Wassily Kandinsky: Russian Expressionist Painter, Blue Rider Group 26/09/2023, 10:20

Wassily Kandinsky
Biography of Russian Colourist & Expressionist Painter.
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Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Contents

• Biography
• Early Life
• Munich Academy of Art
• Travel with Gabriele Munter
• Blue Rider Painting
• Murnau
• Blue Rider Expressionst Group (1911-14)
Autumn in Murnau (1908)
• Abstract Art
Private Collection. • Return to Russia
• Bauhaus
BEST ABSTRACT ART • Final Years: Neuilly-sur-Seine
See: Abstract Paintings: Top 100.
For a list of styles/periods, • Collections
see: Abstract Art Movements.
NOTE: For analysis of works by expressionist painters like Kandinsky,
please see: Analysis of Modern Paintings (1800-2000).

Biography

One of the greatest Russian artists of the 20th century, and a leading exponent
of Expressionism, Wassily Kandinsky was both painter and art theorist.
Together with a number of other Munich based artists, he founded the Der
Blaue Reiter art movement, one of the most influential groups of German
Expressionism. Renowned as an outstanding 20th century colourist, he had a
strong physical sensitivity to certain colours which he was able to 'hear' as well
as 'see': a condition called synaesthesia. He is also credited with creating some
of the first abstract art of the 20th century. Among his most notable works are
Blue Rider (1903, private collection), Black Frame (1922, Musee National d'Art
Moderne, Paris) and Several Circles (1926, Guggenheim Museum). He is
Bedroom in Aintmillerstrasse (1909) regarded as one of the leading expressionist painters and arguably the greatest
Lenbachhaus Gallery, Munich.
A good example of Kandinsky's of the early abstract painters. Many of Kandinsky's paintings are now available
unique use of colour in painting. online as prints in the form of poster art.

Harmony Squares With Concentric

Rings (1913) . An example of his
pioneering non-objective art, a

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Wassily Kandinsky: Russian Expressionist Painter, Blue Rider Group 26/09/2023, 10:20

form of geometric abstraction also

known as concrete art.

MODERN ARTISTS
See: Modern Artists.

RUSSIAN ARTISTS Early Life

For biographies of other painters
from Russia, Ukraine & Siberia,
see these resources: Born in Moscow, the son of a rich tea merchant, Kandinsky spent most of his
Ivan Kramskoy (1837-1887)
Russia's finest portraitist. childhood in Odessa. He learned to play several instruments as a child; music
Ilya Repin (1844-1930) in fact had a huge influence on his paintings, even down to their names like
Greatest Russian genre-painter.
Vasily Surikov (1848-1916) 'compositions' and 'improvisations'. In 1886 he enrolled in the University of
Russia's greatest history painter. Moscow to study law and economics. After successfully passing his exams, he
Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910)
Symbolist painter.
was offered a Professorship in Law, which he accepted. In 1889 he was sent on
Isaac Levitan (1860-1900) a government mission to Vologda, where, as his diary reveals, he became as
Landscape painter. interested in the art, architecture and folklore of the peasants as in studying
Valentin Serov (1865-1911)
Russia's greatest Impressionist. local laws, which was the official reason for his journey. During that trip his first
Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) entrance into an isba (a peasant house) remained fixed in his memory: on
Founder of Suprematism.
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) seeing the popular images with their vivid, primitive colours decorating the
Painter, decorative artist. walls, he had the feeling he was "walking into a painting".
MODERN ART IN RUSSIA In 1895 he attended an exhibition of Impressionism held in Moscow, and quite
For details of modern era painters,
see: Russian Painting, 19th-Century. soon thereafter decided to quit his job and move to Munich to study drawing.
He was 30 at the time. He was always fascinated by colour, even as a child. He
WORLDS TOP ARTISTS once said that his childhood memories of Moscow were of sun melting "into a
Best Artists of All Time.
single patch of colour: pistachio-green, flame-red house, churches - each
colour a song in it's own right". We see these 'patches' appearing time and
again in his work.

Munich Academy of Art

Having arrived in Munich towards the end of 1896, Kandinsky enrolled in the
Azbe art school, run by Anton Azbe (1861-1905). Here, he met Alexei von
Jawlensky (1864-1941) and Marianne von Werefkin (1870-1938). He found,
however, that the school's drawing lessons did not interest him, and for a time
he worked alone, notably on studies of landscapes. In 1900, he attended
classes at the Munich Academy under Franz von Stuck (1863-1928) - who
disapproved of his 'extravagant colours' - and met Paul Klee (1879–1940) who
become his close friend. Kandinsky's father provided his son with a generous
monthly allowance, and he settled - along with his wife - in Schwabing, the
bohemian suburb of Munich. In 1901 he co-founded the exhibiting society
Phalanx; for its first exhibition he designed a poster in a style similar to Art
Nouveau, then the dominant style in Munich. The following year he taught at
the art school run by the group. Gabriele Munter (1877-1962), one of his
pupils, became his partner until they separated during the Great War.

Travel With Gabriele Munter

Meantime, in 1903, disillusioned by the unshakeable conservatism of Munich

artistic circles, Kandinsky left Munich with Gabriele, travelling to Venice, then
Odessa and Moscow (1903), Tunis (1904), Dresden, Odessa once more, then
Italy (1905), before settling for a year at Sevres, near Paris. During this period
Kandinsky was experimenting with various methods and techniques. His native
city of Moscow often served as his inspiration, both in paintings done from
memory and those from studies or sketches from life. The latter, executed in
the old Schwabing area of Munich - where the intensity of light reminded
Kandinsky of the colours of Moscow disappointed him nonetheless, because he
seemed to be engaged in a 'fruitless attempt to capture the power of nature'.
He was also influenced by Russian folk art and the Symbolism movement.

The best of his early painting from this period include: Promenade (1901,
Goldberg Collection, Zurich); Old Town (1903, Stadtische Galerie, Munich); Old

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Town II, 1903 (Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris); The Golden Sail (1903,
Stadtische Galerie, Munich); The Blue Rider (1903, private collection) and The
Singer, (1903, Stadtische Galerie, Munich) Panic (1907, Stadtische Galerie). In
style, they are both medieval and Russian, influences that can be seen again in
his woodcuts and engravings (146 between 1902 and 1912). Like his Poems
without Words (twelve woodcuts, 1904, Moscow) and his Xylographies (five
woodcuts, 1906, Paris), these are similar to his paintings as regards 'subject'
but reveal a greater interest in colour for its own sake.

The Blue Rider Painting

One of Kandinsky's most important expressionist paintings from this era is The
Blue Rider, which shows a small cloaked figure speeding on horse through a
rocky meadow. The rider’s cloak is blue and his shadows are darker blue. The
horse has an unnatural gait, and it is not clear if the rider is carrying a child in
his arms. The idea was, Kandinsky wanted to involve the viewer in the picture,
and wanted to indicate a motion by a series of colours rather than painting
specific details. This was an early indication of the direction his painting would
take over the next few years.

Early examples of Kandinsky's portrait art include Munter Painting in Kallmunz

(1903) and Gabriele Münter (1905) - both in Stadtische Galerie, Munich; while
other examples of his landscape painting include: In the Forest (1904), Beach
Baskets in Holland (1904), Couple Riding (1906) - all in Stadtische Galerie,
Munich - and Volga Song (1906, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris, France).

Kandinsky was strongly influenced by the writings of the controversial Russian

spiritualist and thinker Helena Blavatsky (1831-91), co-founder of the
Theosophical Society which promoted Theosophy, a philosophical-religious
system which states (inter alia) that all creation is a geometrical progression,
beginning at a single point. It also states that the creative aspect of form is
expressed by a series of circles, triangles and squares. Kandinsky himself wrote
several books based on this theory.

Murnau

After returning to Munich in 1908, Kandinsky settled in Murnau with Gabriele

Munter. It was here that he made his 'leap into the abstract'. Returning to his
studio one evening, he saw, in the half-light, 'a painting of indescribable
beauty, imbued with an inner flame'. Seeing at first 'only forms and colours
whose meaning was incomprehensible', he soon recognized one of his own
paintings, standing on its side. The revelation made him realize that subjects
were harming his pictures, and, in his search for a means of expression, he
began gradually simply filling 'subjective' forms with colour, thus giving colour
its proper expressive function: (Street in Murnau with Women, 1908, Nina
Kandinsky Collection, Paris; Landscape with Bell-Tower, 1909, Musee National
d'Art Moderne, Paris).

Another important work is The Blue Mountain (1908, Guggenheim

Museum, New York). In this painting a blue mountain is flanked by
2 coloured trees, one red and one yellow. Several riders are
making their way across the bottom of the scene, their body and
clothing only indicated with a dash of colour. The colour almost
takes a life of it's own, to the point where the objects in the picture
ultimately have no part to play at all. He was moving to a point
where ultimately what was left were shades and shapes that were
no longer reminiscent of reality. Other paintings from this time
include Cemetery and Vicarage in Kochel, 1909 and Grüngasse in
Murnau, 1909 (both Stadtische Galerie, Munich).

It was around this time that he took part in the exhibition of graphic art

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organized in Dresden by the expressionist group Die Brucke (1909). Die

Brucke's members included Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Karl Schmidt-
Rottluff (1884-1976), Erich Heckel (1883-1970), as well as Emil Nolde (1867-
1956), Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Otto Mueller (1874-1930) and the
Dutchman Kees van Dongen (1877-1968). In the same year, along with his
friend Jawlensky, Kandinsky founded the society Neue Kunstlervereinigung. But
following fundamental differences over the very meaning of art, which
culminated in one of his paintings to be rejected by the society, he left the
group and formed a rival organization Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider), whose
almanac he prepared in collaboration with Franz Marc (1880-1916).

In addition, in 1910, Kandinsky exhibited at the exhibition of

European and Russian avant-garde art, staged by the Knave of
Diamonds group in Moscow. However, he did not participate in the
show held by the more insular Russian artists society called the
Donkey's Tail group, in March 1912.

Blue Rider Expressionst Group (1911-14)

The five core members of the Blue Rider group were Kandinsky and Marc,
together with Paul Klee (1879-1940), August Macke (1887-1914), and the
'Russian Matisse' - Alexei von Jawlensky (1864-1941). Other artists who
participated in Blaue Reiter exhibitions, included the Dutch artist Heinrich
Campendonk (1889-1957), Fauvists Andre Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck,
the German graphic artist Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), the avant-garde
Russians David Burlyuk (1882-1967), Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962) and
Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964), as well as Kandinsky's partner Gabriele Munter
(1887-1914). The name of the movement came from Kandinsky's 1903
painting, but was also connected to the Marc's love of horses and Kandinsky's
love for the colour blue. There was no central manifesto, and the aims of the
group varied. They were however united in their wish to use symbolic use of
colour and to take a spontaneous, intuitive approach to painting. They were
influenced by Primitivism, which was popular in Europe at the time.

The first Der Blaue Reiter exhibition opened at short notice in Munich at the
Thannhauser Gallery, in December 1911. In March 1912, it travelled to Berlin
(where it inaugurated the Sturm Gallery - the influential gallery founded by
Herwarth Walden), followed by Cologne and Frankfurt. A second exhibition
followed in February 1912, at the Hans Goltz Gallery, in Munich. There were no
more 'official' shows of the group, but all five core members were represented
at the great Sonderbund Exhibition in Cologne, in 1912, and the acclaimed First
German Salon d'Automne Exhibition at the Sturm Gallery in Berlin, in 1913.

Kandinsky himself was given a retrospective in 1912 by the Der Sturm gallery
in Berlin, a key platform of the expressionist movement in Germany. In 1913
he was represented at the Armory Show in New York, wrote his autobiography,
Ruckblicke (Reminiscences), and a collection, of poems illustrated with six
woodcuts, Klange (Sounds).

Abstract Art

During the period 1910-1914, Kandinsky turned increasingly to abstract art, as

his expressionism fused with Fauvism (fl.1905-7), Cubism (fl.1907-14) and
Orphism (fl.1910-13), leading him to dispense with figurative elements.
Coloured surfaces, distinct from subjective forms and edged in black, became
'signs' (Improvisation III, 1909, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris; Sketch
Composition II, 1909, Guggenheim Museum, New York). Then, by abandoning
the tradition of spatial illusion, he affirmed the two-dimensional character of
the canvas and at the same time the arbitrary nature of his space. Little by
little the black outlines became autonomous graphic elements, in ever-
increasing numbers, while the colours started to overflow the edges of the

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'subject' (Church, 1910, Stadtische Galerie, Munich; Composition IV, 1911,

Kunstzammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen, Dusseldorf; With the Black Arch, 1912,
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris; Improvisation, 1912, Guggenheim
Museum, NY).

His first abstract watercolour painting (Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris)
dates from around 1910 and proved to be a perfect experimental medium for
him. However, it was another year before he succeeded in completely
detaching the subject from his oil painting. From then on, while his
Impressions were still expressive representations of nature, his Improvisations,
and to an even greater extent his Compositions, were gradually turning into
pure creations of forms and colours. Other works from this period include:
Black Strokes I (1913, Guggenheim Museum); Gorge Improvisation (1914,
Stadtische Galerie, Munich) and Fugue, 1914 (private collection).

The Blue Rider group disbanded in 1914, on the outbreak of World War I. Two
of its members, Franz Marc and August Macke were killed in combat during the
war. As foreign nationals, both Kandinsky and Jawlensky were forced to return
to Russia.

For more about the contribution of Wassily Kandinsky to

expressionism, see: History of Expressionist Painting (c.1880-
1930).

Return to Russia

Between 1914 and 1921 Kandinsky taught art theory at the Institute of Artistic
Culture in Moscow - the new controllers of Russian art. He became a member
of the arts section of the Commissariat for Intellectual Progress in 1918, taught
at the Academy of Fine Art, and the following year founded the Museum of
Culture in Moscow. But after founding the Academy of Artistic Sciences in 1921
and seeing the initial enthusiasm for modern art gradually disappear (the
Communist government banned all abstract art) he left Moscow with Nina de
Andreenky, whom he had married in 1917 and returned to Germany.

Bauhaus Design School

In 1922 he was appointed to a teaching post at the Bauhaus Design School,

where Klee already on the staff. Although Kandinsky's output during his period
in Russia was not large (materials were hard to come by), he used the time to
think out precisely his theory of the science of art which he developed in
Weimar. Kandinsky's appointment to the Bauhaus marked a new phase in his
work, characterized by what he himself termed 'lyrical geometricism'. He
taught a beginners class for Design and an advanced course in Art Theory. He
now felt that each form, each colour, together with its position within a space,
had a precise function. He taught his pupils to 'observe precisely and present
precisely not the exterior appearance of an object, but the elements of its
make up.' He published some of this reflections in Punkt and Linie zu Flache
(point, line and surface) in 1926 and in various theoretical studies.

His time at the Bauhaus was one of intense activity and one during which his
genius was most appreciated. Circles, straight lines, curves and other
geometrical elements took an increasingly important place in his paintings. He
developed a new association between three basic shapes - circle, triangle and
square - and a code of colours in which each line represented tension and
colour affirmed its dynamism (Composition VIII, 1923, Guggenheim New York;
Yellow-Red-Blue (1925, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris); and Accent on
Pink, 1926, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris). In Yellow-Red-Blue, in
particular, the careful positioning of circles, arches and lines combined to
produce a wonderful harmony. At this point he was using colour direct from the
tube, occasionally mixing sand with paint to give a granular texture to his
canvas.

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In 1923 he formed, together with Klee, Jawlensky and Lyonel

Feininger, Die Blaue Vier (Blue Four). They lectured and exhibited
together in America in 1924.

At Dessau, where the Bauhaus had moved in 1925 Kandinsky celebrated his
60th birthday. New nuances of colour started to appear in his work. while the
geometry of his shapes either grew more pronounced (Quadrat [Square] 1927,
Paris Maeght Collection and Dark Point, 1930, A Bloc Collection, Paris) or,
alternatively, faded so that space could be filled with suppler, more 'organic'
forms (Wickerwork, 1927, Paris, Nina Kandinsky Collection; Pointed Black
1931, M. Hagenba Collection, Basel).

Continuing in the direction of a 'synthesis of the arts', Kandinsky designed the

sets and costumes for a stage version of Mussorgsky's Pictures from an
Exhibition (1928) and executed various large murals and ceramic panels for the
Music Room designed by Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) at the International
Architectural Exhibition in Berlin (1931). In 1933 the Bauhaus, which had
transferred to Berlin the previous year, was closed by the Nazis. Kandinsky's
painting was labelled degenerate art (entartete kunst).

One of the most prolific collectors of Kandinsky's works was the

American philanthropist Solomon R Guggenheim (1861-1949).

Final Years: Neuilly-sur-Seine

In 1933, when the Bauhaus was forced to shut its doors, Kandinsky moved to
Paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. This move to Neuilly-sur-Seine
with his wife saw the beginning of a 'third period', often viewed as marking
desire to return to a symbolic style. Shapes are generally smaller and the
canvases are subdivided so as to bring closer together the various figures of
the ideogram (Sweet Nothings, 1937; Thirty 1937; both Paris, Nina Kandinsky
Collection). No stranger to controversy, his later works remained controversial,
but were admired by younger modern artists like Joan Miro (1893-1983) and
Alberto Magnelli (1888-1971). His reputation was firmly established when he
was introduced to Solomon Guggenheim, who became one of his best
supporters. Between 1936 and 1939 he painted his last 2 major compositions:
Composition IX, 1936 (Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris) and Composition
X, 1939 (Kunstzammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen, Düsseldorf). In his last
canvases fluid shapes share the space with the artist's final, simplified
geometric elements (Joy, 1939; Tempered Impulse, 1944; both Paris, Nina
Kandinsky Collection). He continued until his death in 1944. His unrelenting
quest for new forms had carried him to the extremes of geometric abstract art.
This, together with his contribution to the theory and practice of colour in
painting establishes Kandinsky as a seminal figure in the history of art during
the early 20th century.

However great Kandinsky's prestige was during his lifetime, it was not until
after the war that his true significance was appreciated. His influence became
widely felt in the Nouvelle Abstraction movement, for which he had opened the
way.

Collections

20th-Century paintings by Kandinsky can be seen in the best art museums

across the world, notably the National Musee d'Art Moderne at the Pompidou
Centre, Paris, and the Samuel R Guggenheim Museum, New York. The period
prior to 1914 is well represented in Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,
Munich, Germany, thanks chiefly to a bequest by Gabriele Munter.

• For more biographies of Russian artists, see: 20th Century Painters.

• For more about early 20th century abstract painting, see: Homepage.

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