Famous Creator the legendary “Blue Rider” turned to the field of art relatively late - at the age of about 30, which did not prevent him from achieving significant heights, becoming one of the creators of abstract art, the founder of numerous artistic associations and a teacher at the Higher School of Construction and Artistic Design, better known as the Bauhaus .
Kandinsky came from an original Siberian merchant family, where the blood of Tungus princes was intricately mixed with the most ancient pedigree, no less ancient princely family of Mansi and convicts exiled to Nerchinsk for God knows what offenses.
During the childhood of the future artist, his family traveled a lot throughout Europe and Russia, and then settled in Odessa, which was then the third most important city in the Russian Empire. In this wonderful southern city, Vasily graduated from high school, and also received a music and art education. Despite the boy's undoubted talent, his parents predicted a career as a lawyer, which he brought to life, studying intermittently at Moscow University.
However real life Kandinsky's career as an artist begins with an exhibition of impressionist art in Moscow in 1895, where he was struck to the heart by the work of Claude Monet. IN next year he leaves for Munich, where he immerses himself in the environment of expressionism, but the outbreak of the First World War interrupts his formation and he returns to his homeland. Nose Soviet Russia he was not on his way, and Vasily Vasilyevich left his native land forever in 1921. He leaves for Germany, from where, after some time, he and his wife flee to France from the Nazis, who closed the Bauhaus and recognize only their own, deeply formalized and static art. In his adopted country he receives citizenship, becomes famous and lives the rest of his life.
Over the years of his creativity, Kandinsky founded the Phalanx association, a school, participated in the Jack of Diamonds, then founded the New Munich artistic association, and later the famous “Blue Rider”.
At the beginning of his artistic career, the master worked in a realistic and partially abstract manner, experimented with shapes and colors, and painted on glass.
Having started teaching activities, Kandinsky soon became a prominent theorist of abstract art and the Bauhaus. His most famous paintings- these are “Moscow”, “East”, “Oscillation” and “Composition”, but there are a lot of them and each of them has every right to be called a true masterpiece. His paintings are extremely interesting to look at; there is a feeling that from every point of view something new and unusual is revealed in them.
Unfortunately, the fascists who came to power managed to destroy many of Vasily Vasilyevich’s works, as well as other talented masters classified as “degenerate art.” But the remaining paintings are enough for us to understand what a great talent Kandinsky was. The master died in 1944 in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris.
Wassily Kandinsky faced many trials. He was able to survive wars and revolutions, a dictatorial regime. His art was not understood, which caused outrage from critics.
1911 marks the emergence of Kandinsky as an abstractionist. He calls his works compositions, impressions, improvisations. A classic example is the canvas “Improvisation 21A”. This abstract composition, but if you look closely, you can see real objects. For example, in the central part you can see a mountain with a tower. Clear black lines surround areas of intense color. Such lines will become fundamental in Kandinsky’s work.
One of the rare oil paintings is “In Gray”. It was conceived as a composition with mountains, boats and human figures. But on the final canvas these objects and figures are almost indistinguishable. Everything is reduced to abstract hieroglyphs. The painting reflects the artist’s desire for a thoughtful composition of pictorial space. The master's palette becomes softer. Muted grays, browns, blue tones characteristic of the so-called Russian period of Kandinsky’s work. Having left for Germany, the colors become uniform and flat.
The painting “Vibration” was created in Weimar. There are many geometric shapes. A notable element is the chessboard. The triangle interacts with the circle. The opposition of shapes and colors is conveyed. In general, the composition is sufficient, solid and thoughtful, and the unity of color and shape created a complex structure. The palette, other than the checkerboard, is muted.
In his abstract painting, Kandinsky uses real objects, but conveys them using geometric shapes. For example, the painting “Cossacks”. The plot is inspired during the revolution of 1905, when Cossacks galloped around Moscow. The canvas especially depicts two Cossacks, below them a rainbow, which forms the road leading to the palace on the hill. Kandinsky does not strive for objects to be clearly recognizable; he wants the viewer to be imbued with spirituality. At this time, he is searching for a new language with which he could express a new worldview. Forms crumble before our eyes, leaving behind only traces.
Kandinsky's whole path is, first of all, evolution. He started with general discussions about spirituality, but later the specifics came. He develops a mathematical theory plastic arts, which is based on the interaction of geometric shapes on a person, and their relationship with color in painting.
Wassily Vasilyevich Kandinsky (12/16/1866, Moscow, Russian empire- 13/13/1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) - an outstanding Russian painter, graphic artist and theorist of fine arts, one of the founders of abstract art. He was one of the founders of the Blue Rider group.
Biography of Wassily Kandinsky.
The family into which Wassily Kandinsky was born came from an ancient Transbaikal family; his great-grandmother was a Tungus princess. As a child, little Vasily had to travel a lot around Russia and Europe with his parents. After his family settled in Odessa, Kandinsky graduated from high school, received elementary art and musical education. In 1885, the Kandinsky family returned to Moscow, and in the same year Vasily entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. Kandinsky interrupted his studies twice: the first time for health reasons, and the second time due to an expedition to the Vologda province. In 1893 he graduated from the university and went to work at the printing house of the Partnership of I. N. Kushnerev and Co. as artistic director.
In 1896, V. Kandinsky left for Munich, where he met outstanding, and then beginning, Russian artists such as,. Then it was Kandinsky who decided to connect his life with art, or rather with painting. And already in 1897, Vasily Vasilyevich began studying painting in the private studio of A. Ashbe. Three years later, in 1900, he entered the Munich Academy of Arts, and also from this year began a series of travels: he visited North Africa, Italy, France, while not forgetting to stop by Moscow and Odessa.
In 1901, Wassily Kandinsky organized the creative association “Phalanx” and an art school attached to it, where he began his pedagogical activity. In general, Kandisky’s life is very closely connected with many artistic associations: in 1909 he founded the “New Munich Artistic Association”. And in 1910 and 1912 he took part in exhibitions of the creative association “Jack of Diamonds”, as a protest against everything academic. Parallel to this movement, Kandinsky creates his own innovative ethic about “rhythmic” color in painting.
In 1911, together with Franz Marc, they started another creative association and subsequently an almanac called “The Blue Rider”. Not only artists took part in it, but also dancers and composers who were interested in expressionism, fauvism and cubism. Members of this association were such artists as Marianna Veryovkina, Alexey Yakovlensky and Paul Klee. During the same period, V. Kandinsky held his first personal exhibition.
In 1914, Wassily Kandinsky returned to Russia and stopped in Moscow. During the Moscow period, he created mainly landscapes, working in realistic and semi-abstract styles. In 1917, the artist tied the knot with Nina Nikolaevna Andreevskaya. And after the revolution of the same year, he accepted its views and actively participated in public works. Soon Kandinsky takes part in organizing the protection of monuments and helps in the founding of the Museum of Pictorial Culture Russian Academy artistic sciences. Also during this period, he worked on his autobiography, on the book “Steps,” and taught at various art schools.
In 1918-1921, Wassily Kandinsky held various positions and positions: he was a member of the art board of the Fine Arts Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, he headed a reproductive workshop, and was awarded the title of honorary professor at Moscow University. During these years, the artist worked mainly on compositions on glass. The most famous of them are “Amazon” and “Amazon in the mountains”.
In December 1921, Wassily Kandinsky was offered to go to Berlin to establish friendly relations and organize exhibitions of Russian art. Upon arrival in Berlin, the artist receives an invitation to work in art school“Bauhaus”, which he accepts, automatically becoming an emigrant and “defector” to Russia.
In 1928, V. Kandinsky became a German citizen. Also at this time the artist comes world recognition and fame as a leading painter in abstract style. But in 1933 everything changes dramatically. With the Nazis coming to power in Germany, all abstract art was persecuted, and Kandinsky’s works were called “degenerate.” In light of these events, he was forced to leave for France. Together with his wife, he settles in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. In 1939, the artist renounced German citizenship and adopted French. During these years, Wassily Kandinsky was in dire need, which is why his works decreased in size and began to use gouache and cardboard. During this period, paintings such as “Sky Blue”, “Complicated-Simple”, “Motley Ensemble” are far from romantic, they are overflowing with passion and emotions. Once again, the public does not accept the artist’s views, turning away from him. Neuilly-sur-Seine became the last city where the artist lived. He died in this city in 1944 and was buried in the New Neuilly Cemetery.
He moves to Munich, where he meets the German Expressionists. After the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Moscow, but in 1921 he again left for Germany. After the closure of the Bauhaus by the Nazis, he moved with his wife to France, and in 1939 received French citizenship.
Encyclopedic YouTube
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✪ Kandinsky, Composition number 7
✪ Kandinsky and “The Blue Rider”
✪ Painting transformation. Issue 9. Picasso and Kandinsky
✪ Wassily Kandinsky. Composition VII
✪ Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky. Artist.
Subtitles
Before us is a very large canvas, which was created by the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky in Munich in 1913. Now this painting is in Moscow. A year before the start of the First World War. It's called "Composition No. 7". Kandinsky often gave his paintings abstract titles. He has several “compositions”, several “improvisations”. Apparently he... He borrowed these names from music. Exactly. It's like an orchestration. For him, this is orchestration. For Kandinsky, different aspects were important, and one of them was strong connection colors, music and feelings. The way we see sounds and hear colors. - That is, almost a kinesthetic sensation, right? - Yes. There is a certain natural combination of color and sound, color and shape. In my opinion, all feelings are interconnected. Maybe. Exist different types perception. Let's say, “this soup tastes blue.” Exactly. Or “the letter B is yellow.” You reminded me of a story. When I was three years old, I had a sore throat and went to the doctor. The doctor asked: “How is your throat?” And I answered: “Red.” Or rather, I even shouted: “Red!” And I clearly remember this feeling of red. - Exactly! - This was the most convenient way for me to express my feelings in my throat. So perhaps all the feelings are connected. It seems to me that Kandinsky meant exactly this, although not in the literal sense. Our brain has destroyed this unity of all feelings. We grow up, absorb conventions, moving further and further away from these primary connections. And Kandinsky spent most of his life trying to return to his roots. Right. Let's get back to the picture. I look at her, then look away, then look back again and try to understand. I think Kandinsky is difficult to understand because it is often unclear what he is doing. But I think it's not so much what he does that matters, but how it looks, or even how it sounds. He called his paintings “compositions” or “improvisations”. Kandinsky was friends with one of greatest composers early modernism, the Austrian Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg worked with atonal sounds, atonal systems and compositions. If you look at a Kandinsky painting while listening to Schoenberg’s music, everything takes on a new meaning. Let's listen? When I listen to Schoenberg, his atonal music, I often get the feeling that he was trying to isolate sound and allow it to exist abstractly, as itself. Perhaps there really is a connection between this idea and the works of some artists that period, in particular, Kandinsky. I think when a work ceases to be a part of nature, be it music in isolation from a narrative composition or... But music, high music, which we call classics, is often divorced from reality. Although there are exceptions. For example, Beethoven's Sixth Symphony conveys a storm. But more often than not there is no narrative as such. Abstractness is its integral feature. - Music. - Yes, music. But in the atonal system, the emphasis is consciously placed on the sounds themselves, on the embodiment of music as such. And this, in my opinion, is consistent with subconscious, abstract painting. - Yes. - You just touched a lot important topic- about the fundamental difference between painting and music. After all, painting always tries to pretend to be something it is not. In this regard, music, with its inherent abstractness, has had an easier time throughout history. Music clearly changes the mood and allows a person to be in a different space. It awakens emotions and seems to transport you to a certain place. And when I listen to Schoenberg, I feel somehow uncomfortable. His music is unpleasant, I feel downright physical discomfort. I don't like it, but that was partly the idea. And painting during the period of modernism, at the beginning of the 20th century, also tried to provoke collapse. - Yes. - I think this is very interesting. Where is the atonality or dissonance in Kandinsky’s paintings? In these forms that are inharmonious? Here? Exactly. For example, in this painting the shapes and lines seem to move in different directions. Parts of the picture collide and connect, creating dissonance. It's like they're tearing apart space. Why is modernism so eager to break the melody, the harmony of sounds, and sees in atonality the most successful way of self-expression? Kandinsky tries to convey his personal, subjective perception of color, form, and any object he sees. He recreates a subjective moment, trying to have as little in common with reality as possible. A bridge doesn't have to look like a bridge. It should be similar to the sensations of an artist walking across a bridge. Here I am looking up. What's there? Skyline? Don't know. Maybe this is a landscape? You have to guess where things are. I think that's the point. It seems that the theme of the painting is the conflict of forms as such. - Yes. - I think you're right. It’s as if the artist is trying to deceive our expectations of seeing in this a landscape, still life or other image, even an abstract one. It turns out that Kandinsky, in my opinion, manages to bring us to another level of perception, where we can fully consider the conflict between forms and colors as such. And the abstraction becomes reasonable. Red versus yellow, blue versus green. Yes. Yes, and in a way, the music we just listened to does the same thing. The term “atonal” itself implies some kind of conflict between sounds. It feels like something doesn’t add up in the modern world. - Partly. - IN classical music there is a narrative. The narration and the denouement, albeit torn. - Yes. “And here it feels like nothing is holding together.” - Yes. - Remember, like Yeats: “Everything falls apart.” As if there is no longer a narrative that can explain life, that can give it meaning, that can determine a person’s position in the world. One is tempted to say: this is 1913, the world is already on the verge of war! - Yes. - All the players are already on the field. I think you need to be more careful with such words, and yet the moment was critical then. The thought of the apocalypse inevitably arises. We haven't mentioned this, but it seems to me that in this painting Kandinsky seeks to express destruction and renewal. And this is connected with the idea of the apocalypse, so tempting for artists of that time. - Yes. - Destroy everything that exists. After all, in order to create something new, you need to destroy what exists. This is the essence of destruction. Erase it all. - Fully. And create a utopia. - Yes. Which will replace it. I think it's amazing that this was before the First World War. And how everything changed after the war. When the artists realized that erasing everything was not a good idea. That it won't necessarily be beneficial. - Yes. But now we have technology... - Yes. Allowing you to do this. We have machine guns, we have... And look what happened: people are maimed, terribly disfigured, and there is nothing beautiful about it. Not everyone returned from the war. The artists had no images left that would help them comprehend the new truth. They only see how cruel people are to each other. But this picture was painted earlier, when the idea was still alive that the apocalypse would bring a new truth. Is there some kind of religious here... - More like spiritual. - Yes, the spiritual aspect. Definitely. Yes. Kandinsky wrote the work “On the Spiritual in Art” in 1911, two years before the creation of this painting. In the book he looked for connections between color, art, religion and spirituality and deep faith. He believed that modern world I lost this spirituality, simplicity, real emotions. Primordial emotions. And the apocalypse can return to humanity what culture, in some way, stole from us. A very primitive idea. In my opinion, this idea, these colors, these relationships, the way everything diverges and connects - all this... You know, when I allow colors, lines and shapes to evoke certain sensations, tastes and sounds in me, I begin to receive pleasure from the picture. There is some incredible freedom contained in the word “expressionism”. This picture is very different from the more late creativity Kandinsky, where he strives for systematization and clarity. And here is a wonderful feeling of ingenuity. - The canvas is huge, it seems to immerse you in yourself. - Yes. It’s interesting how global the idea the artist was trying to convey to us. This is a symphony. The longer I look at the painting, the better I understand it. But I don't get any pleasure. It's a difficult picture. A difficult picture, yes. And that’s probably how it was created. Indeed, it is very difficult. Interestingly, it still seems difficult. There were already Duchamp and Warhol, a whole century of modernism and postmodernism has passed, but this picture is still difficult to perceive. Just like Schoenberg's music. - Yes, Schoenberg is also complicated. - Yes. - This says a lot. - Right. Subtitles by the Amara.org community
Biography
Kandinsky came from a family of Nerchinsk merchants, descendants of convicts. His great-grandmother was the Tunguska princess Gantimurova, and his father was a representative of the ancient Transbaikal (Kyakhta) Kandinsky family, which derived itself from the family name of the princes of the Mansi Kondinsky principality.
Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow, in the family of businessman Vasily Sylvesterovich Kandinsky (1832-1926). During his childhood, he traveled with his parents throughout Europe and Russia. In 1871, the family settled in Odessa, where the future artist graduated from high school and also received an art and music education. In 1885-1893 (with a break in 1889-1891) he studied at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, where he studied at the department of political economy and statistics under the guidance of Professor A. I. Chuprov, studying economics and law. In 1889, he interrupted his studies for health reasons, and from May 28 (June 9) to July 3 (July 17) he made an ethnographic expedition to the northern districts of the Vologda province.
Kandinsky chose his career as an artist relatively late - at the age of 30. In 1896 he settled in Munich and then remained in Germany until 1914. In Munich he met Russian artists: A. G. Yavlensky, M. V. Verevkina, V. G. Bekhteev, D. N. Kardovsky, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, I. Ya. Bilibin, K. S. Petrov-Vodkin , I. E. Grabar.
Most famous works
- "Wobble"
- "Composition"
- "Moscow"
- "East".
Solo exhibitions
Currently, about 40 works are in Munich (City Gallery in the Lenbach House).
Essays
Memory
Sources
- Personal file of Wassily Kandinsky, opened at the Imperial Commissariat for Security public order Germany (RGVA. F. 772k, Op. 3, D. 464).
Bibliography
Albums, catalogues, monographs, collections of articles
- Sarabyanov Dmitry, Avtonomova Natalia. Wassily Kandinsky. - M.: Galart, 1994. - 238 p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-269-00880-7.
- Abramov V.A. V.V.Kandinsky in the artistic life of Odessa Documents. Materials. - Odessa: Glas, 1995. - ISBN 5-7707-6378-7.
- Turchin V. Kandinsky in Russia. - M.: Artist and Book, 2005. - 448 p. - ISBN 5-9900349-1-1.
- Althaus Karin, Hoberg Annegret, Avtonomova Natalia. Kandinsky and The Blue Rider. - M.: Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Publishing House State Museum fine arts named after A. S. Pushkin, ScanRus, 2013. - 160 p. - ISBN 978-5-4350-0011-5.
Articles
- Grohmann W. Wassily Kandinsky. Life and work. - N. Y., 1958.
- Reinhardt L. Abstractionism. // Modernism. Analysis and criticism of the main directions. - M., 1969. - P. 101-111.
- Schulz,Paul Otto. Ostbauern. Köln: DuMont, 1998. - ISBN 3-7701-4159-8.
- Azizyan I. A. Moscow V. V. Kandinsky // Architecture in the history of Russian culture. - Vol. 2: Capital city. - M.: URSS, 1998. - ISBN 5-88417-145-9 P. 66-71.
- Azizyan I. A. The concept of interaction of arts and the genesis of dialogism of the 20th century (Vyacheslav Ivanov and Wassily Kandinsky) // Avant-garde of the 1910s - 1920s. Interaction of arts. - M., 1998.
- Avtonomova N. B. Kandinsky and artistic life Russia in the early 1910s // Poetry and painting: Collection of works in memory of N. I. Khardzhiev / Compilation and general editing
