Wassily Kandinsky

            Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 16^th, 1866 in Moscow. He didn’t always start out as an abstract painter, but instead as a Docent of Law Faculty and later became a Professor of Law at Derpt University in Tartu. It wasn’t until he visited an exhibit that was displaying the different works of French expressionists that he decided to give up law all together for painting. He was inspired by K. Monet’s Haystack and Rihard Wagner’s Lohengrin. He entered the Munich Academy of Arts where he then he studied under Franz Stuck. It was there he met Gabriela Munter, an artist who he travelled throughout Europe with. He based most of his paintings on the landscapes and colors he saw and exhibitions they visited. Kandinsky kept most of his feelings and emotions inside and only let them show through his paintings. He is known as one of the first abstract painters.

            Kandinsky’s paintings vary from colors, styles and pictures depending on what city he was in and what time period it was. Most of his pictures are bright colors with dark backgrounds. A lot of his pictures don’t have people in them. His earlier work portrayed his fascination with colors when he was a child. He used his fascination for colors in his painting, “Looks on the Past”. Later on in his artwork, he incorporated music and melody in to his paintings to give them a sense of movement and harmony. Kandinsky published his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art in 1910 that demonstrated his geometrical progression in abstract art. These paintings included descending series of different circles, triangles, and squares.

            I chose Kandinsky because he was one of the first abstract painters and was believed to have started the rise in abstract paintings. I find his paintings beautiful because of all the bright colors. I like how there is a variety of paintings. He painted landscapes, people, shapes, and collages of random colors. He made his paintings more about feeling and movement instead of the overall picture. I found it very interesting too how he went from being a professor of law to being a painter, and just from seeing two paintings he decided to give up law and paint for the rest of his life.  Both of those professions just seem so opposite from each other.

Here are some of Kandinsky’s paintings:

 Murnau St.

Improvisation 19

Murnau - Kohlgruberstrass

All Saints 1

Farbstudie Quadrate

Works Cited:

Barnett, Vivian Endicott, et al. Kandinsky. Guggenheim Museum: New York, New York,

     2009.

Whitford, Frank. Kandinsky: Watercolours and Other Works on Paper. Thames and Hudson:

     New York, New York, 1999.