New Munich Artist's Association ( Neue Künstlervereinigung ...
at the instigation of
Galka Scheyer Galka Scheyer (born Emilie Esther Scheyer; 15 April 1889, Braunschweig – 13 December 1945, Los Angeles) was a German-American painter, art dealer, art collector, and teacher. She was the founder of the "Blue Four," an artists' group that consi ...
, who promoted their work in the United States from 1924 onward. Due to right-wing hostility, the Bauhaus left Weimar for
Dessau Dessau is a district of the independent city of Dessau-Roßlau in Saxony-Anhalt at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the ''States of Germany, Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Until 1 July 2007, it was an independent ...
in 1925. Following a Nazi smear campaign, the Bauhaus left Dessau in 1932 for Berlin, where it remained until its dissolution in July 1933. Kandinsky then left Germany, settling in Paris. File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1922 - Kleine Welten I (new file).jpg, ''Small worlds I'', 1922,
National Gallery of Denmark National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
, Copenhagen File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1923 - On White II.jpg, '' On White II'', 1923,
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
, Paris File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1923 - Circles in a Circle.jpg, ''Circles in a Circle'', 1923,
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
, Philadelphia File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1926 - Several Circles, Gugg 0910 25.jpg, ''Several Circles'', 1926,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...
, New York City File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1927 - Molle rudesse.jpg, ''Soft Hard'', 1927 File:Wassily Kandinsky - Inner Alliance - 1929.jpg, ''Inner Alliance'', 1929,
Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...
, Vienna


Great Synthesis (1934–1944)

Living in an apartment in Paris, Kandinsky created his work in a living-room studio. Biomorphic forms with supple, non-geometric outlines appear in his paintings—forms which suggest microscopic organisms but express the artist's inner life. Kandinsky used original colour compositions, evoking Slavic popular art. He also occasionally mixed sand with paint to give a granular, rustic texture to his paintings. This period corresponds to a synthesis of Kandinsky's previous work in which he used all elements, enriching them. In 1936 and 1939, he painted his final two major compositions, the type of elaborate canvases he had not produced for many years. ''Composition IX'' has highly contrasted, powerful diagonals whose central form gives the impression of an embryo in the womb. Small squares of colours and coloured bands stand out against the black background of ''Composition X'' as star fragments (or filaments), while enigmatic
hieroglyph Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...
s with pastel tones cover a large maroon mass which seems to float in the upper-left corner of the canvas. In Kandinsky's work, some characteristics are obvious, while certain touches are more discreet and veiled; they reveal themselves only progressively to those who deepen their connection with his work. He intended his forms (which he subtly harmonised and placed) to resonate with the observer's soul. File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1935 - Brown with supplement.jpg, ''Brown with supplement'', 1935,
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located a ...
, Rotterdam File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1936 - Composition IX.jpg, ''Composition IX'', 1936,
Musée national d'art moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou. In 2021 it ranked 10th in the list of ...
, Paris File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1939 - Composition 10.jpg, ''Composition X'', 1939,
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the ''K20'' at Grabbeplatz, the ''K21'' in th ...
, Düsseldorf File:Kandinsky - Various Actions, 1941.jpg, ''Various Actions'', 1941,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...
, New York File:Vassily kandinsky, cerchio e quadrato, 1943.JPG, ''Circle and Square'', 1943,
Musée national d'art moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou. In 2021 it ranked 10th in the list of ...
, Paris


Kandinsky's conception of art


The artist as prophet

Writing that "music is the ultimate teacher", Kandinsky embarked upon the first seven of his ten ''Compositions''. The first three survive only in black-and-white photographs taken by fellow artist and friend
Gabriele Münter Gabriele Münter (19 February 1877 – 19 May 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding mem ...
. ''Composition I'' (1910) was destroyed by a British air raid on the city of Braunschweig in Lower Saxony on the night of 14 October 1944. While studies, sketches, and improvisations exist (particularly of ''Composition II''), a Nazi raid on the Bauhaus in the 1930s resulted in the confiscation of Kandinsky's first three ''Compositions''. They were displayed in the state-sponsored
Degenerate Art exhibition The Degenerate Art exhibition () was an art exhibition organized by Adolf Ziegler and the Nazi Party in Munich from 19 July to 30 November 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, confiscated from German museums, and was staged in count ...
and were then destroyed (along with works by
Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
,
Franz Marc Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (8 February 1880 – 4 March 1916) was a German painter and printmaking, printmaker, one of the key figures of German Expressionism. He was a founding member of ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider), a journal whose ...
and other modern artists). Fascinated by
Christian eschatology Christian eschatology is a minor branch of study within Christian theology which deals with the doctrine of the "last things", especially the Second Coming of Christ, or Parousia. The word eschatology derives from two Greek roots meaning "last ...
and the perception of a coming New Age, a common theme among Kandinsky's first seven ''Compositions'' is the
apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...
(the end of the world as we know it). Writing of the "artist as prophet" in his book, ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art'', Kandinsky created paintings in the years immediately preceding World War I showing a coming cataclysm which would alter individual and social reality. Having a devout belief in
Orthodox Christianity Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
, Kandinsky drew upon the biblical stories of Noah's Ark,
Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...
and the whale, Christ's
resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...
, the
four horsemen of the Apocalypse The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible, a piece of apocalypse literature attributed to John of Patmos, and generally regarded as dating from about AD 95. Similar allusions a ...
in the
book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...
, Russian folktales and the common mythological experiences of death and rebirth. Never attempting to picture any one of these stories as a narrative, he used their veiled imagery as symbols of the archetypes of death–rebirth and destruction–creation he felt were imminent in the pre-
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
world. As he stated in ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art'' (see below), Kandinsky felt that an authentic artist creating art from "an internal necessity" inhabits the tip of an upward-moving pyramid. This progressing pyramid is penetrating and proceeding into the future. What was odd or inconceivable yesterday is commonplace today; what is ''avant garde'' today (and understood only by the few) is common knowledge tomorrow. The modern artist–prophet stands alone at the apex of the pyramid, making new discoveries and ushering in tomorrow's reality. Kandinsky was aware of recent scientific developments and the advances of modern artists who had contributed to radically new ways of seeing and experiencing the world. ''Composition IV'' and later paintings are primarily concerned with evoking a spiritual resonance in viewer and artist. As in his painting of the apocalypse by water (''Composition VI''), Kandinsky puts the viewer in the situation of experiencing these epic myths by translating them into contemporary terms (with a sense of desperation, flurry, urgency, and confusion). This spiritual communion of viewer-painting-artist/prophet may be described within the limits of words and images.


Artistic and spiritual theorist

As the ''
Der Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (''The Blue Rider'') was a group of artists and a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name ...
Almanac'' essays and theorising with composer
Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...
indicate, Kandinsky also expressed the communion between artist and viewer as being available to both the senses and the mind (
synesthesia Synesthesia (American English) or synaesthesia (British English) is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People with sy ...
). Hearing tones and chords as he painted, Kandinsky theorised that (for example), yellow is the colour of middle C on a brassy trumpet; black is the colour of closure, and the end of things; and that combinations of colours produce vibrational frequencies, akin to chords played on a piano. In 1871 the young Kandinsky learned to play the piano and cello. Kandinsky also developed a theory of geometric figures and their relationships, claiming (for example) that the circle is the most peaceful shape and represents the human soul. These theories are explained in ''Point and Line to Plane''. Kandinsky's legendary stage design for a performance of
Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (; ; ; – ) was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five (composers), The Five." He was an innovator of Music of Russia, Russian music in the Romantic music, Romantic period and strove to achieve a ...
's ''
Pictures at an Exhibition ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' is a piano suite in ten movements, plus a recurring and varied Promenade theme, written in 1874 by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky. It is a musical depiction of a tour of an exhibition of works by architect and ...
'' illustrates his synesthetic concept of a universal correspondence of forms, colors and musical sounds. In 1928, the stage production premiered at a theater in Dessau. In 2015, the original designs of the stage elements were animated with modern video technology and synchronized with the music according to the preparatory notes of Kandinsky and the director's script of Felix Klee. In another episode with Münter during the Bavarian
abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...
years, Kandinsky was working on ''Composition VI''. From nearly six months of study and preparation, he had intended the work to evoke a flood, baptism, destruction, and rebirth simultaneously. After outlining the work on a mural-sized wood panel, he became blocked and could not go on. Münter told him that he was trapped in his intellect and not reaching the true subject of the picture. She suggested he simply repeat the word ''uberflut'' ("deluge" or "flood") and focus on its sound rather than its meaning. Repeating this word like a mantra, Kandinsky painted and completed the monumental work in a three-day span.


Signature style

Wassily Kandinsky's art has a confluence of music and spirituality. With his appreciation for music of his times and kinesthetic disposition, Kandinsky's artworks have a marked style of expressionism in his early years. But he embraced all types of artistic styles of his times and his predecessors i.e.
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
(sinuous organic forms), Fauvism and
Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (''The Blue Rider'') was a group of artists and a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name ...
(shocking colours),
Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
(mystery) and Bauhaus (
constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...
) only to move towards abstractionism as he explored spirituality in art. His object-free paintings display spiritual abstraction suggested by sounds and emotions through a unity of sensation. Driven by the Christian faith and the inner necessity of an artist, his paintings have the ambiguity of the form rendered in a variety of colours as well as resistance against conventional aesthetic values of the art world. His signature or individual style can be further defined and divided into three categories over the course of his art career: Impressions (representational element), Improvisations (spontaneous emotional reaction) and Compositions (ultimate works of art). As Kandinsky started moving away from his early inspiration from Impressionism, his paintings became more vibrant, pictographic and expressive with more sharp shapes and clear linear qualities. But eventually, Kandinsky went further, rejecting pictorial representation with more synesthetic swirling hurricanes of colours and shapes, eliminating traditional references to depth and laying out bare and abstracted glyphs; however, what remained consistent was his spiritual pursuit of expressive forms. Emotional harmony is another salient feature in the later works of Kandinsky. With diverse dimensions and bright hues balanced through a careful juxtaposition of proportion and colours, he substantiated the universality of shapes in his artworks thus paving the way for further abstraction. Kandinsky often used black in his paintings to heighten the impact of brightly coloured forms while his forms were often biomorphic approaches to bring surrealism in his art.


Theoretical writings on art

Kandinsky's analyses on forms and colours result not from simple, arbitrary idea-associations but from the painter's inner experience. He spent years creating abstract/sensorially rich paintings, working with form and colour, tirelessly observing his own paintings (along with those of other artists) and noting their effects on his sense of colour. This subjective experience is something that anyone can do—not scientific/objective observations, but inner/subjective ones, referred to by French philosopher
Michel Henry Michel Henry (; ; 10 January 1922 – 3 July 2002) was a French philosopher, phenomenologist and novelist. He wrote four novels and numerous philosophical works. He also lectured at universities in France, Belgium, the United States, and Jap ...
as "absolute subjectivity" or the "absolute phenomenological life". Published in Munich in 1911, Kandinsky's text ''Über das Geistige in der Kunst'' (''Concerning the spiritual in art'') defines three types of painting: ''impressions'', ''improvisations'' and ''compositions''. While impressions are based on an external reality that serves as a starting point, improvisations and compositions depict images emergent from the unconscious, though ''composition'' is developed from a more formal point of view.


Personal life

After graduating in 1892, Kandinsky married his cousin, Anja Chimiakina, and became a lecturer in
Jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...
at the
University of Moscow Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...
. In the summer of 1902, Kandinsky invited
Gabriele Münter Gabriele Münter (19 February 1877 – 19 May 1962) was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century. She studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky and was a founding mem ...
to join him at his summer painting classes just south of Munich in the Alps. She accepted the offer and their relationship became more personal than professional. In 1911, the German expressionist painter was one of several artists joining Kandinsky in his ''Blue Rider'' (''
Der Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (''The Blue Rider'') was a group of artists and a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name ...
'') group, which ended with the onset of World War I. Kandinsky and Münter became engaged in the summer of 1903 while he was still married to Anja and travelled extensively through Europe, Russia and North Africa until 1908. He separated from Anja in 1911. From 1906 to 1908, Kandinsky travelled across Europe. In 1909, Münter bought a summerhouse in the small Bavarian town of Murnau and the couple happily entertained colleagues there. The property is still known as Russenhaus and she would later use the basement to hide many works (by Kandinsky and others) from the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
. Upon returning to Munich, Kandinsky founded the Neue Kunstler Vereinigung (New Artists' Association) in 1909. He returned to Moscow in 1914 when the first World War broke out. The relationship between Kandinsky and Münter worsened due to mutual tensions and disappointments over his lack of commitment to marriage. Their relationship formally ended in 1916 in Stockholm. In 1916, he met Nina Nikolaevna Andreevskaya (1899–1980), whom he married on 11 February 1917 when she was 17 or 18 and he was 50 years old. At the end of 1917, they had a son, Wsevolod, or Lodya as he was called in the family. Lodya died in June 1920 and there were no more children. After the Russian Revolution, he had opportunities in Germany, to which he returned in 1920. There, he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then moved to France with his wife, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and producing some of his most prominent art. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 13 December 1944.


Art market

In 2012,
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
auctioned Kandinsky's ''Studie für Improvisation 8 (Study for Improvisation 8)'', a 1909 view of a man wielding a broadsword in a rainbow-hued village, for $23 million. The painting had been on loan to the
Kunstmuseum Winterthur The Kunst Museum Winterthur (The Winterthur Museum of Art) is an art museum in Winterthur, Switzerland run by the local ''Kunstverein''. From its beginnings, the activities of the Kunstverein Winterthur were focused on contemporary art – first ...
in Switzerland since 1960 and was sold to a European collector by the Volkart Foundation, the charitable arm of the Swiss commodities trading firm Volkart Brothers. Before this sale, the artist's last record was set in 1990 when
Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
sold his ''Fugue'' (1914) for $20.9 million. On 16 November 2016,
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
auctioned Kandinsky's ''Rigide et courbé'' (''Rigid and bent''), a large 1935 abstract painting, for $23.3 million, a new record for Kandinsky.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Solomon Robert Guggenheim (February 2, 1861 – November 3, 1949) was an American businessman in needlework, gold, silver, copper, and lead and an art collector. He is best known for establishing the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Sol ...
originally purchased the painting directly from the artist in 1936, but it was not exhibited after 1949; it was then sold at auction to a private collector in 1964 by the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...
.


Nazi-looted art

In July 2001, Jen Lissitzky, the son of artist
El Lissitzky El Lissitzky (, born Lazar Markovich Lissitzky , ; – 30 December 1941), was a Soviet Jewish artist, active as a painter, illustrator, designer, printmaker, photographer, and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, h ...
, filed a restitution claim against the
Beyeler Foundation The Beyeler Foundation or Fondation Beyeler, with its museum in Riehen, near Basel (Switzerland), owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler, which features modern and traditional art. The Beyeler Foundation museum includes ...
in Basel, Switzerland for Kandinsky's ''Improvisation No. 10''. A settlement was reached in 2002. In 2013, the Lewenstein family filed a claim for the restitution of Kandinsky's ''Painting with Houses'' held by the
Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
. In 2020, a committee established by the Dutch minister of culture found fault with the behaviour of the Restitution Committee, causing a scandal where two of its members, including its chairman, resigned. Later that year, a court in Amsterdam ruled that the Stedelijk Museum could retain the painting from the Jewish Lewenstein collection despite the Nazi theft. However, in August 2021, the Amsterdam City Council decided to return the painting to the Lewenstein family. In 2017, Robert Colin Lewenstein, Francesca Manuela Davis and Elsa Hannchen Guidotti filed suit against Bayerische Landesbank (BLB) for the restitution of Kandinsky's '' Das Bunte Leben.''


See also

*
Bibliothèque Kandinsky The Kandinsky Library (or ''Bibliothèque Kandinsky'' in French) is a library of 20th and 21st century visual arts located at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, France. It also serves as the Documentation and Research Centre of the French National Mus ...
*
Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
's ''
Theory of Colours ''Theory of Colours'' () is a book by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about the poet's views on the nature of colours and how they are perceived by humans. It was published in German in 1810 and in English in 1840. The book contains detailed descri ...
'' * Kandinsky and Theosophy *
Kandinsky Prize The Kandinsky Prize, named after Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky is an award sponsored by the Deutsche Bank AG and the Art Chronika Culture Foundation. It was organized in hopes of developing Russian contemporary art, and to reinforce the stat ...
*
List of Russian artists This is a list of Russian artists. In this context, the term "Russian" covers the Russian Federation, Soviet Union, Russian Empire, Tsardom of Russia and Grand Duchy of Moscow, including ethnic Russians and people of other ethnicities living in Rus ...
*
Russian avant-garde The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...
*
Wassily Chair The Wassily Chair, also known as the Model B3 chair, was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925–1926 while he was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at the Bauhaus, in Dessau, Germany. Despite popular belief, the chair was not designed sp ...


Notes


References

Note: Several sections of this article have been translated from its French version: ''Theoretical writings on art'', ''The Bauhaus'' and ''The great synthesis'' artistic periods. For complete detailed references in French, see the original version at :fr:Vassily Kandinsky.


Citations


Books by Kandinsky

* Wassily Kandinsky, M. T. Sadler (Translator), Adrian Glew (Editor). ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art''. (New York: MFA Publications and London: Tate Publishing, 2001). 192 pp. * Wassily Kandinsky, M. T. Sadler (Translator). ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art''. Dover Publ. (Paperback). 80 pp. . or: Lightning Source Inc Publ. (Paperback). * Wassily Kandinsky. Klänge. Verlag R. Piper & Co., Munich * Wassily Kandinsky. ''Point and Line to Plane''. Dover Publications, New York. * Wassily Kandinsky. ''Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art''. Da Capo Press.


References in English

* Ulrike Becks-Malorny. ''Wassily Kandinsky 1866–1944: The Journey to Abstraction'' (Taschen, 2007). * John E. Bowlt and Rose-Carol Washton Long, eds. ''The Life of Vasilii Kandinsky in Russian Art: A Study of "On the Spiritual in Art" by Wassily Kandinsky''. (Newtonville, MA.: Oriental Research Partners, 1984). * Magdalena Dabrowski. ''Kandinsky Compositions''. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2002). * Esther da Costa Meyer, Fred Wasserman, eds. ''Schoenberg, Kandinsky, and the Blue Rider'' (New York: The Jewish Museum, and London: Scala Publishers Ltd, 2003). * Hajo Düchting. ''Wassily Kandinsky 1866–1944: A Revolution in Painting''. (Taschen, 2000). * Hajo Düchting. ''Wassily Kandinsky''. (Prestel, 2008). * Sabine Flach. "Through the Looking Glass", in ''Intellectual Birdhouse'' (London: Koenig Books, 2012). * Will Grohmann. ''Wassily Kandinsky: Life and Work''. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1958). *
Michel Henry Michel Henry (; ; 10 January 1922 – 3 July 2002) was a French philosopher, phenomenologist and novelist. He wrote four novels and numerous philosophical works. He also lectured at universities in France, Belgium, the United States, and Jap ...
. ''Seeing the Invisible: On Kandinsky'' (Continuum, 2009). * Thomas M. Messer. ''Vasily Kandinsky''. (New York: Harry N Abrams Inc, 1997). (Illustrated). . * Margarita Tupitsyn. ''Against Kandinsky'' (Munich: Museum Villa Stuck, 2006). * Annette and Luc Vezin. ''Kandinsky and the Blue Rider'' (Paris: Pierre Terrail, 1992). * Julian Lloyd Webber. "Seeing red, looking blue, feeling green", ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' 6 July 2006. * Peg Weiss. ''Kandinsky in Munich: The Formative Jugendstil Years'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979).


References in French

* Michel Henry. ''Voir l'invisible. Sur Kandinsky'' (Presses Universitaires de France) * Nina Kandinsky. ''Kandinsky et moi'' (éd. Flammarion) * Jéléna Hahl-Fontaine. ''Kandinsky'' (Marc Vokar éditeur) * François le Targat. ''Kandinsky'' (éd. Albin Michel, les grands maîtres de l'art contemporain) * ''Kandinsky. Rétrospective'' (Foundation Maeght) * ''Kandinsky. Œuvres de Vassily Kandinsky (1866–1944)'' (Centre Georges Pompidou)


External links


Video remake
of the stage production of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Kandinsky in 1928 in Dessau, 2015.
Wassily Kandinsky papers, 1911–1940
The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California. * Discussion of ''Yellow – Red – Blue'' by
Janina Ramirez Janina Sara Maria Ramirez (; ' Maleczek; born 7 July 1980), sometimes credited as Nina Ramirez, is a British art historian, cultural historian, and TV presenter. She specialises in interpreting symbols and examining works of art within their h ...
and Marc Canham
Art Detective Podcast, 19 April 2017

Kandinsky's Introspective Path to Abstract Reality
* ;Writing by Kandinsky * * * * ;Paintings by Kandinsky *

Wassily Kandinsky at ArtCyclopedia
Glyphs.com
Kandinsky's compositions with commentary
Wassilykandinsky.net
– 500 paintings, 60+ photos, biography, quotes, articles {{DEFAULTSORT:Kandinsky, Wassily 1866 births 1944 deaths Russian abstract painters Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni Russian art educators Academic staff of the Bauhaus Immigrants to the German Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Naturalized citizens of France Russian modern painters Moscow State University alumni Artists from Moscow Russian Expressionist painters Painters from the Russian Empire Gantimurov family Russian Orthodox Christians from Russia Printmakers from the Russian Empire Watercolorists from the Russian Empire Burials at Neuilly-sur-Seine community cemetery Artists from Odesa Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany 20th-century Russian male artists 20th-century Russian painters French Expressionist painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists