Colour is the key, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with its many chords. The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul vibrating automatically.” -Wassily Kandinsky
The reason why I chose Wassily Kandinsky to talk about in my blog as my chosen artist is because he is related to my topic by the one painting he created known as ‘Composition X’. Not only is his style unique, modern and interesting but he is known as the father of Abstract art and I love the way he breaks away from traditional artistic rules and creates abstract ideas and compositions (Biography.com, 2017).
Composition X- 1939
This paining was influenced by the flowing biomorphic forms of Surrealism. Kandinsky later incorporated organic shapes into it (The Art Story,2017). He created this monumental painting in France. It relies upon a black background to heighten the visual impact of the brightly coloured forms in the foreground. The black expanse creates significance, as Kandinsky only used the colour sparingly; it symbolises of the cosmos as well as the darkness at the end of life. It expresses the inner emotional and spiritual feelings Kandinsky experienced near the end of his life (The Art Story,2017). The uplifting organization of forms in contrast with the harsh edges and black background illustrates the harmony and tension present throughout the universe, as well as the rise and fall of the cycle of life. Last in his lifelong series of Compositions, this work is the culmination of Kandinsky’s investigation into the purity of form and expression through nonrepresentational painting (The Art Story, 2017).
Oil on canvas – Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf
Kandinsky was an abstract painter that desired to use colour with music. As a child his desiderata was not that of any normal child, but of his intimate experiences he already had with art together with his specific colour combinations (Biography.com, 2017).
As a young boy he already held his own vision and agenda which was infused by his perception that “each colour lives by its mysterious life” (Biography.com, 2017).
Wassily followed his family’s wishes to go into law, entering the University of Moscow in 1886. He graduated with honours, but his ethnographic earned him a fieldwork scholarship that entailed a visit to the Vologda province to study their traditional criminal jurisprudence and religion (Biography.com, 2017). Still, Kandinsky married his cousin, Anna Chimyakina, in 1892 and took up a position on the Moscow Faculty of Law, managing an art-printing works on the side (Biography.com, 2017).
But two events effected his abrupt change of career in 1896: seeing an exhibition of French Impressionists in Moscow the previous year, especially Claude Monet’s Haystacks at Giverny, which was his first experience of nonrepresentational art; and then hearing Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Bolshoi Theatre. Kandinsky chose to abandon his law career and move to Munich (he had learned German from his maternal grandmother as a child) to devote himself full-time to the study of art (Biography.com, 2017).
“I thought that was what my life was going to be about, but while I was at the university I got involved in some intriguing studies that led me to the arts”
-Kandinsky (Wassily Kandinsky, 1999).
Artistic Prominence
In Munich, Kandinsky was accepted into a private painting school, moving on to the Munich Academy of Arts. He mainly taught himself. He began with conventional themes and art forms, but all the while he was forming theories derived from devoted spiritual study and informed by an intense relationship between music and colour. These theories coalesced through the first decade of the 20th century, leading him toward his ultimate status as the father of abstract art (Biography.com, 2017).
Colour became more an expression of emotion rather than a faithful description of nature or subject matter.
He formed friendships and artist groups with other painters of the time, such as Paul Klee. He frequently exhibited, taught art classes and published his ideas on theories of art (Biography.com, 2017).
During this time, he met art student Gabriele Münter in 1903 and moved in with her before his divorce from his wife was finalized in 1911. They travelled extensively, settling in Bavaria before the outbreak of World War I (Biography.com, 2017).
He had already formed the New Artists Association in Munich; the Blue Rider group was founded with fellow artist Franz Marc, and he was a member of the Bauhaus movement alongside Klee and composer Arnold Schoenberg (Biography.com, 2017).
World War I took Kandinsky back to Russia, where his artistic eye was influenced by the constructivist movement, based on hard lines, dots and geometry. While there, the 50-year-old Kandinsky met the decades-younger Nina Andreevskaya, the daughter of a general in the Russian army, and married her. They had a son together, but the boy lived for only three years and the subject of children became taboo. The couple stayed on in Russia after the revolution, with Kandinsky applying his restless and comprehensive energies to the administration of educational and government-run art programs, helping to create Moscow’s Institute of Artistic Culture and Museum of Pictorial Culture (Biography.com, 2017).
Back in Germany after clashing theoretically with other artists, he taught at the Bauhaus school in Berlin and wrote plays and poems. In 1933, when the Nazis seized power, storm troopers shut down the Bauhaus school. Although Kandinsky had achieved German citizenship, World War II made it impossible for him to stay there. In July 1937, he and other artists were featured in the “Degenerate Art Exhibition” in Munich. It was widely attended, but 57 of his works were confiscated by the Nazis (Biography.com, 2017).
Death and Legacy
Kandinsky died of cerebrovascular disease in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, on December 13, 1944.
He and Nina had moved to the suburb of Paris in the late 1930s, when Marcel Duchamp had found a little apartment for them. When the Germans invaded France in 1940, Kandinsky fled to the Pyrenees, but returned to Neuilly afterward, where he lived a rather secluded life, depressed that his paintings weren’t selling. Although still considered controversial by many, he had earned prominent supporters such as Solomon Guggenheim and continued to exhibit till his death (Biography.com, 2017).
Little of the work Kandinsky produced in Russia has survived, although many of the paintings he created in Germany are still extant. The New York auction houses continue to do him proud today—in recent years, his artwork has sold for well over $20 million (Biography.com, 2017).
Kandinsky believed that each time period puts its own indelible stamp on artistic expression; his vivid interpretations of colour through musical and spiritual sensibilities certainly altered the artistic landscape at the start of the 20th century going forward, precipitating the modern age (Biography.com, 2017).
Also people are always amused when I tell them about the first time I experienced an abstract painting. I was in my studio when I saw the most incredible painting. I didn’t recognize it at first. All I saw was the harmony of the colour and form. There was no objective and it was beautiful. I was so struck by it that I went over to look at it more intently and I realized it was my own painting. I had put it on the easel upside down! (Totallyhistory.com, 2012)
Hidden meaning…
In Composition X, some people see Kandinsky’s loneliness, or perhaps a desire for a more vibrant circle of artistic ways. On the other hand, he may have been just diligently following his personal artistic vision (Totallyhistory.com, 2012).
At first glance this composition could look like a collection of festive party favours, ribbons, greeting cards, confetti and more exploding across and black background. Looking closer, however, one discovers more intriguing forms. For example, in the upper left corner it appears to be futuristic city landscapes and arcane hieroglyphics. It hints at something larger, greater, and mysterious (Totallyhistory.com, 2012).
Colour Scheme
There are mostly pastel colours and some primary reds and yellows create an important balance. Some art observers claim an intense contemplation of Composition X will bring the viewer into a kind of synchronization or resonance of soul(Totallyhistory.com, 2012).
Ahead of its Time
It’s clear, however, that with works such as Composition X, Wassily Kandinsky was heralding a style that would soon have its day and come into much greater favour throughout the art world. This work, completed in 1939, would seem more at home in the late 1940s and 1950s. It’s possible that Kandinsky was simply seeing further ahead in time than others (Totallyhistory.com, 2012).
Here are some extra artworks he has created:
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References:
- Biography.com. (2017). Wassily Kandinsky. [online] Available at: https://www.biography.com/people/wassily-kandinsky-9359941 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2017].
- Totallyhistory.com. (2012). Composition X by Wassily Kandinsky – Facts & History of the Painting. [online] Available at: http://totallyhistory.com/composition-x/ [Accessed 31 Aug. 2017].
- Wassily Kandinsky. (1999).
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