p

ipa

In the years before

World War

I,

the

Russian-born painter Vasily Kandinsky

(1866-1944), then living in Germany,

formed with the artist Franz Marc and

others the group known as the Blue Rider.
Together they developed a variety of
Expressionism notable for its rich colors.
Kandinsky, however, wanted to go further,

and continued to push his work to the

edge of abstraction, and then beyond it,
becoming one of the founders of
twentieth-century abstract

art.

No

longer

limited to the natural appearances of

things,

Kandinsky exploited the expressive

power of color and of complex, intertwined

lines to create his

In the 1920s

own visual

world.

and early 1930s, Kandinsky

taught at the renowned

German school of

and design known as the Bauhaus.

After the closing of the Bauhaus by the
Nazis in 1933, he left Germany for Paris. In
the years between the wars, Kandinsky's
art

work became more geometric, as he

sought to make his art more rigorous and
disciplined. Yet his essentially otherworldly

temperament can

still

be

felt in

these later

works, giving his geometric compositions

with their towering, triangular peaks

and floating orbs a sense of being an
orderly, self-contained universe. Rotating

spheres revolve in space like the planets

of an imaginary solar system.

This book offers the reader an

introduction to the world of Kandinsky's
visual imagination, reproducing in color

74 of his most important works from

periods of his creative career.

84

illustrations, including 74 plates

in full color

all

Boston

M\\%

Library

KANOIN^K

Great Modern Masters

Kandinsky

General Editor: Jose Maria Faerna

Translated from the Spanish by Alberto Curotto

CAMEO/ABRAMS

HARRY N. ABRAMS,

INC.,

PUBLISHERS

Kandinsky and Abstraction

Vasily Kandinsky is considered the founder of abstract painting, and any
assessment of his importance

in the history of

modern art must give an

As often happens

BR BR

account of

ND699

with "breakthrough" developments, however, the chronology of specific

.K3

how

open

that central innovation

A4

events

1996

small watercolor which

Moscow. Zubovsky Square III, c. 1916.

OH on canvas, 13% x 12V" (34 x 32 cm).
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

is

to debate.

objective") composition

somewhat

later

than

came

about.

For example, most scholars

is

often considered the

now believe that the

first

dated 1910 by Kandinsky was actually made

that.

Moreover, there exist a number of isolated

examples of nonrepresentational paintings by other

World War

I,

some

abstract (or "non-

as early as 1910. But that

is

lated examples, not the heralds of a radically

the complexities of chronology,

it

artists

from before

exactly what they are: iso-

new

aesthetic.

For despite

remains clear that Kandinsky was the

first

painter to "abstract" from the appearance of the objects of the world

in a truly

programmatic manner

the

first

to

view the renunciation of the

representational as a necessary step toward a purer kind of painting.

Varieties of Abstraction

Kandinsky was the principal innovator of abstraction, yet

to note that not

was

all

modern

related to other avant-garde

decades of the century

is

it

important

abstract art can be traced to him. His project

movements

emerged

that

in the early

Constructivism, Suprematism, Neoplasticism

which also practiced nonrepresentational painting, but often those groups

pursued such experiments as part of a larger program, aimed at transforming modern society as well as the visual

dominated modern

rent of abstraction that

Nor did the great curbetween 1945 and 1965,

arts.

art

especially in the United States, issue directly from Kandinsky. Indeed, the

primary inspiration for

such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko,

artists

Willem de Kooning,

or, in

abstract painters at

all,

Europe, Karel Appel, came not from the

first

but rather from such movements as Surrealism

and Cubism, which had,

in fact,

refused to

make

the leap into the non-

objective.

does not diminish Kandinsky 's crucial role

This, however,

opment of modern

art.

Although not

all

in the devel-

the varieties of abstract art de-

scend directly from his work, his precedent made them possible. He made
it

legitimate to sever

thereby freed the

manipulation in

all ties

artist to

lines,

to the "motif"

modern

art,

how

and on

its

way has been one

of the great aspirations

not only since Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, but since

the time of the Impressionists.

It

was, in

fact,

the experience of seeing a

work by Claude Monet that profoundly influenced

and won him over to the cause of modern painting.

The Spiritual

itself,

shapes, and forms affected the viewer. To liberate

the elements of painting in this

of

the depicted subjectand

concentrate on the paint

in

the young Kandinsky

The

Singer, 1903.

During

the first decade

of the century, Kandinsky made his first

woodcuts, executed in a Symbolist idiom.

Art

Though Kandinsky 's mature work does not seek to

imitate the appearance

mere decoration.
was not conceived as a way to produce pretty patterns for
own sake, but as a way to communicate more directly with the soul

of the physical world, neither does

limit itself to

it

Abstract art
their

of the viewer. Kandinsky 's art disregards the material world in order to

attend

more

closely to the spiritual one.

As with a musical composition,

the arrangement of colors in one of his abstract paintings

is

guided solely

by the principles of harmony and contrast, with the intention that

ticular

combination of elements

spectator.

Kandinsky was

in this

will strike

this par-

a resonant chord within the

regard following in the steps of the Ger-

man and Northern European Romantic

underlying subject matter of art, despite

always the unchanging world of the

tradition,
its

many

according to which the

varied material forms,

is

spirit.

Study for Picture with White Edge, 1913.

Kandinsky's studies arc diagrams of the

Synesthesia

distribution of the color masses in thefinal

work.

For Kandinsky, the comparison of painting with music was more than simply a metaphor.

An awareness

of his profound interest in music

is

crucial

to any understanding of his work.

his paintings,
is

The use of musical terms in the titles of

such as the groups called Improvisations or Compositions,

not gratuitous: instead,

conforms

it

to the notion of "synesthesia," the

idea that there are interconnections between the different bodily senses,

such as hearing and

whereby colors are associated with

vision,

specific

sounds and musical harmonies on the one hand, and with particular emotional states on the other.
Kandinsky wrote about such phenomena

in

On

the Spiritual in Art

(1911), a brief treatise that defines the equivalencies

between colors and

concepts that are the basis of his painting. Spiritualistic ideas, derived

from theosophy and occultism, also played an important role

ing his ideas about

Two

Birds, 1907.

influence on

Munich

clear

Kandinsky

example
oj

oj the

Jugendstil in

sound and

vision.

But most of

all,

in reinforc-

Kandinsky 's under-

standing of the connection between painting and music derived from the

Romantic operas of Richard Wagner. With

his unusual interest in coordi-

at this time.

nating the effects of scenery and stage lighting with the performance of

Wagner conceived of

the score,

his

music dramas as a

"total" aesthetic

experience, one in which the visual and the auditory components would

coalesce into a single, unified experience that would deeply affect the
viewer's innermost being.

the notion of synesthesia

and poets

in the late

As a result of Wagner's widespread influence,

became important for many artists, composers,

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Aims of Art

Possibly because of his academic background, Kandinsky always had a

penchant for theory, which led him to

the ultimate goals of art through a

try to systematize his thinking

number of

about

discursive writings. More-

awareness that he was establishing a new kind of painting

over, the

increased his need to develop an intellectual rationale for his work. His
years as a professor at the Bauhaus

and 1930s
Kandinsky executed

this

drawing

in

India

the German school that

industrial design

theory of painting, notably in the volume Point and Line

before the publication of the famous

a sort of textbook for his classes. His more rigorous

Rider.

1920s

and

witnessed an even more thorough systemization of his

ink Jar the cover of the catalogue of the first

Blue Rider exhibition, in 1911, ayear

almanac The Blue

in the

tried to apply the ideas of the avant-garde to architecture

to

Plane (1926),

way of thinking at that

time was not unrelated to the ideas of his Bauhaus colleague Josef Albers

concerning the interactions of colors, and Kandinsky 's work as an

also

became more

artist

disciplined in those years, pursuing a rigorously geo-

metric style. Yet Kandinsky continued to seek the

final significance

of his

paintings in the musical and emotional qualities that he ascribed to color.

medium by which one can affect the soul directmany strings, and the artist is the hand that,
one particular key, causes the human soul to vibrate."

"Color," he said, "is the

ly.

.The soul

by striking

is

a piano with

Kandinsky strove to

In this,

movement

for a "total" art,

fulfill

the old aspiration of the Romantic

one capable of transforming how we under-

stand the world around us. Therefore, his aims were indeed related to the
larger project shared

by much of the twentieth-century avant-garde

rejuvenate a broad range of

arts.
Little

Worlds VI, 1922. Kandinsky

rented the in, rid of his paintini/s

i<

in

graphic units such as

this.

human

Kandinsky 's Utopia, however, was neither social nor

spiritual.

to

endeavor, beginning with the visual

political,

but

His ultimate goal was to facilitate what he called the "inner

gaze," that

is,

a personal vision revealing the hidden soul of things.

Vasily Kandinsky/1866-1944
Kandinsky was born

in

spent most of his

Moscow

of a well-to-do family, and although he

Germany and France, he always

life in

strong emotional ties to his homeland and

ty years of his

life,

in Russia, painting

its

culture. Dining the

retained
first thir-

remained only a kind of passionate

who was actually of

diversion for this seemingly conventional young man,

a deeply Romantic disposition. After he completed his studies in law, his

academic record earned him a professional position, but he gave

brilliant
it

up

in

move

1896 to

The Early Years

Munich and devote himself entirely

to

to painting.

Munich

in

The Bavarian capital, where the style known as Jugendstil was developing, was one of Europe's busiest artistic centers. Kandinsky studied painting at the Munich Academy and met Alexei von Jawlensky and Paul Klee,
two of the artists with whom he would be closely associated. He also met
the painter Gabriele Miinter (see plate 14). The intense relationship between them, which lasted from 1902 until 1914, precipitated Kandinsky's
separation from his
In Munich,

first

wife.

Kandinsky organized a number of

designed to promote exhibitions. Phalanx, the

founded

in 1901

bolists, artists

first

artists'

associations

of these groups,

was

and showed works by the Impressionists and the Sym-

who had

a visible influence on Kandinsky 's early paintings.

same years, Kandinsky began experimenting with woodcuts, a

medium with a tradition in Germany going back to the Middle Ages.
In the

Tliis

photograph was taken around 1871,

illicit

Kandinsky's parents separated and

his aunt took charge of his upbringing.

Developing a Personal Style

During 1906-8, Kandinsky traveled

in

Europe with

Miinter, exhibited at

the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Independants in Paris, and

saw

works by the Fauvists and the emerging Cubists. The influence of Fauve
color can be seen in the works that he painted in 1908 and 1909 after settling in the

German

Murnau. At that time, with Alfred Kubin,

city of

Jawlensky, Miinter, and others he founded the

Artists

known by

its

rise to abstraction

were beginning

sued his interests

in

Rudolf Steiner and

Madame

European

New

Coalition of

Munich

German acronym, NKVM. The ideas that would give

to form: in particular,

Kandinsky pur-

theosophy and occultism through the writings of

Blavatsky, which were extremely popular in

cultural circles at the time.

This period also marked the beginning of his friendship with the pioneer
of atonal musical composition, Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg's devel-

opment of a kind of music

liberated from traditional

harmony may have

contributed to Kandinsky's development of a kind of painting freed from

traditional representation.

The composer may also have encouraged Kanand the interconnections between

dinsky's thinking about synesthesia

music and painting.

During

this time, the

NKVM exhibitions presented works by some of the

most important of the Parisian

painters, including Picasso,

Andre Derain,
Kandinsky

Georges Braque, and Maurice de Vlaminck. Kandinsky's work of the time,

however, such as the study for Composition

II (plate 22), still

go of the conventions of representational painting, although,

somewhat

related to Fauvism,

its

had not

in a

let

manner

subjects were beginning to dissolve into

in Dresden, 1905. litis iras

productive period in the

artist's life. In

1906, he would travel with Miinter to Paris.

where hr remained until the next gear

a vortex of colored shapes. Such works exemplify the ambiguous, transitional stage through

which

his art

was passing

at that point.

Exploring an Abstract World

Even

this partial dismantling of representation

NKVM.

was not welcomed by

the

Kandinsky, however, continued to look toward greater abstrac-

tion, writing his treatise

1912, with

On

the Spiritual in Art, published in 1911. In

Jawlensky and Miinter, he

the

left

and best-known Munich group, the Blue

NKVM

and founded

Rider. In the process,

his last

Kandinsky

met Franz Marc, with whom he collaborated both in the group's exhibitions and in the publication of an almanac, in which they expounded their
theoretical principles and commented on the art that aroused their interest, from the work of such contemporaries as Picasso and Derain, to
African
Maria and Franz Marc. Bernhard Koehler
(pere). Heinrich Campendonk, Thomas
ran Hartmann, and Kandinsky (seated),

artists

berg,

to the Russian

art,

who

traditions.

Among

the other

and the Parisian painter Robert Delaunay. Kandinsky was by

time working

1911.

and German folk

exhibited with the Blue Rider were August Macke, Schoen-

in

this

a truly abstract mode.

At the outbreak of World War

in 1914,

Kandinsky returned to Russia.

There, the great upheaval surrounding the October Revolution of 1917

was

some of the
movements of the twentieth century. Although his
Romanticism were at odds with the prevailing materi-

also a time of artistic ferment, with the participation of

most advanced
spirituality

and

artistic

his

alism of the government and most of the leading Russian

sky held a number of important

artistic

and

artists,

Kandin-

cultural offices in the admin-

new Soviet state. His efforts led to the founding of several

museums throughout Russia and to the development of new educational
istration of the

programs. In 1917, Kandinsky married Nina Adreevsky, his second wife.

Four years

later,

the

two

left

for Berlin,

and Kandinsky never again

returned to Russia.

From Walter Gropius came the

offer of a position at the Bauhaus,

where

Kandinsky led both the Decorative Painting Workshop and the introductory course from 1922 to 1933. At the Bauhaus, he found his old friend
Above: Kandinsky with his son. Vsrrdod.

Moscow, 1918. Below: The artist,

photographed by Hannes Beckmann

Klee,

in

Paris. 1935.

in

and with him Jawlensky and Lyonel Feininger. During those years,

Kandinsky s work became more rigorous

in composition. His

devotion to

was supplemented by a new appreciation for geometry and by a

more controlled interaction of forms, as his painting responded to the varcolor

ious stylistic currents at the Bauhaus.

Later Years
in 1933, Kandinsky was
Germany his paintings would be among those included
in the exhibition of condemned works called "Degenerate Art" in 1937
and he settled in Neuilly, near Paris. There he hoped to find a climate
favorable to his work, but the French artistic scene was not at that time

With the closing of the Bauhaus by the Nazis

forced to leave

especially well disposed toward abstraction.

tried to

win him over to the

became a French

Andre Breton unsuccessfully

Kandinsky

Surrealist cause and, although

citizen, the last

phase of his career unfolded

understanding of his work. In his

quietly,

amid a general lack of

ings, Kandinsky drifted away from Bauhaus geometry and used more
organic and biomorphic shapes. He died in 1944, too soon to witness the
critical

triumph of abstract

art in the

postwar

era.

last paint-

Plates

Formative Influences
Two

events that shaped Kandinsky's artistic vocation took place in 1895:

he attended a performance of Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin, and he

saw one of Claude Monet's Haystack paintings

at

an exhibition of Impres-

Moscow. Kandinsky's response to Wagner at this early date

already points to the link between painting and music that would inform
his work as an artist. And his response to Monet indicates something of
his future course toward nonrepresentational painting, for it was precisesionist art in

ly

the dematerializing of the motif in Monet's painting, the

way that

who was
later,

to dissolve into color

and

light, that

credited."

many years
was being dis-

captivated by the work. "Unknowingly," he wrote

Not surprisingly, then, his

ence of Impressionist

color, as later

first

painted works reveal the

influ-

on he would be affected by the color

experiments of the Fauves. In Paris

in 1906-7,

<i

poetic (turn to this

Kandinsky's minute brushstrokes, hear//

with pigment,

make

tiny tesserae of color.

The// suggest the perfectionist preciosity

of many painters of that period,

from Lovis Corinth to Gustav Klimt.
ti/l>ie<il

objects

impressed Kandinsky,

"the inevitability of the object as a pictorial element

light gives

view of Rothenburg, hut (he sharp, clem cut

volumes recall Paul < 'ezanne's paintings.

were beginning

The Old City n, 1902. The mellow

evening

Kandinsky was able to

Kochel: Waterfall

Hint

(i

I,

1900. Tlie notion

landscape betrays "the state of the

soul" dates from Romanticism. Kandinsky

mail have been influenced by nineteenth-

century Russian painting or by the

landscapists of the Barbizon school.

Hut more than

these, the

of this canvas, with

its

immediacy

generous

brushstrokes, cereals the influence of the

expand

his

know ledge

had participated

of

in the

many

of the French

artists,

including those

Phalanx exhibitions from 1901 to 1904

Paul Signac, Felix Vallotton, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

would

participate in the exhibitions of the

NKVM:

who

Monet,

and those who

Picasso, Braque, Vla-

minck, Andre Derain, Kees van Dongen, Henri Le Fauconnier, and

Georges Rouault.

10

late
its

Impressionist

mark on

manner

thai

the painter at a

exhibition in 1895.

had

Moscow

left

11

12

Trees

Lana

I,

in

Bloom

at

1908. Tfie

intensity of the light

made

green,

still

brighter by touches of
yellow,

a celebration

is

of springtime,
exemplified by the

blooming

The

trees.

projection of the artist's

feelings onto the painted
motif, going

beyond

mere visual description.

is one of the most
conspicuous differences
between French and

Northern European
painting at the

beginning of the
twentieth century.

Riegsee:

Church.

The Town

1 908.

The

arbitrariness of Fauve
color is one of the

most

important innovations
that

Kandinsky

incoi-porated into his

own

painterly style

upon his return to

Germany from France
in 1908.

By

emancipating color from

the restraints offidelity
to nature,

he took the

first step

toward

pictorial

autonomy

toward painting as a
chromatic symphony.

Munich: Schwabing

with the Church of

Ursula, 1908.

St.

Another

striking example of the

effect

on Kandinsky of

his encounter with

Fauvism.

13

14

Landscape with a

Tbwer, 1908. In this

mysterious nocturnal
selling, the pervasive

red-yellow color chord

of the brick tower, the

roofs,

and

the field in Hie

lower left earner lakes on

a

somewhat

spectral

elm racier.
Interior (My Dining
Room), 1909. Tlie
7

influence of Felix
Valuation,

whose works

were shown

at the tenth

Phalanx exhibition in
1910, as well as that of
the

can

French Xahi
lie

artists,

seen in this

meticulously /minted.
decorative interior.

Oriental, 1909. Here,

the coloristic
oj the

beginning
the motif,
train

exuberance

Fauvists

it.

to

is

overpower

breaking free

lite ilrairn

shapes can barely

contain the brashlg
vibrant reds arid
yellows.

Mountain, 1909. The

narrative element

is

downplayed in favor of a
pure harmony of colors.
Yellow, red. blue, and
green

the basis of
Kandinsky's chromatic

vocabulary

here create

a feeling of ascent, as he
arranges the color areas
with the brighter, lighter

hues toward the top of

th<

painting.

15

Developments in Munich
In 1896, at the time of Kandinsky's arrival in Munich, the Bavarian capital

was one of Europe's most important modernist centers. In 1892, a group of

artists had broken away from the official academy and founded the Secession movement, which included some of the foremost painters of that
time, such as Lovis Corinth and Franz von Stuck. The same year saw the
first publication of the review Jugend, from which the German modernist
style called Jugendstil took its name, and whose orbit attracted such figures as Hermann Obrist and August Endell. Their influence is evident in
several of Kandinsky's works, such as his poster for the Phalanx exhibitions, but his strongest link to the

Munich

art

world was his devotion to

Romantic idealism, which had already emerged while he was

in Russia.

Kandinsky assimilated the melancholic tone of Symbolism, one of the prevailing currents of the Secession,

and

its

taste for landscape.

correspondence of color with the emotions

itage,

16

is

The inner

part of this Romantic her-

which Kandinsky combined with the influence of Fauvism.

10

Obermarkt with Mountains, 1908.

Tliis

one of the earliest works /minted in the

small Bavarian village where Kandinsky
is

sojourned with Gabriele Munter.

Tfie

pale

luminous color confers an air of

melancholy on the scene, which is treated
with the sharp contrast of light and shade

yet

typical of woodcuts. The picture's style

may

also

Hodler.

owe something

to

Ferdinand

The Blue Rider, 1903. At this very

Kandinsky introduced what
would become the emblem of the most
famous of the several groups that he
1

early date,

belonged
blue

to

was a

i?i

his career. For the artist,

celestial

symbol; he equated

this spi ritual rider with the

St.

mythical

George, defeating the "dragon" of

materialism. His mysterious presence in

the landscape, bathed in
light,

an

eerie raking

evokes the atmosphere of German

folktales.

12

Sftefc* /or Achtyrka:

One of Kandinsky's

Autumn, 1901.
known narks

earliest

attests to the artist's familiarity with

Symbolist

/mi inii in/,

although

its

also betrays the influence of the

execution

French

Impressionists, which began while he

still in

was

Russia.

17

13

Riding Couple, 1906-7. The ornamental quality of

Kandinsky's early pointillism makes

it

Gustav Klimt, and.

artist,

tike that

Viennese

not unlike the work of

Kandinsky here

explores the decorative aspects of painting as they relate to

architectural design. Though the subject suggests a Russian
folktale,

it

is

depicted against the transfigured silhouette of an

imaginary Moscow a magical skyline of gilded donies

the opposite hunk of the river.

18

on

14

Portrait of Gabriele

Miinter, 7.905. TJie

Phalanx group operated

an art school, where
Kandinsky met Gabriele

young German
who shared his

Miinter, a

painter

until 1914. In Moscow,

Kandinsky had been married
life

to his cousin, Anna

Chem iakina, from whom

he was amicably divorced

in 1911,

when

his

relationship with Miinter

Was already long

established. Miinter's
sensitive, intelligent

features appear in several

portraits that

Kandinsky

painted in those years.

15

Rapallo:

Rough

1906. This picture

Sea,

was

pointed in Holy, where

Kandinsky was traveling

with Miinter. The technique
suggests Monet, but the

atmosphere of mystery
and melancholy belongs
entirely to the

Romantic

traditions of Northern

Europe.

19

16 The Farewell, 190.3.

During liis first years in
Mu n ich. Kandinsky
produced more uoodcuts

than

pointings. This

nil

printmaking technique

had been deeply rooted

German
the late

in

tradition since

Middle Ages, and

at the beginning of the

twentieth century

it

ivas

revived by artists of many

different persuasions.

Both the legendary subject

of this work and
Kandinsky's linear and
decorative draftsmanship

are clearly related

to the

woodcut tradition.

17

Winter Landscape

I.

1909. Tlie unexpected use

of the color yellow, in the

sky and on the house at the
center of the composition,

competes with the blue

hues elsewhere

in the

landscape. Tliis kind of

opposition gives the

painting an unsettling
effect

reminiscent of

certain pictures that the

Norwegian artist Ed card

Munch was painting at
about the same time.

20

18
a

Blue Mountain, 1908-9. This intake of horseback riders before

towering blue mountain

a color symbolizing the spiritual

is

Clearly allegorical. The blue red-yellow triad constitutes one of the

basic chromatic harmonies

oj

Kandi nski/'s work

in these years.

21

Abandoning Representation
The period from 1908

to 1910

sky, as reflected in the

was a personally rewarding one

remarkable

artistic

Gabriele Miinter, he bought a house in Murnau, where he

spend long periods painting. Until

tinued to appear in

some

for Kandin-

progress of those years. With

was

able to

at least 1912, recognizable objects con-

of his works, but the

move

to abstraction

Murnau: The Garden

19

ostensible subject
the {winter to

yellow,

he said that as yet he dared not discard

it

entirely for fear

of falling into a merely decorative mode, or producing paintings "that

form

is

it

crudely, carpets or neckties.

not enough of a goal for

art."

He

weave a pattern of green,

augmenting that color

red,

1909. The flattening of depicted objects,

turning them into silhouettes, recalls the

woodcuts that Kandinsky made during his

first

resemble, to say

1910. The

Murnau: View with Railroad and Castle,

20

color, although

I,

merely a pretext for

chord with touches of blue and brown.

had

already been made. The motif was increasingly dissolved into expanses of

and

is

years in Munich.

The beauty of color and

therefore sought to

endow

ing with spiritual values comparable to those he found in music.

paintIt

was

Study for Winter II, 1910-11. A

21
complex area of yellows makes up the
central triangle of pictorial space,

then that Kandinsky began calling his works Improvisations and Compositions, as

though they were musical pieces.

it

red

a fluid.

and

22

and blue
Tlte

objects

seem

to

and

sink as

into
if in

other triangular areas, above

below, create a sense of recession.

23

22

Sketch for
Composition II. 1910. The
final version of this work,

Kandinsky's most

ambitious up

was

lost in

to that time,

World War

II.

Shortly after

its

completion,

was shown
S'KVM

it

at the second

exhibition,

where

it

aroused controversy. The

welter of seem inyly
u n rela tedfigu res, ca ugh t
in a whirlpool of color.

signals a ci~ucial stage

in the painter's artistic

development,

tin

beginning of the break

with representation.

23

Improvisation

VI.

1909. Kandinsky had

visited Tunis with

Gabriele Miinter. and

echoes of that trip can be

found

in

the time.

some works from

The subtitle

"Aflricana" is

sometimes

affixed to this painting,

in

which Kandinsky

incorporated his

experience of North Africa

into his quest for a new
artistic idiom.

24

Improvisation MI.

1910. Along with

Composition

II ( see

study,

one of the
earliest paintings in

plate 22), this

is

which Kandinsky
discarded representation.

The color arrangement,

with barely

any

delimiting linear
structure, transforms

pictorial space into a zone

of chromatic turbulence, a
vortex thai spirals in
the

of the painting.

24

to

upper right quadrant

25

25

Improvisation XVIII (with Tombstones).

1911. The absence

litis

painting

is

oj

hierarchical order in

characteristic of the works

of 1910 auti 1911, as Kandinsky explored

new

territory.

26

Improvisation XI,

1 910. Vest iy tally

representational elements can barely be

identified here,
ghostly.

having become almost

bright yellow triangle is once

again the center of attention of an entire

composition.

26

27

Passage by Boat, 1910.

appears frequently

Tlie subject

in these years, a

of a boat with oarsmen

time irheu Kaudinsky thought

of pure abstraction as a "voyage" to the terra incognita of a new

world of painting. The oarsmen steer- toward unknown waters, as
the artist does; like him. they voyage from darkness In light.

27

28

Improvisation XIX, 1911. Tlie discontinuity between the figures, who are rendered

with rough black brushstrokes, and the background of the painting

a broad, mottled
area of variations on blue, and a warm, red border with touches of yellow ami green

makes

it

possible to speak of color

structures. The

harmony of the

and

colors

would be just as

intelligible

representational sketch: the insubstantial figures are hardly

emphasize
29

line as two independent, almost unrelated

without the

more than a way

to

the tension at the edges of the painting.

All Saints'

Day

I,

1911. The

same

year,

Kandinsky completed

a representational

version of this painting using a similar chromatic arrangement

see plate 47). In the

present version, the areas of color intermingle in a maelstrom of directional tensions

that establishes no clear hierarchical order

30

Autumn

II,

1912. Tlie tenuous diagonal across the lower portion of the painting

gives rise to a spectacular image: a diaphanous landscape of soft,

autumn hues

is

waters of a lake. In this case, it is the title that provides the key
the painting's colors, as elsewhere it is given by a reference to music.
reflected in the still

28

to

29

Non-Objective Painting
During the years from 1910 to the outbreak of World War

I,

Kandinsky cre-

own painterly domain. The openly nonrepresentational nature of

work caused tensions with the NKVM, which in 1911 refused to exhib-

ated his
his

his Composition V (private collection), claiming that its format did not
comply with the mandatory requirements of the association. But as a
result, Kandinsky strengthened his friendships with Franz Marc and Arit

nold Schoenberg, which led to the forming of the Blue Rider. At the same
time,

Kandinsky pursued his interest

in theosophy,

which was to become

work as an artist. His paintings were already

nonrepresentational; only a few spare brushstrokes occasionally still hinted at figures and objects, now more as oblique allusions to the painting's
meaning than as its actual subject. Such vestiges of representation only
a spiritual resource for his

served to demonstrate Kandinsky 's awareness of his role as the founder of

new

kind of painting: with their traces of such subjects as the Deluge,

the Apocalypse, and the voyage to

unknown

waters, these

images of a great ending, but also of regeneration and of

reborn world. The theme of these paintings

between vibrant masses of color

arrival in a

all

new,

not merely the conflict

but, as the artist said, "the perception of

the spiritual in material and abstract things."

30

is

works are

31

Composition

that arches

IV,

1911. Tfie rainbow

between the mountains

harmony, a blue,
and green chord with strokes of red.
The black lines are little more than a

establishes the basic color

yellow,

template laid over the areas of color.

32

Improvisation

like this one, in

XIII,

1910. Paintings

which representational

content has dissolved into color, best

exemplify Kandinsky's work during the

years before World

War I.

Here, the masses

of color are contained by thick black strokes

that

might as well be cast shadows.

33

Impression V (Park), 1911.

lite black

lines that constitute the figurative elements

in this

painting were developed from an

observed motif but they have

little

chord of primary colors that

true essence of the work.
to the

relation
is the

31

34

St.

George II, 1911. Differently colored angular shapes cluster

around a yellow diagonal. Tin organization of the

like rectors

reminiscent of certain Cubist ideas of spatial

structure; however, both the date of this work and the nature of
Kandinsky's aesthetic decisions make it difficult to imagine a

painting

is

direct influence.

32

35

Deluge

I,

1912.

Kami, nst,,/s

(illusion to the biblical

Deluge

one oj the most frequent

metaphors <>J regeneration
is

at

this stage oj his career. Here,

downpour of shapes tumbles

through a range of colors, from
the intense actions to white

to

the reddish-greens at the back

36

Improvisation XXVIII (second

version), 1912.

Kandinsky

riciccd the painterly process of

the

Blue Rider years as a

way

of

freeing the spiritual from the

world of matter. This may

explain the chaotic appearance
of certain works, where the artist

seems

to

be releasing powerful

forces that he cannot as yet

control.

I]

38

WJIK^
34

37

Improvisation

Deluge and

to the

Deluge), 1913.

Once again, Kandinsky alludes

to the biblical

idea of chaos. Here, however, the relatively cool colors

and

the black

background dampen the explosive energy oj the scene, and Kandinsky lowers the
temperature of the large red shapes by putting lagers ofCat nice colors on top oj them.
The three rags across the upper part oj the painting suggest the symbolic oars in the
works that he painted in 1910 sec plate 27).
I

38

Stuily for Deluge

1912. The entire composition responds to the diagonal current

II,

that originates in the lower

and reds create

the top and right.
39

left

corner. The

warmest and most vibrant tones yclloics

and browns for the most part restricted to

the foreground, with blues

Improvisation XXVI (Rowing), 1912.

into tWO unequal parts.

<

hue again,

here laid over the pattern

o)

A wavy

red

roiri ng Jigu res

Hue

splits the pictorial

stupid

arc defined by a Jen black strokes,

color areas. The black lines establish a forceful diagonal

dynamic quality, and they thus impose a certain tension on

the more static background. By showing the tension between such wholly different
elements, Kandinsky wanted to convey the opposition between the material and
that gives the painting its

spiritual worlds.

35

36

40
nil

in

Painting with White Fonn, 1913. The idea of a pictorial core, a vortea upon which
the energies of the painting converge,

appear

in

was our of the

Kandinsky's work. Here, the core

is the

earliest organizing principles

white

blot to the left

of center.

Composition VI, 1913. Kandinsky called his most complex paintings

Compositions, and each was generally preceded by a number of preliminary studies.
Winks such ns this mr among his most intricate pictorial structures and run scarcely
41

be appreciated in reproduction.

42
Fantastic Improvisation, 1913. Thedarkblot
the center of the painting draws the
swirling strokes of color into one central vortex of movement. The more isolated areas
in the corners act as aframefor this dominant motion.

37

43

Moscow

II.

1916. Tins painting

hi the outbreak oj

World Wai

is

was executed
illuminating

aftt

to

Kandinsky's return

compare

it

description oj sunset in his native city "Th* sun dissolves the whole
a single spot,

which

..

sets all oj one's smil vibrating....

symphony, which brings every

color vividly to

Moscow to resound like thefinal fortissimo oj

hum: I thought, must be for an artist the must
44

Black Lines

yellow

is

I.

ini-l

here offset

l>t/

life,

<i

It is

oj

compact

<i>

nsity

Russia

Moscow

the last chord oj

which allows,

<

ven fon

into

tht

es, all oj

gigantic orchestra.... To paint this

impossible, the greatest joy."

The expansiveness that Kandinsky attributed

the

to

with his written

oj the

reds

and

i<>

the color

blues, Hindi, with their

greater compositional "weight," slip toward the bottom. The graphic lines in the work

do not

conflict with tin* undt

Hying painted

giving the viewer a schematic minus

Kandinsky

tested an*

oj

structure, but instead

complement

it,

reading the picture. With each painting,

the relationship between color

and inn

39

The Folkloric Imagination

Kandinsky was raised
him Russian and German folktales. In 1889, the Society of Natural Sciences, Ethnography, and
Anthropology invited him on a scientific mission to Vologda, in northern
During the greater part of his childhood

by

his aunt, Elisabeth Ticheeva,

in Russia,

who used

to read

Russia, to study agrarian law as well as the surviving traces of pre-Christ-

45

Song of the Volga, 1906. The painter

evokes the atmosphere of the Russian

folktales of his childhood

and

the

decorative sensibility typical of the

German

Jugendstil. Although he lingers

over such ornamental features as the

icons on the masts or the boats' carved

ian religions in the area. These circumstances attest to Kandinsky s early

interest in folklore

Romantic

and indigenous

culture,

among

tradition of Northern Europe. In Munich,

the constants in the

Kandinsky continued

to follow this particular predilection and, as a result, several paintings

from

his early years depict Russian

ures.

It is

worth noting

tradition, dating

his

and German legends and popular

profound interest

in the specifically

fig-

Bavarian

from the eighteenth and nineteenth centimes, of depict-

ing naive, vignette-like religious scenes in the

medium

of small votive

The almanac published by the Blue Rider in 1912 reproduced works of this kind from the Krotz collection, as well as a series of
popular prints of various cultural origins. What Kandinsky looked for in
paintings on glass.

these sources were signs of a spirituality

still

uncontaminated by subse-

quent cultural developments. Kandinsky himself,

icons of his native Russia,
the old

40

German

tradition.

made

paintings

who

never forgot the

on glass as well as woodcuts

in

figureheads, the whole scene

is

nonetheless

rendered in a vigorous manner.

46

Glass Painting with Sun,

1910. Bavarian paintings

on glass

may have put

in mind of

Kandinsky
Russian

icons.

The idea of

painting the frame, however,

belongs

to a

according

to

modem

tradition

which a work

oj

art should be a decorative

synthesis.

47

This

All Saints' Day, 1 91

is

1.

Kandinsky's quite

straightforward response

to

the naive religiosity oj the

Bavarian paintings on glass

from tin Krotz collodion.
However, the some year
the artist also

painted an

abstract version of this scene

(plate29).

41

48

Woman

in

figurative art,

Moscow, 1912. Only rarely did Kandinsky return to

mid when he did it was almost always to deal with

memories of his childhood

centralfigure here

iii

may have

Russia. Thefrontal rendition of the

been suggested by Russian icons,

while the general atmosphere, with mysterious characters floating

in midair, is not unlike thefables painted by his countryman

Mure ( nagalL The choice of colors

other work in those years.

42

is

quite typical of Kandinsky's

49

Last Judgment.

91 2.

1.

Apocalyptic imagery
recurs frequently in this

period of transition

toward an abstract

art.

In this work, both the

medium ofpainting
glass

and

on

the decorative

treatment of the frame

suggest ties to folk culture.

50

Women

in Crinoline,

1918. Painted during his

Russian sojourn,

this

small work on glass

is

so exceptional as

be

to

accountable only as a

form of private

diversion.

Both the theme and the

technique are quite remote

from

the artist's central

preoccupations at the
time.

43

A More
The years

Rigorous Style

Kandinsky spent in Russia before again going to Germany,

Bauhaus in 1921, were not very productive in terms of the number of works he made. He was kept busy by his responsibilities in the cultural and artistic administration of the new state that had issued from the
Revolution. Nonetheless, the paintings that he produced in this period disthat

to join the

play

some

significant developments. In spite of his differences with the

leading factions of the Russian avant-garde, the influence of their

clearly felt in the process of systematic analysis that

now

work

is

his

masses of color by means of more

forms. Now, a particular element

clearly defined

an oval or a circle often became the

focus of the composition, and he frequently used the four-sided figure of

the trapezoid, and other geometric shapes laid diagonally over the composition, to animate the pictorial surface

works

like this,
to

become more organized: the placement of

the two red areas and the central black our

announces the artist's 'preference for

arranging forms along a diagonal. Yet the
black strokes and threadlike lines are still
reminiscent of Kandiusky's artistic idiom

from

the

Munich

period.

overtook the

flowing chromaticism of the Blue Rider period. Kandinsky wanted to sub-

due and discipline

In the Gray, 1919. In

51

previously chaotic compositions begin

and define the subject of the

52

White Line, 1920. Tlicrc

is

dynamic

tension between the rectangular shape of

the canvas itself and the large trapezoid
shape that seems to he in front of it and

whose corners extend beyond the edges of

the painting, litis two-layer effect, together

with the projecting white arc in the

middle, makes the pictorial space seem

to

bulge outward at the center, as in a relief

painting.

to

44

a sharp difference from the tcorks of 1910

1914.

45

Red Oval, 1920. The red oral is a variation on the vortex element familiar from
Kandinsky's earlier paintings, but the large yellow plane that organizes the picture
53

as a whole heralds a new, increasingly geometric

Kandinsky's vocabulary hud changed

with them in a

54

new

little

style. Though the elements of

since the Munich period, he was composing

tray.

Maquette of a Mural for the Uivjuried Exhibition, 1922. Shortly after returning

to

Germany, Kandinsky executed a mural painting for the reception hall of the unjuried
"Berlin Free Exhibition," one of his few works designed as a decoration. The same
year,

55

lie

took charge of the Decorative Painting Workshop

Black Pattern, 1922.

colors in later paintings

cells

46

lliaii

to

in

arranged on overlapping planes.

The seeming evocation of ships and fish in the lower

-*/--.;

Bauhaus.

the

befitted with
A trapezium divided into tiny
here becomes the center toward which the other shapes

gravitate. The geometrically conceived forms are

capricious irony rather

ill

left

comer

a genuine Jigtiruti ve reference.

is

a touch of

47

Composition

56

Point and Line to Plane

VIII,

cosmic connotations.

Kandinsky worked for eleven years

from 1922 to 1933

at the

Bauhaus,

the Blue
(roily

first in

Weimar and then

in

Dessau and

Berlin. His experiences led

him

to

systematize his practices as a painter into a body of teaching, most notably in the

book Point and Line

to

The notion of
expounded in On the

initially

Spiritual in Art, continued to be at the core of his painting, but

idea

was combined with a new

now

this

interaction of forms. Kandinsky had long

c.racl Untie

On White

57

II,

careful,

pictorial surface.

however, not to rely too heavily on theory, applying

it

He was

freely, with-

out falling into the trap of making painting the mechanical implementation
of a formula.

applied more
economy ami

1923. Tivo heavy black

the

brown trapezoid as

it tilts

away from

The turning of the

triangles and quadrilaterals in space
the picture plane.

reflects this tension,

on the

Tlie

lines convey the twisting effect created by

overlap there

directions and points of tension

vibrant color of

now

of the geometric style establish

With his increasing reliance on geometric shapes, he could use them to

mark

Ttte
is

and smoothly.

pursued a theory of color based on an opposition between red and blue.

either intensify or reduce the inherent properties of each color, as well as

48

Rider years

a new sense of the absolute.

Plane, published in 1926.

musical and emotional equivalents to color,

1923. In thisperiod

of Kandinsky's career, the circle appears as

a symbol of perfection, often carrying

their colors.

is

For Kandinsky, the expressive

character of his
these

and

dynamic

colors.

and where they

a complex mingling of

art, its

drama, arose from

interactions between shapes

"The encounter of a circle with

the point of a triangle," he wrote, "is no

less affecting

Adam's

in the

than God's finger touching

work of Michelangelo."

49

50

59

58

Still

Tension. 1924.

As the

title

oj this painting suggests, its

pictorial structure demonstrates

the balance between opposing

The complex interplay in

forces.

the picture between

farms
set

a welte:

superimposed

S) stray/lit lutes

against curves and circles

against rectangles

is

resolved by

the equilibrium between the two

principal circles, set in opposite

comers. The strong diagonal

axis that connects the two is

emphasized by an arrow. The

arranged in

colors, too, are

accordance with this opposition,

so that the

"warmer" reds and

yellows predominate in the upper

left

and

lower

the "cooler" blues in the

right.

Within this color

scheme, the two circles serve as

alternatives: a cold vortex

and

hot one. Hie compositional clarity

sought in this type of painting

is

a result both of Kandinsky's

evolution as an artist

and his

concurrent experience as a teacher.

59

Hard But

Soft, 1927.

Once

again, the structural precision

is

reminiscent of the work of the

Russian Constructivists. Hie

intricate net, cork of straight lines,
circles,

and

triangles generates

pattern of small, separate

many
Hie

oj

title

them

tilled in

suggests

how

cells.

with color.
the hardness

of this geometric structure is

played off against the softness of
the open, diaphanous background.

51

Several Circles, 1926. Spheres

60

willi the l!L'.J

graphic portfolio

and disks begin

Little

reconcile the intellectual rigor of the

Tfius, in

to

appear

Worlds (see page

Bauhaus with

his

in

Kaudinsky's work

whereby he sought

6),

own

to

spiritualistic impulses.

one sense, geometric shapes such as the circle are the products of the rational
oj the system of mathematical measurement first developed by the ancient

mind, part

Greeks. Yet at the

same

lime, as

Kaudiusky

said, "a circle

...

is

a blazing patch of

a solai- disk, like the sun. endowed with cosmic overtones and thus a

sky"

way of

picturing, anil understanding, the workings of the universe.

61

Thirteen Rectangles, 1930.

Kandinsky seems
than he

may

to

to

seem. This work

Mondrian and

Tlieo

which appears

in a

and

return

As

if

reversing the course of his development,

a kind of rigor from tvhich he

may suggest

actually

more distant

van Doesburg, hut the staircase arrangement of the rectangles,

also invokes an occult notion of initiation

number of paintings,

spi ritual progress.

As

in

must works from this period, the cut ire composition

organized around one element, in this case the

52

was

the Ncoplasticist compositions ofPiet

large, red

square near the

center.

is

M
.->.}

A New Freedom
Kandinsky's relation to European abstract painting after he settled in Paris
in

1933 was not an easy one. Although, by that time, he was an established

French capital was rather restricted. In spite

works are characterized by the special freedom
and tranquility sometimes seen in an artist's old age. Kandinsky abandoned the strict geometry that had distinguished the Bauhaus years and
started practicing what can be called a "biomorphic" abstraction, on
artist, his

social circle in the

of that, however, his late

account of

its

softly organic, sinuous shapes.

For some viewers, these

images evoke the world revealed by the microscope, an association which

may indeed have

attracted the artist as an alternative to immediate per-

ception, a fantastic universe concealed from the unaided senses.

What the

mysterious yet festive lyricism of these paintings really seeks, however,

is

the "inner gaze," that transcendental goal that Kandinsky had pursued

throughout his career. In 1910, writing about the content of his paintings,

he said that he wanted "to speak of secrets by means of a secret. Could

this

be the theme?

Is this

not the objective, conscious or unconscious, of

the urgent creative impulse? With the language of art one can speak to

humanity about what

is

beyond the human."

62

Hh.

^8fe

mm
\

w
,

'*

%
fa

54

Interrelations, 1934.

62

recall the

appearance

oj

The small, dynamic, and brightly colored organic forms

tiu tiny cells set n through tin lens oj a mierosropt

protozoa,

One cannot discount the influence oj artists such as Jean Arp and Joan Mir6, whom
Kandinsky met during his years in Paris, but the i>ri>iciples nun mint) the coloi
relations remain the Same OS in his oicu previous icorks.
Graceful Ascent, 1934. The stepped arrangt merit of shapes seen in Thin. -en
but now it is presented in a more uninhibitt d

63

Rectangles (plate 61) returns hen

milliner, like

suggestion
subtil/

one

oj the

oj a spiral,

miniature uuireesis. fiUl

by Paul Khe.

Oj nit. ilerisi'it

created by the threi small crescents above

tht

llic

central squart

enhances the sense of upward mOVt no nt. while also indicating the kind of
Kandinsky had employed in mam/ oj his paintings since the Munich

vortex thai
years.

63

in

ff

,:ili\llf

illO

Ul

LAjII.

r
i

rr'

55

^m

64

Dominant Curve,

1936. TIk symbolic

staircase, most evident
<il

the lower right, here

incorporates both

geometric and organic

fonns. Though Kandinsky

remained indebted

to the

compositional rigor of the

Bauhaus, he also valued

the greater freedom of the

new idiom that he had

now mastered.
65

Accompanied

Milieu.

1937. Hie familiar

symbolism of the circle

gives rise to myriad
curvilinear shapes, the

dominant one resembling

the staff of a musical
score, all set against a

bright yellow field, like the

gold background of an
icon.

"

56

'

]^.

The White Line 1936 Kandinsky here makes use oj the distinctively modernist
whipping curve, so frequent, for instance, in th< decorative works <</ August Endell,
whom Kandinsky met during his first years in Munich The biomorphic form undei

66

tlic

white

line,

with

its

related indenting curves, evokes both the contours

texture of a micro-organism, although recently

and

H has been

and

the

reinterpreted as a horse

riilcr.

57

58

67

Unanimity, 1939.

One of the most

distinctive features of

Kandinsky's
is

phase

last

the progressivi

lightening of his
palette, irhieh often

became extremely
bright, as well as his

greater use of blended

hues, lessening the
reliance on
colors that

primary
had

extended through the

Munich and Bauhaus

gears.

68

Composition X,

1939. For Kandinsky,

abstraction jiresujijioscd.

above

all.

the creation

of an autonomous
artistic universe,

independent

and

Oj''nature.

yet no less real

and concrete than

natural world.

the

Tfie

colored shapes floating

before a midnight

background

tell

of just

such an alternative

and visionary
universe.

69

Sky Blue, 1940.

The biomorphic forms

seen here, looking like
fantastic animals,

may

refer to the

world

of children's togs or

to

that of Slavic folk art,

although Kandinsky

was usually vexed

alien critics

made

such associations in
talking about his work.

59

70

Accompanied

Contrast, 1935.

Generally not

concerned with purely

70

technical innovation,

Kaudinsky did
nonetheless sometimes
experiment with using

sand

to i/irc

lecture to

the paint.

71

Delayed Actions,

1941. The freedom

and

fluidity of paintings

such as this can make

for quite an elaborate

composition.

number of segments
throughout thepicture
could easily have been
developed into

paintings in their own

right. Indeed,

many

different parts of the

canvas carry equal

importance, without
the focused coves of

tension typical of the

artist's earlier works.

60

72.

Circle and Square,

7:i

1943; The Small tied

Circle,

/.'')

last works,

't.

Kandinsky's

of which these

are two examples, display

certain devicesfrom the

geometric period, such

as circles pierced by
triangles, or the

interaction between
straight lines

and curves

generating the pictorial

spin

These are

mm-

presi tiled in a differ* nt

in nil

ri.

of course, but the

artist remit ins Im/iil In Die

notion

oj

an alternative

painterly univt

rse,

only

luuseU) connected to the

material world.

61

List of Plates

The Old

City

II,

1902. Oil on (auras, 20V.-

78.5 cm). Musee National d'Art Moderne,

<

x 30%" (52 X

'entre

21

Study for Winter n, 1910-11. Oil on cardboard, 13 x 17'/"

7 cm
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

(33 x 44.

Georges

I.

Pompidou, Paris
22
2

Kochel: Waterfall

9'A" (32.4

x 23.5 cm). Stadtische

Trees

in

panel, 7

The Town Church, 1908. Oil on cardboard, 13

(33 x 45 cm Yon der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal

Sketch for Composition

38% x 51%"
Museum. New York

1910. Oil on canvas,

II,

(97.5 x 131.2 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim

Munich

Galerie,

Bloom at Lana 1, 1908. Oil on canvas over

10%" (17.8 x 25.9 cm). Private collection, New York

12% x

1900. Oil on canvas over cardboard,

I,

Riegsee:

24
Improvisation VII, 7970. Oil on canvas, 51% x 38%" (131 X
9? cm). Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

1?

>

23 Improvisation VI, 790.9. Oil on canvas, 42% X 39%>" (107 x

99.5cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. Munich

).

25
5

Munich: Schwabing with the Church of St. Ursula, 1908. Oil on

27 x

cardboard,

19'/" (68.8

x 49 cm

).

Improvisation XVIII (with Tombstones), 1911.

OH on

canvas,

x 120 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,

55'/ x 47'/" (141

Munich

Stadtische Galerie im

Lenbachhaus, Munich
26
6

Landscape with a Tower, 1908. Oil on cardboard. 29% x 38%"

(74 x 98.5

cm

).

Musee National

Improvisation

XI, 1910. Oil

106.5cm). Russian Museum.

on caucus,

St.

38% x 41%"

(97.5 x

Petersburg

d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges

27

Pompidou, Paris

Passage by Boat,

7.970. Oil

on canvas, 38%

V (98

41

705 cm). Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

7

Interior

(My Dining Room),

7.909. Oil

on cardboard. 19% x

65 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

(50

25

28

Improvisation XIX,

7.97

7.

Oil on canvas.

47% X 55V" (120 X

141.5 cm) Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

8

Oriental, 1909. Oil on cardboard,

Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,

27 X 38" (69.5 x 96.5 cm).

Munich
I

29

All Saints'

Day

I,

797 7. Oil on cardboard, 19% x 25%" (50 x

64.5 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,

9

Mountain, 1909. Oil on canvas,

42% x 42%" (109 x 709

Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus,

Munich

cm).
30

Munich

Autumn

II.

1912. Oil on canvas,

23% X 32%" (60 X 82 cm).

The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

10

Obermarkt with Mountains, 1908. Oil on cardboard, 13 X

(33 x 41 cm). Private

11

The Blue

65 cm
12

collection.

OH

Rider. 1903.

16'/"

31

Germany

on canvas,

21% x 25%" (55 x

Improvisation XIII, 7.970. Oil on canvas, 47% x 55%" (120 x

140 Cm). Slaal/iehe Kuusthulle, Karlsruhe

Sketch for Achtyrka: Autumn, 7.907. Oil on canvas over

cardboard,

9% x 12%"

33

(23.7 x 32.7cm). Stadtische Galerie im

21% X 19%" (55 X

34

Rough Sea, 7.906. Oil on canvas over cardboard. 9 x

x 33 cm). Music National d'Art Moderne, Cm/re Georges

Rapallo:

Pompidou, Paris
16

The Farewell,

]Iiisec

17

18

96 6

7.903.

Woodcut, 12% x 12%" (31.3 X 31.2

cm

).

Xulional d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Winter Landscape

1,

1909. Oilon cardboard,

97.5 cm). The State Hermitage Museum,

(71.5

28%
St.

<

38

"

Petersburg

41% x 38" (106 X

Guggenheim Museum, Xeic York

Blue Mountain, 1908-9. Oil on canvas,

I

in

Solomon

R.

).

7.977. Oil

Musee National

19
Murnau: TheGarden
1910. Oil on caucus, 26
32
82 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
I,

St.

George

II,

7,97 7.

on caucus, 41

'A

x 62" (106 x

d'Art Moderne. Centre Georges

OH

96cm). Russian Museum.

14 Portrait of Gabriele Munter, 1905. Oil on canvas, 17 'A x 17%"

(45 x 45 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. Munich

13" (23

cm

Pompidou, Paris

Riding Couple, 1906-7. Oil on canvas,

50.5 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

15

Impression V (Park),

157 .5

Lenbachhaus, Munich

13

).

32

Private collection, Zurich

).

IV, 7,977. Oil on canvas, 62% X 8'2%" (159.5 X

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf

Composition

250.5 cm

\"

35

Deluge

I,

on canvas,

St.

42% x 37%" (107 x

Petersburg

1912. Oil on canvas,

39% x 41%" (100 x 105

cm).

Kaiser-Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld

36

Improvisation XXVIII (second rersiou), 1912. Oil on canvas,

M'/'

New

York

62'%"

(113 X 158 cm). Solomon

R.

Guggenheim Museum,

Improvisation (Deluge), 1913. Oil on caucus. .17 \" x 59"

(95 x 150 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
37

38

Study for Deluge

II.

1912. Oil on caucus.

107.5 cm). Collation Harold Diamont,

39

New

37% X

42'/" (95

York

Improvisation XXVI (Rowing), 1912. oil on canvas,

X 42'/" (97 X 107.5 cm). Stadtische

Munich

38'%

(ialeric

im Lenbachhaus,

(66 x
40

Painting with White Form, 191.1. Oil on canvas,

7% x 55"

(120.3 x 139.6 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Neiv York

20

Murnau: View with Railroad and Castle, 7.909. OH on

19%" (36 > i9 cm). Stadtische Galerie im
14'.

cardboard,

Lenbachhaus, Munich

62

41

Composition

VI,

1913.

OH

loo cm). The State Hermitage

on canvas, 6'4%" x 70'

Museum,

St.

Petersburg

(7.9.5

42

Fantastic Improvisation, 1913. Oil on canoas,

(130

51'.

< 51'/s"

130 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

'

62

Interrelations, 1934.

Washington, D.(
43

Moscow

1916. Oil on canvas,

II,

14'. "

20'.

'.

36 cm).

<r,J

63

Private collection

Graceful Ascent, 1934. Oil on canvas, 31%"

m Museum, New

York

SO cm). Solomon
44

Black Lines

1,

1913. Oil on caucus, 51

51

',"

R. Guggciiltci

(80 X

"

129.4 X

Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York

131.1 cm).

Mixed mediums on canvas, 35 x 45%"

(HO x 116 cm). Collection Mr. and Mrs. David Lloyd Kreeger,

6'
Dominant Curve, 1936. Oil on canvas, 51'
(130 X It).', cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Men

64

Song of the Volga, 1906. Tempera on cardboard, 19'/ x 26"

/!)
66 cm Mus4e National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris

York

45
1

i.

Accompanied

65

W%

Milieu, 1937. oil on canvas,

57'/"

(114 x 146 cm). Whereabouts unknown. Formerly collection

Adrien Maeght, Paris

46

Glass Painting with Sun, 1910. Reverse painting on glass with

painted frame, 12 x 15 A" (SO. 6 x 40.3 cm). Stadtische Galerie im

66

Lenbachhaus, Munich

19% X

47

All Saints' Day,

101

1.

48

1912. Oil on canvas,

42% x 42%"

Collection Jeffrey H. Loria,

(108.8 x

108.8 cm). Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

49

Last Judgment, 1912. Reverse painting on glass with pointed

frame, 13'/
(

Moderne.

x 17%" (33.6 x 45.3 cm). Musee National

Unanimity, 1939. Oil on canvas,

67

13'/,

Woman in Moscow,

9% x 16"

in Crinoline, 1918.

(25.1

x 40.8 cm). Tretyakov

Gallery,

d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges

Accompanied Contrast, 1935.

New

Moscow

In the Gray, 1919. Oil on caucus, 50% X 69'%" (129 X

176 cm). Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris

).

Pompidou, Paris

Museum Ludwig,

sand on canvas,
Guggenheim Museum.

Oil with
R.

York

Delayed Actions, 1941. Mi. red mediums on canvas, 35 x 45'%"

71

(89 X 116 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Neiv York

72

White Line, 1920. Oil on canvas,

53 Red
Solomon

x 92 cm).

Sky Blue, 1940. Oil on canvas, 39% X 28'/" (100 X 73 cm

69

38% x 63/" (97 x 162 cm). Solomon

Reverse painting on glass.

51

52

36'/" (73

Georges Pompidou, Paris

'cut re

Women

28/ x

York

Composition X, 1939. Oil on canvas, 51% x 6'4/" (130 x

195 cm). Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldor)

Musee National

d'Art

New

68

70
50

Line, 1936.

15'/" (49.9

Reverse painting on glass with painted

x 16" (34.5 x 40.5 cm), Stadtische Galerie im

Lenbachhaus, Munich
frame.

Gouache ami tempera on black paper.

x 38.7cm). Musee National d'Art Moderne,
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
The White

38% X 31%" (98 X 80 cm).

and Square, 1943. Tempera and oil on cardboard.

X 22%" (42 X 58 cm). Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre

Circle

16'%

Georges Pompidou, Paris

Cologne

28% X 28" (71.5 X 71.2 cm).

Guggenheim Museum, Nov York

The Small Red

Gouache and

Oval, 1920. Oil on canvas,

73

R.

16% x 22%" (42 x 58 cm). Musee National

Circle, 1944.

oil

on cardboard,

d'Art Moderne, Centre

Georges Pompidou, Paris

54

Maquette of a Mural for the Unjuried Exhibition, 1922.

Gouache on black paper, 13% x 23%" (34.7 x 60 cm). Musee

National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Black Pattern, 1922. Oil on canvas, .',?.

41 \" (96 X
106 cm). Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris
55

Selected Bibliography

X 6'7%"

Composition VIII, 79.2.3. Oil on canvas, 55%

(140 x 201 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
56

New

Avtonomova,
York

Natalia, Vivian Endicott

Bamett,

et al.

Perspectives on Kandinsky. Malmo, Sweden:

New

Malmo

Konsthall,

Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 1990.

57

On White

1923. Oil on canvas,

II,

Musee National

d'Art Moderne,

41% x 38%" (105 x 98 cm).

'cut re

Georges Pompidou, Paris

Dabrowski, Magdalena. Kandinsky: Compositions.

Museum
Grohmann,

58

Still

Tension, 1924.

54.5cm). Private

OH

on cardboard.

collection.

30% X 21%"

(78.5

Paris

of

Modem

Will.

59

Hard But

Soft, 1927. Oil

50cm). Museum
60

o)

61

Fine Arts, Boston

Several Circles. 1926.

140 cm). Solomon

39% x 19%" (100 x

R.

OH

on caucus, 55

Pompidou. Paris

York: Rizzoli, 1993.

Writings on Art. Rev.

ed..

eds.

Kandinsky:

New York: Da Capo

<

'ompU

te

Press, 1994.

Hans K., and Jean K. Benjamin. Kandinsky: Catalogue

Raisouue of lite Oil Paintings. 2 vols. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell

.',.'>

"

(140 x

Guggenheim Museum. New York

Musee National

New

C, and Peter Vergo,

Roethel,

Thirteen Rectangles. 1930. Oil on cardboard. 27

(69.5 x 59.5 cm).

The

York:

Inc., 1958.

Hahl-Koch, Jelena Kandinsky.

on canvas,

Wassily Kandinsky: Life and Work. New York:

Harry N. Abrams,
Lindsay, Kenneth

New

Art, 1995.

23%"

d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges

University Press, 1982, 1984.

Washton Long, Rose-Carol. Kandinsky: The Development

Abstract Style. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.
Weiss, Peg. Kandinsky ami "Old Russia": The Artist as

oj

an

Ethnographer and Shaman. New Haven, Conn., and London:

Yale University Press. 1995.

63

Series

<

'oordinator, English-language edition: Ellen Rosefsky

Editor, English-language edition:

Cohen

James Leggio

Designer, English-language edition: Judith Michael

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-78423

ISBN 0-8109-4692-0
Copyright

1995 Ediciones Poligrafa, S.A. and Globus Communication, S.A.

Reproductions copyright

Kandinsky. VEGAP, Barcelona, 1994

English translation copyright

Published

A Times

in

1996 Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

1996 by Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated,

Mirror

New

York

Company

All rights reserved.

No

part of the contents of this

book may

be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher

Printed and bound in Spain by La Poligrafa, S.L.

Pa iris del

Voiles

(Barcelona)

Dep. Leg.:B. 39.912-1995

64

*i

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

9999 02958 043 6

BRIGHTON BRANCH LIBRARY

w
ABRAMS TITLES IN
THE GREAT MODERN MASTERS SERIES
Each volume includes
approximately 75 colorplates

BACON
CHAGALL
DALI
DE CHIRICO

KANDINSKY
KLEE

KOKOSCHKA
LEGER
MAGRITTE
MATISSE
MIRO
PICASSO
Other

are in preparation

titles

Jacket front:

Still

Tension, 1924. 0(7 on cardboard,

2\V" (78.5 x 54.5 cm). Private collection. Paris.

Artists Rights Society (ARS),

tucket back: (above)

Maria

New York/ADAGP,

anil

30% x

1995

Paris

Franz Marc, Bernhard

Koehler (pere). Heiurich Campendonk. Thomas von

Harttnann, and Knndinsky (seated) in 1911: (below)

Kandinsky, photographed by Hannes Beckmann

in 1935.

CAMEO/ABRAMS
Harry N. Abrams,
100 Fifth Avenue

New

York,

tt.Y.

10011

Printed in Spain

Inc.

in

Paris

before World War I, the Russianborn painter Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944),

then living in Germany, formed with the artist
Franz Marc anc
d known as the
Blue Rider. To^
oped a variety
of Expressioni
ts rich colors,
Kandinsky, hov
go further, and
continued to pi
:he edge of abcoming one of
straction, and t
the founders of twentieth-century abstract art.
No longer limited to the natural appearances
of things, Kandinsky exploited the expressive
power of color and of complex, intertwined
lines to create r
al world. In the
sky taught at the
1920s and early 1
renowned Germ;
f art and design
known as the Bai
he closing of the
Bauhaus by the ^
he left Germany
for Paris. In the 3
n the wars, Kandinsky's work became more geometric, as he
sought to make his art more rigorous and disute year

0-8109-4692-0

90000

'780810"946927'