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Wassily Kandinsky

Avant-garde painter of Russian origin (1866-1944) · France · Artists · Died at 78

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He cracked open painting itself - took away the objects, the landscapes, the faces, and left only color and form answering to something internal. Before Kandinsky, Western art depicted the world; after him, it could depict feeling directly.

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A life in dates

1944Died13 December 19441912“[Their] things [works of Die Brücke-artists] must be exhibited.”In their wordsQuote from his letter to Franz Marc, 2 Febr. 1912, as cited in 'Lankheit 20'; quoted in Movement, Manifesto, Melee: The Modernist Group,

“If until now colour and form were used as inner agents, it was mainly done subconsciously. The subordination of composition to geometrical form is no new idea (cf.”In their wordsQuote from Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky, Munich, 1912; as cited in Kandinsky, Frank Whitford, Paul Hamlyn Ltd, London

1911“[ Schoenberg's ] music leads us into a realm where musical experience is a matter not of the ear but of the soul alone, and at this point the music of the future begins.”In their wordsQuote of Kandinsky, 1911; in Concerning the Spiritual in Art, transl. Michael T. Sadler (1914); reprint. New York: Dover, 1977), p. 17

“In your [ composer Schönberg's ] works, you have realized what I, albeit in uncertain form, have so greatly longed for in music.”In their words18 January 1911in his letter to Arnold Schönberg, 18 Jan. 1911; as cited in Schonberg and Kandinsky: An Historic Encounter, by Klaus Kropfinger; edited by

1910“At an unknown hour, from a source that is still sealed to us, but inexorable, the Work comes into the world.”In their wordsAugust 1910Quote of Kandinsky, from the catalog of the second exhibition of the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung', München, August, 1910; as cited by , in

1903“Frankly, I think there is something wrong with Jawlensky's dots [in his paintings, then]. Anybody can pick up that style if they want to.”In their wordsQuote of Kandinsky, c 1903; as cited by , in Expressionism; Praeger Publishers, New York, 1973, p. 114

1866Born22 November 1866

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Wassily kandinskyWassily kandinskyDer weisse Abgrund Unendlichkeit. Kandinsky - Malewitsch - Mondrian. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Quadriennale Düsseldorf 2014Der weisse Abgrund Unendlichkeit. Kandinsky - Malewitsch - Mondrian. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Quadriennale Düsseldorf 2014Foto Wassily Kandinskys von Franz und Maria Marc (1911)Foto Wassily Kandinskys von Franz und Maria Marc (1911)Gabriele Münter Treppenhaus MurnauGabriele Münter Treppenhaus MurnauGenova-IMG 2194Genova-IMG 2194Kandinski-bookKandinski-bookKandinsky 1911Kandinsky 1911Kenda in gallery with nina kandinskyKenda in gallery with nina kandinsky

In their own words 10

,
Wassily Kandinsky
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. [Their] things [works of Die Brücke-artists] must be exhibited.

    1912, Quote from his letter to Franz Marc, 2 Febr. 1912, as cited in 'Lankheit 20'; quoted in Movement, Manifesto, Melee: The Modernist Group,, Own words

  2. If until now colour and form were used as inner agents, it was mainly done subconsciously. The subordination of composition to geometrical form is no new idea (cf.

    1912, Quote from Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky, Munich, 1912; as cited in Kandinsky, Frank Whitford, Paul Hamlyn Ltd, London, Own words

  3. [ Schoenberg's ] music leads us into a realm where musical experience is a matter not of the ear but of the soul alone, and at this point the music of the future begins.

    1911, Quote of Kandinsky, 1911; in Concerning the Spiritual in Art, transl. Michael T. Sadler (1914); reprint. New York: Dover, 1977), p. 17, Own words

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In their orbit 2

About this person

Born in Moscow in 1866, Kandinsky didn't pick up a brush in earnest until thirty, abandoning a law career for art school in Munich in 1896. He studied under Anton Ažbe and at the Academy of Fine Arts, eventually teaching - then living with - German painter Gabriele Münter. World War I pulled him back to Moscow in 1914, and after the Revolution he worked inside Anatoly Lunacharsky's cultural administration, helping found the Museum of the Culture of Painting. But his spiritual bent sat poorly with Soviet materialism, so he returned to Germany in 1920 and taught at the Bauhaus from 1922 until the Nazis shuttered it in 1933. He moved to France, became a citizen in 1939, and spent his final years painting in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he died in 1944.

Country
France
Category
Artists
Type
Artist
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1866 to 1944 · aged 78

Artists from France 6

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