Leo Martínez
Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist who is credited with creating the first modern abstract paintings. He began his artistic career at the age of 30 when he enrolled at the Munich Academy, studying under Franz von Stuck, a traditionalist painter and teacher. Kandinsky's early work reflected his interest in colour symbolism and psychology, as well as his exposure to Impressionism and the works of Monet and Richard Wagner. He went on to develop a unique style that de-emphasised traditional boundaries such as form and line, focusing instead on the communication of emotion through colour and motion. Kandinsky's abstract works, such as 'Composition VII' and 'The Blue Rider', are considered to be some of the most influential paintings of the 20th century, inspiring later artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.
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What You'll Learn
Kandinsky's influences and inspiration
In 1896, Kandinsky gave up his career in academia to enrol at the Munich Academy. That year, he saw an exhibition of Monet's paintings, which had a profound effect on him. He was particularly struck by the impressionistic style of 'Haystacks', which he felt had a powerful sense of colour that was independent of the objects themselves. This experience would prove formative in his artistic philosophy, which turned towards the significance of geometric elements and the expressive power of colour.
Kandinsky was also influenced by the French composer Claude Debussy, the French writer WB Yeats, and the German composer Richard Wagner, whose work he felt pushed the limits of music and melody beyond standard lyricism. He was further inspired by Theosophy, a spiritual theory that postulates that creation is a geometrical progression, beginning with a single point. Kandinsky's book 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art' (1910) and 'Point and Line to Plane' (1926) echoed this tenet.
Kandinsky was also influenced by his contemporaries, including the painter and writer Arnold Schoenberg, with whom he shared a deep interest in breaking down the barriers between different art forms. He was also a member of the Blue Rose symbolist group of Moscow and an associate of the Bauhaus school of art and architecture, where he taught from 1922 until 1933.
Kandinsky's work was also influenced by his spiritual and philosophical beliefs. He saw himself as a prophet whose mission was to share his ideal of art with the world for the betterment of society. He believed that music was the most transcendent form of non-objective art and strove to create paintings that alluded to sounds and emotions through a unity of sensation. He was interested in the idea of synaesthesia, the scientific name for the condition in which the senses are confused with one another, and often spoke of "hearing colours".
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Kandinsky's artistic philosophy
Wassily Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist, considered the creator of the first modern abstract paintings. His artistic philosophy was deeply spiritual, and he sought to convey profound emotions and spirituality through a universal visual language of abstract forms and colours. Kandinsky viewed abstract art as the ideal mode to express his "inner necessity" and convey universal human emotions and ideas.
Kandinsky's philosophy also turned towards the significance of geometric elements, including circles, half-circles, straight lines, angles, squares, checkerboards, and triangles. This was influenced by theosophical theory, which postulates that creation is a geometrical progression, beginning with a single point. His paintings often featured these geometric shapes, and he believed that the interplay of colours and shapes could create visual "chords" that resonated with each other and influenced the soul.
Music was also a significant influence on Kandinsky's artistic philosophy. He believed that music was the most transcendent form of non-objective art, and he sought to produce paintings that alluded to sounds and emotions through a unity of sensation. He often used musical terms to describe his paintings, such as "Compositions", "Improvisations", and "Impressions". Kandinsky's paintings also demonstrated the influence of Pointillism, Fauvism, and Expressionism. His figures became less distinct, and his compositions increasingly planar, with the interplay of colour taking precedence over conventional form.
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Kandinsky's use of colour
Kandinsky's interest in colour symbolism and its effect on the human psyche began during his early exposure to the arts and ethnography studies at the University of Moscow. He later developed his theory of colour, which held that colours have "spiritual vibrations" and produce a "psychic effect" beyond their physical impression on the eye. This theory, published in 1911, aimed to explain the painter's palette in two ways: the effect on the eye (the physical understanding of colour) and "inner resonance", the psychological effect on one's spiritual experience.
Kandinsky's colour theory identified several colours and their meanings. For instance, yellow was described as "warm," "cheeky and exciting," and "disturbing for people," while green represented peace, stillness, and passivity, a mix of yellow and blue. Blue was associated with peace, the supernatural, and depth, considered a "typical heavenly colour." Red, on the other hand, signified restlessness, glow, and aliveness, representing "manly maturity."
In his paintings, Kandinsky used colour to express his experience of the subject matter rather than to describe objective nature. For example, in "Couple on Horseback" (1907), the horse is muted, while the leaves in the trees, the town, and the reflections in the river glisten with spots of colour and brightness. This work demonstrates the influence of pointillism, with the depth of field collapsed into a flat, luminescent surface.
Kandinsky's artistic philosophy also emphasised the significance of geometric elements, including circles, half-circles, straight lines, angles, squares, checkerboards, and triangles. He combined these shapes with colour to create compositions that conveyed harmony and tension, reflecting the cycle of life.
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Kandinsky's impact on art
Wassily Kandinsky is widely recognised as one of the pioneers of abstraction in Western art. His artistic philosophy centred on the significance of geometric elements, including circles, triangles, squares, and straight lines. Kandinsky's work was also deeply spiritual, and he sought to convey profound emotions and spirituality through abstract forms and colours. He believed that abstract, non-objective art was the ideal mode to express the "inner necessity" of the artist and convey universal human emotions and ideas.
Kandinsky's interest in colour symbolism and its effect on the human psyche began during his early exposure to the arts and his studies in Moscow. He was particularly fascinated by colour and its symbolism and psychology, which continued to influence his work throughout his career. Kandinsky's book, 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art' (1910), outlined his ideas about the spiritual in art and the role of the artist. He also published 'Point and Line to Plane' in 1926, which detailed his theories about a "science of painting".
Kandinsky's work was influenced by Impressionism, as seen in his early work, 'The Haystack', which was inspired by a Monet painting. He was also influenced by Pointillism, Fauvism, and Surrealism, incorporating organic shapes and biomorphic forms into his work. The theme of the horse and rider appeared frequently in his work, signifying his resistance to conventional aesthetic values and his pursuit of a purer, more spiritual life through art.
Kandinsky's teaching career also impacted the art world, as he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then moved to France, where he continued to produce some of his most prominent work, experimenting with biomorphic forms and organic shapes.
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Kandinsky's life and work in context
Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 to well-educated, upper-class parents of mixed ethnic origins. His father was a tea merchant, and his mother was a Muscovite. Kandinsky spent most of his childhood in Odesa, a thriving, cosmopolitan city with a diverse population. He studied law, ethnography, and economics at the University of Moscow, and later became a professor of Roman law at the University of Dorpat in Estonia.
Kandinsky's interest in colour symbolism and its effect on the human psyche grew during his time in Moscow. In 1889, he joined an ethnographic research group that travelled to the Vologda region in northwest Russia, where he studied the use of bright colours on a dark background in folk art. This experience influenced much of his early work, and he began to see painting as a way of composing music—an idea that would become central to his artistic philosophy.
In 1896, Kandinsky gave up his academic career to enrol at the Munich Academy, where he studied life drawing, sketching, and anatomy. He was particularly influenced by Monet's use of colour and Richard Wagner's composition Lohengrin, which sparked a synesthetic experience in which he perceived colours as sounds and visual images. During this period, he was also influenced by theosophy, which postulates that creation is a geometrical progression, beginning with a single point.
Kandinsky's artistic philosophy turned towards the significance of geometric elements, including circles, straight lines, angles, and triangles. He published two major theoretical works, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1910) and Point and Line to Plane (1926), which outlined his ideas about a "science of painting". His paintings became increasingly abstract, and he experimented with biomorphic forms that were more organic than the harsh geometric shapes of his earlier work.
Kandinsky's paintings often did not feature human figures, with the exception of works such as Sunday, Old Russia (1904) and Couple on Horseback (1907). His use of colour took precedence over conventional form, and he sought to convey profound spirituality and the depth of human emotion through a universal visual language of abstract forms and colours. Kandinsky viewed non-objective, abstract art as the ideal mode to express his "inner necessity" and convey universal human emotions and ideas. He believed that music was the most transcendent form of non-objective art, and he strove to create paintings that alluded to sounds and emotions through a unity of sensation.
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Frequently asked questions
Kandinsky was inspired to take up painting at the age of 30 after seeing an exhibit of Monet's paintings. He was particularly struck by the impressionistic style of Haystacks, which had a powerful sense of colour. He also found inspiration in Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin, which sparked a synesthetic experience where he began to associate colours with sounds.
Kandinsky believed that colours could resonate with each other to produce visual "chords" that had an influence on the soul. He saw music as the most transcendent form of non-objective art and sought to create paintings that alluded to sounds and evoked emotions. He often used musical terms in the titles of his paintings, such as Compositions, Improvisations, and Impressions.
Kandinsky's early works were influenced by Fauvism, Pointillism, and Expressionism. His figures became less distinct, and his compositions increasingly planar, with colour taking precedence over form. By the time he left Moscow in 1921, his paintings, such as "White Line" and "Red Spot", contained no recognisable objects. He then moved to Germany, where he taught at the Bauhaus school and his style shifted towards harsh geometric shapes. After the Nazis closed the Bauhaus school in 1933, he moved to France and experimented with more organic, biomorphic forms.
