Wassily Kandinsky

Russian painter and art theorist Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866-1944) is known as the world’s first abstract artist and a leader in abstract art theory. With a previous and successful career in law and economics, he did not begin his pursuit of painting studies until the age of 30 years. His work was revolutionary in the art world and subsequently created an entire art theory around it.

Kandinsky’s progression to abstract art was an evolutionary process of growth and inner personal artistic development. Kandinsky eventually became known as a pioneer of abstract art who could emit strong emotions from his work. Kandinsky himself postulated that any and all evaluations of art were subjective ones; that the selection of form, lighting, and color were purely personal to a given artist. Throughout this artistic process, Kandinsky lived to see both Great Wars and lived in Russia, Germany, and France.

Wassily Kandinsky’s contribution to the world of art and art theory is a significant one. In an ongoing effort to provide excellent art resources, compiled below is a collection of online resources related to Kandinsky. These resources are meant for teachers, students, parents, and art enthusiasts alike.

Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 16, 1866 in Moscow and was raised in Odessa. He studied law and economics at the University of Moscow and was offered a professorship of Roman Law at the University of Dorpat. In 1896, at the age of 30 years, Kandinsky moved to Munich and began to study art in the form of anatomy, sketching, and life-drawing. He first studied at Anton Ažbe private school and then at Munich’s Academy of Fine Arts. From 1914 Kandinsky returned to Moscow to wait out World War I. During this time he became unimpressed with Russian theories of art. In 1921 Kandinsky returned to Germany and from 1922-1933 taught art at the Bauhaus of Weimar school of art and architecture, at which time the Nazis had risen and subsequently shut the school down. As a result, Kandinsky moved to France and became a French citizen in 1939. He spent his remaining days there, and died on December 13, 1944 of cerebro-vascular disease, just three days before what would have been his 78th birthday.

The Evolution of Kandinsky’s Art: Contributions and Criticisms

Kandinksy is considered to have gone through five distinct artistic periods, which began as Impressionistic but over time became increasingly abstract in nature. Each of these periods corresponds to a distinct time period in Kandinsky’s life: the Artistic Metamorphosis Period from 1896 to 1911, the Blue Rider Period from 1911 to 1914, the Return to Russia Period from 1914 to 1921, the Bauhaus Period from 1922 to 1933, and the Period of Great Synthesis from 1934 to 1944. The Artistic Metamorphosis period was the time when Kandinsky, then a mature student, embraced his studies and painted recognizable scenes of urban towns and rural landscapes in broad strokes of bright colors.

In his Blue Rider period, Kandinsky lead the second German Expressionist group, known in German as “Der Blau Reiter” (The Blue Rider). During this period, he developed his vocal and musical talents and combined music with painting; as a result, his paintings during this period consist of large and colorful overlapping masses, the forms of which do not exhibit distinct outlines. Also during this period Kandinsky began to write about art theory, including his contribution in The Blue Rider Almanac and his treatise On the Spiritual In Art, in which abstract art were both promoted and defended.

In the Return to Russia period, Kandinsky did not paint much. Instead, he participated in the academic and institutional worlds of Russia’s art and cultural politics and taught art with a focus on the analysis of color and form. Kandinsky’s emotional, spiritual, and highly expressionistic artistic view was criticized by radical traditionalists as being too bourgeois and individualistic. It was during this period that he met Nina Andreievskaya, whom he married one year later, in 1917. The fourth period, the Bauhaus period, was the direct result of an invitation in 1921 by the Bauhaus of Weimar’s founder, architect Walter Gropius, to attend and instruct at the Bauhaus. In this period, Kandinsky became exposed to the school’s synthesis of the plastic and applied arts. Forms became a focus of his study, in particular geometric shapes, which launched the creation of geometric abstract painting. In 1926, Kandinsky completed his second major theoretical book, entitled Point and Line to Plane. When the Bauhaus school dissolved in July of 1933 due to the efforts of the extreme Nazi right, Kandinsky left Germany forever and settled in Paris, France. In France, however, Impressionism and cubism were popular, rather than Kandinsky’s little known geometric abstract painting techniques. During this time of the final artistic period of his life, Kandinsky merged together all of his previous forms and created soft, biomorphic forms with both bright Eastern European colors and even texture by mixing paint with sand. Kandinsky’s painted forms were constructed to tap into both the artist’s and the viewer’s emotions, spirit, and soul, which they continue to do to this day.

  • Wikipedia’s Wassily Kandinsky article outlines details on the life and times of Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky is known as the first abstract artist.
  • Ibiblio offers WebMuseum, Paris offers background on Wassily Kandinsky and Kandinsky and Abstraction, both of which include images of his work. Kandinsky was known to weave music into his paintings.
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shares a website by C. Shirley on Research on Wassily Kandinsky, which details Kandinsky’s contributions to the German Expressionism Movement, abstract art, and the art world as a whole.
  • Enotes.com details the life and works of Kandinsky, Wassily (1866-1944). This article includes critics to Kandinsky’s theories and his works.
  • Artelino.com also offers a biography, entitled Wassily Kandinsky – 1866-1944. This biography also offers images of his work as well as links to additional Kandinsky resources.
  • Artchive.com has an in-depth resource on Kandinsky. Artchive includes an article that deals with the life and contributions of Kandinsky, images of his work, links to further resources, and posters and calendars for sale.
  • EyeconArt is a website that details Expressionism. It includes a section on Kandinsky and his influences on and leadership in the German Expressionism Movement.

Additional References and Related Links