Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 16 (December 4, old style) 1866 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, here the future artist graduated from high school, also received art and musical education. In 1885-93 (with a break in 1889-91) he studied at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, where he studied economics and law. In 1889, he interrupted his studies for health reasons and participated in an ethnographic expedition in the Vologda province.
"Isar" 1901
In 1893, V. Kandinsky graduated from the Faculty of Law. Have worked artistic director Kushnerevskaya printing house in Moscow (1895).
"Old Town" 1902
"Walk" 1903
"Farewell" 1903
"The Blue Rider" 1903
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.
"Two on a Horse" 1906
Since 1897 he studied painting in the private studio of A. Ashbe.
"Autumn Landscape" 1908
In 1900 he entered the Munich Academy of Arts, where he studied with Franz von Stuck. Since 1901, Kandinsky created the Phalanx art association and organized a school with it, where he himself taught.
"Improvisation No. 6" 1909
Since 1900, Kandinsky has traveled a lot, visiting North Africa, Italy, France; Happens on visits to Odessa and Moscow. Participated in exhibitions of the Moscow Association of Artists.
"Murnau. Garden" 1909
In 1910 and 1912 he also participated in exhibitions of the art association “Jack of Diamonds”. During these years, he developed an innovative concept of the “rhythmic” use of color in painting.
First abstract watercolor 1910
"Lyrical" 1911
In 1909, Kandinsky organized the “New Munich Art Association”, in 1911 - the almanac and the “Blue Rider” group, whose members were famous expressionist artists, Franz Marc, Alexei Jawlensky, Marianna Veryovkina and Paul Klee. At the same time, he had his first personal exhibition.
"Painting with a white border" 1913
In 1914 the artist returned to Moscow. In subsequent years, he worked on realistic and semi-abstract canvases, mainly landscapes.
"Horseman St. George" 1916
After the revolution of 1917, Kandinsky was actively involved in social work.
In 1918, he participated in organizing the protection of monuments, creating the Museum of Pictorial Culture and Russian Academy artistic sciences, taught at VKHUTEMAS and published his autobiographical book“Steps” (M., 1918).
"Blue Comb" 1907(?)
"Trouble" 1917
"Twilight 1917"
"Southern" 1917
In 1918-1919 he was a member of the art board of the Fine Arts Department of the People's Commissariat of Education, in 1919-1921 - chairman of the All-Russian Purchasing Commission, scientific consultant and head of a reproduction workshop, honorary professor at Moscow University. Kandinsky was also elected vice-president of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He continued to write - during this period, in particular, decorative compositions on glass “Amazon” (1918) and “Amazon in the Mountains” (1919) were created.
"White Line" 1920
In December 1921, Kandinsky went to Berlin to organize a branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Participated in the First Exhibition of Russian Art in Germany. He never returned to Russia.
"Black Lattice" 1922
In Berlin, Wassily Kandinsky began teaching painting and became a prominent theoretician of the Bauhaus school. Kandinsky soon received worldwide recognition as one of the leaders of abstract art.
"A few circles" 1926
In 1928, the artist took German citizenship, but when the Nazis came to power in 1933, he emigrated to France.
"Floors" 1929
From 1933 to 1944 he lived in Paris, actively participating in the international artistic process.
"Bizarre" 1930
In 1939, Wassily Kandinsky accepted French citizenship. Kandinsky died on December 13, 1944.
in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
"Sky Blue" 1940
Last watercolor 1944
“The artist is a “king” (as Sar Peladan calls him) not only because his power is great, but because his responsibilities are great.
Since the artist is the priest of the “beautiful,” then this beauty should be sought with the help of the same principle of internal value that we found everywhere. This “beautiful” can only be measured by the scale of inner greatness and necessity, which have hitherto served us faithfully everywhere and always.
What is beautiful is what arises from inner spiritual necessity. Beautiful is what is beautiful on the inside.
By this beauty, it goes without saying, one should not understand external or even internal generally accepted morality, but everything that, even in a completely intangible form, improves and enriches the soul. Therefore, for example, in painting every color is internally beautiful, because every color evokes a spiritual vibration, and every vibration enriches the soul. And therefore, finally, everything that is externally “ugly” can be internally beautiful. So it is in art, so it is in life. And therefore, there is nothing “ugly” in the internal result, that is, in the impact on the soul of others.
Maeterlinck (who is one of the foremost champions, one of the first spiritual composers of today's art, from which the art of tomorrow will arise) says: “There is nothing on earth that would thirst more for the beautiful and would be more easily transformed into the beautiful than the soul. That’s why only Few souls on earth resist the dominance of the soul that surrenders itself to beauty."
And this quality of the soul is the oil with the help of which the slow, barely noticeable, at times outwardly delayed, but unchanging, continuous movement of the spiritual triangle forward and upward is possible."
"Composition 9" 1936
"Fugue" 1914
"Composition 10" 1939
"Gloomy Situation" 1933
"Black Spot" 1912
"Interior my dining room" 1909
"Decisive Pink" 1932
"Around the Circle" 1940
"Composition 218"
"Composition 321"
"Composition 224"
"Light picture" 1913
"Winter landscape"
"Untitled" 1916
The work of Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky is a unique phenomenon of Russian and European art. It was this artist, endowed with powerful talent, brilliant intellect and subtle spiritual intuition, who was destined to make a real revolution in painting and create the first abstract compositions.
Kandinsky's fate was not entirely ordinary. Until he was thirty, he did not even think about art. Having graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University in 1893, he began working on his dissertation, participated in an ethnographic expedition to the north of Russia, and in 1896 received an invitation from the university in Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) to take the position of private assistant professor. But that same year, Kandinsky suddenly changed his life. The reason for this was the impression of the painting “Haystack” by Claude Monet at the French Industrial and Art Exhibition in Moscow. Refusing the department, he went to Germany to study painting. Kandinsky settled in Munich, which at the turn of the century was the recognized center of German Art Nouveau. He first studied in private school painting, and later at the Munich Academy of Arts with Franz von Stuck.
Living in Germany, Kandinsky came to Russia almost every year and presented his works at exhibitions of the Moscow Association of Artists, the New Society of Artists, etc. His articles about the art of Germany, which played such an important role in the formation of creative personality painter. At the same time, Kandinsky was excited and inspired by Russian artistic tradition: icons, ancient temples, fairy tale characters. All of them are often present in his works, which indicates the influence of the “World of Art” masters on him.
Kandinsky was a born leader. Already in 1901, having barely completed his studies, he headed the Phalanx art society, participated in its exhibitions and worked in the school created under it. In 1909, the master organized the “New Munich Art Association”, and in 1912 - the “Blue Rider” group.
In the works of Kandinsky 1900-1910. a variety of influences are felt: from German expressionism and French Fauvism (View of Murnau, 1908; Houses in Murnau on the Obermarkt, 1908) to the Russian World of Art (Ladies in Crinolines, 1909). Not without the influence of symbolism, Kandinsky turned to graphics, creating a series of woodcuts “Poems without Words” (1903).
At the beginning of the 10s. The main direction of Kandinsky’s creative search was clearly defined: he wanted to concentrate all means of painting on conveying a complex system of feelings and sensations that live in the hidden depths of the artist’s soul and do not depend on the material world. Theoretically, the master formulated this problem in the book “Spiritual in Art” (1911), but the practical solution came to him suddenly and unusually. The artist himself described the revolution that took place in his mind in the work “Steps” (1918): “I... suddenly saw in front of me an indescribably beautiful picture, saturated with internal combustion. At first I was amazed, but now I quickly approached this mysterious picture, completely incomprehensible in its external content and consisting exclusively of colorful spots. And the key to the riddle was found: it was mine own painting, leaning against the wall and standing on its side... In general, it became indisputably clear to me that day that objectivity is harmful to my paintings.”
Probably, at that moment the shocked master hardly realized that the painting accidentally placed on its side would become the source of a new direction in art - abstractionism. According to Kandinsky, it is the line and the color spot, and not the plot, that are the carriers spiritual origin, their combinations give rise to an “inner sound” that evokes a response in the viewer’s soul.
All abstract works of Kandinsky, in his own words, are divided into three groups (according to the degree of distance from the subject): impressions, improvisations and compositions. If the impression is born as a direct impression of outside world, then improvisation unconsciously expresses internal impressions. Finally, composition is the highest and most consistent form of abstract painting. It has no direct connections with reality. Color spots and lines form a breathtaking element of movement. Kandinsky's compositions did not have individual titles - only numbers (out of ten such works, seven have survived).
By creating abstract compositions, Kandinsky actually changed the nature of painting - an art closely related to storytelling - and brought it closer to music, which is designed not to depict, but to express the most complex mental states.
In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, Kandinsky returned to Moscow. Second half of the 10s and 20s. were for him a period of active social and pedagogical activity: he worked in an organization for the protection of monuments, headed the Institute artistic culture(INHUK), taught at the State Free Art Workshops, while still working as a painter. Kandinsky's abstract paintings of those years became softer and lighter in color, the role of line increased, and more attention was paid to free space.
Kandinsky's stay in Russia was short-lived; at the end of 1921 he left the country forever. The famous German architect Walter Gropius invited him to teach at the Bauhaus - the highest architectural and art school, which was located in Weimar, and in 1925 moved to Dessau. Here he wrote the book “Line and Point on a Plane.” Then the real thing came to Kandinsky global recognition. He participated in numerous exhibitions in German cities, published theoretical works, and in 1923 he organized his first personal exhibition in New York.
In contrast to the “romantic” Munich period, this period in Kandinsky’s work is usually called “cold” or “classical”. In his works, spot increasingly gave way to line, picturesqueness to dry geometricism, dynamics to balance. Along with triangles and squares, the compositions included a circle as a symbol of the perfection and completeness of the universe.
In 1933, after the Nazis came to power and the Bauhaus was closed, the artist emigrated to France. He worked hard in the 30s, but his work turned out to be away from the main line of development contemporary art. Other masters followed the path of mastering new forms of abstract painting that Kandinsky had once paved.
Russia has always given birth to many talented people who made great breakthroughs in science and art. Discoverers, inventors and trailblazers move culture forward. Among this number of outstanding geniuses one can name an artist named Wassily Kandinsky. Pictures and biography of this outstanding person definitely deserve special attention.
Who is Kandinsky Vasily Vasilievich?
Kandinsky V.V. is a very important figure in Russian culture. The fact is that he was not just an artist, but a recognized leader of avant-garde art. Later, it was this man who became one of the founders of abstract art. He is also credited with creating several creative societies. Therefore, the Russian artist is widely known not only in Russia, but also abroad. Let's turn to life path, which passed Kandinsky Vasily Vasilievich. Pictures of this wonderful artist are now in many museums around the world.
Life in Russia
The future artist was born in Moscow in 1866 into the family of a successful businessman. Soon after the artist's birth, his family moved to Odessa, where the boy began to grow up and received his first lessons in painting and music.
In 1885 he moved to Moscow and entered Moscow University Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky. Paintings at that time did not interest him much, since he wanted to devote his life to legal work. However, 10 years later, in 1895, he decides to give up this direction and plunges headlong into art. This was due to the exhibition at which the artist saw Monet’s work. By the way, he was already 30 at that time.
After arriving from abroad, the artist began to actively participate in public and educational activities, however, in 1921 Kandinsky V.V. decided not to return to his homeland anymore. This was caused by significant disagreements with the authorities. However, even despite the forced departure, the artist until the end of his days kept in his heart the love for the Russian people and culture, which he expressed on his canvases.
Life abroad
The artist first went abroad back in 1897. He traveled extensively throughout Europe and North Africa, and also created several significant societies in the art world. His most famous association is the Blue Four.
Until 1921 Kandinsky V.V. I was abroad only for a short time, but then I moved for good. During these years, he took up art, writing, and teaching at the university.
In 1933, the artist went to France and lived there for quite some time. long time. He spent several months in the United States, but in 1944 Kandinsky V.V. died in France.
Thanks to his travels he became a worldwide famous artist Kandinsky Vasily Vasilievich. critics in the best light are fully deserved, because they are actually made by the hand of a master. The artist was able to make a breakthrough in the art world and truly bring new thinking into it.
Art
The artist began painting professionally in 1900, when he entered the Academy of Arts in Munich. At the beginning he worked in the avant-garde style. After the bright young works of Kandinsky V.V. moved more to folklore themes, where Russian modernism is the most in an interesting way combined with medieval legends and estate motifs, for example in the painting “Motley Life”.
The master loved to create using oils and watercolors, but he also paid considerable attention to graphics and wood engraving.
Returning to Russia in 1914 left a strong imprint on his work. Now tragic features from Russian reality have been added to the paintings.
Later period, after the 20s. and departure from Russia, brought Kandinsky V.V. to more geometric constructions of paintings and cosmic themes that are inherent in constructivism, however, the master retained this. This is clearly visible in the paintings “In a Black Square” and “Several Circles.”
Life in France introduced more surrealism into the artist’s work, and now biomorphic images began to appear on them, as in the paintings “Dominant Curve” or “ Blue sky".
Famous paintings by Wassily Kandinsky
This talented person is known throughout the world. The artist Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky worked a lot on his works. His paintings have a special symbolism and meaning, which is why he was so little understood in his time and is so appreciated now. I can’t even find another word, because in 2012 the painting “Sketch for Improvisation No. 8” was sold for $23.4 million.
Almost all the works created by Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky became famous. His paintings “In Grey”, “Vibration” and “Cossacks” can be called some of his most popular works, but it is quite difficult to make a choice, since they all amaze the eyes and thoughts of admirers.
Other talents
Speaking about V.V. Kandinsky, we must not forget that he was not only an artist. Since his youth he had a passion for writing and even published his articles from Berlin about art. Later artist published a whole series of his books, where he described in detail his approach to art, worldview, and style of creating paintings. He also wrote poetry.
The books “On the Spiritual in Art” and “Point and Line on a Plane” were written by Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky. Paintings are long-lasting paintings, which is why the artist put his whole soul into them and said that he does not paint them, but reflects on the world in the process of writing. Therefore Kandinsky V.V. believed that only spiritual perception should be conveyed in the work; there should be no specific objects, otherwise they will distract from the high meaning.
Russian artist, art theorist and poet, one of the leaders of the avant-garde of the first half of the 20th century; became one of the founders of abstract art.
Born in Moscow on November 22 (December 4), 1866 in the family of a businessman; belonged to a family of Nerchinsk merchants, descendants of Siberian convicts. In 1871–1885 he lived with his parents in Odessa, where he began studying music and painting during his high school years. From 1885 he studied at Moscow University, dreaming of a career as a lawyer, but approx. 1895 decided to devote himself to art. Two factors determined his choice: firstly, impressions of Russian medieval antiquities and artistic folklore received in an ethnographic expedition to the Vologda province (1889), secondly, a visit to the French exhibition in Moscow (1896), where he was shocked by C. Monet’s painting Haystack. In 1897 he came to Munich, where from 1900 he studied at the local Academy of Arts under the direction of F. von Stuck. Traveled widely in Europe and North Africa (1903–1907), from 1902 he lived mainly in Munich, and in 1908–1909 in the village of Murnau (Bavarian Alps). Having organically entered the environment of German modernist bohemia, he also acted as an active organizer: he founded the groups “Phalanx” (1901), “New Munich Art Association” (1909; together with A.G. Yavlensky and others) and, finally, “Blue Rider” "(1911; together with F. Mark and others) - a society that has become an important connecting link between symbolism and the avant-garde. He published art-critical Letters from Munich in the magazines “World of Art” and “Apollo” (1902, 1909), and participated in exhibitions of the “Jack of Diamonds”.
From the early, already quite bright and rich impressionist sketch paintings, he moved on to bravura, flowery and “folklore” compositions in color, which summed up the characteristic motifs of Russian national modernism with its romance of medieval legends and ancient estate culture (Motley Life, 1907, Lenbachhaus, Munich ; Ladies in crinolines, 1909, Tretyakov Gallery). In 1910 he created the first abstract pictorial improvisations and completed a treatise on the spiritual in art (the book was published in 1911 on German). Considering the main thing in art to be internal, spiritual content, believed that it is best expressed by the direct psychophysical impact of pure colorful harmonies and rhythms. The basis of his subsequent “impressions”, “improvisations” and “compositions” (as Kandinsky himself distinguished the cycles of his works) is the image of a beautiful mountain landscape, as if melting into the clouds, into cosmic oblivion, as the contemplating author-viewer soars in his mind. The dramaturgy of oil paintings and watercolors is built through the free play of color spots, dots, lines, individual symbols (such as a horseman, a rook, a palette, a church dome, etc.). The master always paid great attention to graphics, including wood engraving. In his German poetry album Sounds (Klänge, 1913), he strived for an ideal relationship between non-objective visual-graphic images and text. The goals of the synthesis of arts were also set in the concept of the play Yellow Sound, designed to combine color, light, movement and music (composer F.A. Hartmann; the performance, the text of which was placed in the anthology The Blue Horseman, 1912, was not realized due to the outbreak of the First World War ).
In 1914 he returned to Russia, where he lived mainly in Moscow. A kind of “apocalypticism”, the aspirations of a universal transformation-in-art, characteristic of his abstractions, acquired an increasingly alarming and dramatic character during this period (Moscow. Red Square, 1916, Tretyakov Gallery; Smutnoe, ibid.; Twilight, Russian Museum; Gray oval, Art Gallery, Ekaterinburg; all works – 1917). In 1918 he published the autobiographical book Steps. He was actively involved in social and humanitarian research activities, was a member of the People's Commissariat for Education, the Institute of Artistic Culture (Inkhuk) and the Russian Academy of Art Sciences (RAS), taught at the Higher Art and Technical Workshops (Vkhutemas), however, irritated by ideological squabbles, he left Russia forever after he was sent on a business trip to Berlin (1921).
In Germany he taught at the Bauhaus (from 1922, in Weimar and Dessau), focusing mainly on general theory shaping; stated his teaching experience in the book Point and Line on a Plane, published in German in 1926. His cosmological fantasies (graphic series Small Worlds, 1922) acquired a more rational-geometric character during this period, moving closer to the principles of Suprematism and Constructivism, but maintaining their bright and rhythmic decorativeness (In a black square, 1923; Several circles, 1926; both paintings are in the S. Guggenheim Museum, New York). In 1924, the master formed the Blue Four association together with Jawlensky, L. Feininger and P. Klee, organizing joint exhibitions with them. He acted as an artist for the stage version of M. P. Mussorgsky's suite Pictures from an Exhibition at the Dessau Theater (1928).
After the Nazis closed the Bauhaus (1932), he moved to Berlin, and in 1933 to France, where he lived in Paris and its suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine. Having experienced a significant influence of surrealism, he increasingly introduced into his paintings - along with the previous geometric structures and signs - biomorphic elements, similar to some primordial organisms floating in the interplanetary void (Dominant curve, 1936, ibid.; Blue Sky, 1940, Center J. Pompidou , Paris; Various Actions, 1941, S. Guggenheim Museum, New York). With the beginning German occupation(1939) intended to emigrate to the United States and spent several months in the Pyrenees, but eventually returned to Paris, where he continued to work actively, including on a project for a comedy film-ballet, which he intended to create together with composer Hartmann.
The great Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky was born in 1866 in Moscow. Kandinsky is known all over the world as one of the founders of abstract art. As a child, the painter traveled a lot with his parents around Russia and European countries. In 1871 the family moved to permanent place residence in Odessa, here Vasily received an art and musical education.
Wassily Kandinsky studied at the university to become a lawyer, but was forced to temporarily interrupt his studies due to deteriorating health. Kandinsky decided to take up painting relatively late - at that time the aspiring artist was already 30 years old. In 1896, Kandinsky moved to Munich, and until 1914 Germany became his second home. Today, tourists booking tours to Munich have a rare chance to visit the places where they once lived and worked. Great master abstractions.
Works of Wassily Kandinsky
Born into a wealthy family with rich people cultural traditions, Kandinsky received an excellent education - his parents saw their heir as a brilliant lawyer. But at the age of 30, he felt that he had to look for himself in painting and went to Germany, famous for its art schools.
While studying composition and the features of painting and graphics, Kandinsky more than once encountered misunderstandings from teachers who found his color schemes too bright and the layout of the painting too free.
Mountain landscape with the church Railway The Last Judgment
Active creative activity, the organizing principle has always made Kandinsky the center of gravity for everything intellectual, restless, and searching that was in the art world of that time. So, already in 1901, he founded the Phalanx art association in Munich and organized a school with it, where he himself taught. Over the course of four years, Kandinsky organized twelve exhibitions of painters who were members of the Phalanx. In 1909, he, together with Jawlensky, Kanoldt, Kubin, Münter and others, founded the “New Association of Artists, Munich” and took over the chairmanship. The credo of the society: “Each of the participants not only knows how to say, but also knows what to say.” Since 1900, Kandinsky has participated in exhibitions of the Moscow Association of Artists, and in 1910 and 1912 in exhibitions of the art association “Jack of Diamonds”. He also published art-critical “Letters from Munich” in the magazines “World of Art” and “Apollo” (1902, 1909). In 1911, Kandinsky, together with his friend, artist Franz Marc, organized the Blue Rider group. According to the artist himself, “the emphasis was on identifying the associative properties of color, line and composition, and in this case such diverse sources as the romantic color theory of Goethe and Philipp Runge, Jugendstil and the theosophy of Rudolf Steiner were involved.”
“At no other time did Kandinsky’s painting develop as rapidly as in the Munich years,” wrote M.K. Lacoste.
- Sometimes it is not easy to understand why the founder of abstract painting initially chose subjects typical of Biedermeier - fans, crinolines, horsemen. Style it early works can not be called either conventional or mannered, but nothing in them yet foreshadowed a radical renewal of painting.
However, as we know, only a few artists are given the ability to simultaneously show originality in form and content. At first it was important for Kandinsky to test his own possibilities of expression. Although “Evening” (1904-1905) cannot be denied its originality, it is difficult to imagine that it was created by the same artist who, five or six years later, would produce the first abstract work in the history of art (1910). What a great creative force must have been at work in Kandinsky! What a rapid evolution from 1908 to 1914 - from landscape paintings, although daring in color and form, but still faithful to observations of nature, like “Houses in Murnau on the Obermarkt” (1908), to the chaotic study called “The Gorge” (1914) and the restless compositions in the series of panels “The Seasons” at the Guggenheim Museum (“Autumn”). It would be difficult to guess the hand of the same artist in the still quite objective “Crusaders” (1903) and in such an abstract work as “Composition VII”, 1913, despite their common dynamics. Here there is a constrained impulse, there there is a liberated movement.”
"The Blue Rider", written by him in 1903, reflects borderline state artist. The painting represents a transition from realism to a new direction in painting and, one might say, opens a cycle of abstract works by Kandinsky. The artist did not paint, but “thought” on canvas: his canvases are a reflection of thoughts. Bright, as is the case with all extraordinary personalities, and seemingly chaotic, as is typical for the work of geniuses.
Kandinsky's painting of the last years of the Bauhaus is permeated with lightness and strange humor, which will again appear in his later Parisian works. These, for example, include the painting “Bizarre”, 1930, evoking cosmic-Egyptian associations and filled with fabulous symbolic images in the spirit of Paul Klee, an artist with whom Kandinsky was friends during these years. Around 1931, a large-scale National Socialist campaign against the Bauhaus unfolds, leading to its closure in 1932. Kandinsky and his wife emigrate to France, where they settle in a new house in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Between 1926 and 1933, Kandinsky painted 159 oil paintings and 300 watercolors. Many of them were unfortunately lost after the Nazis declared the paintings of Kandinsky and many other artists to be “degenerate.”
The Parisian artistic environment reacts with restraint to the appearance of Kandinsky. The reasons for this are its isolation from foreign colleagues and the lack of recognition of abstract painting as such. As a result, the artist lives and works in solitude, limiting his communication only to old friends. At this time, the last transformation of his pictorial system took place. Now Kandinsky does not use combinations of primary colors, but works with soft, refined, subtle color nuances. At the same time, it complements and complicates the repertoire of forms: new, biomorphic elements come to the fore, which feel at ease in the space of the picture, as if floating across the entire surface of the canvas. Kandinsky’s paintings of this period are far from the feeling of “cold romance”; life boils and seethes in them. The artist himself called this period of creativity “a truly picturesque fairy tale.” In the subsequent war years, due to a lack of materials, the formats of the paintings became smaller and smaller, until the moment when the artist was forced to be content with working in gouache on small-sized cardboard. And again he faces rejection by the public and colleagues of his art. And again he develops and improves his theory base:
“Abstract art creates next to the “real” new world, seemingly having nothing in common with “reality.”
Inside, it obeys the general laws of the “cosmic world”. Thus, next to the “world of nature” a new “world of art” appears - a very real, concrete world. Therefore, I prefer to call so-called “abstract art” concrete art.” Kandinsky did not doubt his “ inner world”, the world of images, where abstraction was not an end in itself, and the language of forms was “stillborn”; they arose from the will to content and vitality.
British scientists have finally found an explanation for why the paintings of the founder of abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky, do not impress all viewers. Neurophysiologists are convinced: Kandinsky wrote his paintings with those in mind for whom contemplation also generates sound associations. Synaesthetes, that is, people who are able to “see sounds” and “hear paintings,” there are today, according to researchers, no more than 250 million people. However, scientists have found that in the first months of life we are all synesthetes.
“We are sure that Kandinsky appealed to auditory perception, although we do not know whether he himself was a synesthete,” Dr. Jamie Ward said at a recent conference of British neuroscientists.
According to him, only 1-2% of us can consider ourselves synesthetes, but every person subconsciously tends to connect music and painting and perceive them together, rather than separately. According to Gazeta.Ru, to test his theory, Dr. Ward conducted a series of experiments in which six synaesthetes were asked to describe their vision of music performed by the New London Orchestra.
Another control group consisted of six normal people. Animator Sam Moore created dynamic images for them associated with the music being played. These films - like Walt Disney's famous Fantasia - combined music and cartoon images. After the experiment with control groups, the films were shown to visitors at the Science Museum in London, asking them to select from among all the images those that best matched the music. The overwhelming majority chose exactly those images to which the synesthetes turned their favorable gaze.
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.
- 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
- Reinhardt L. Abstractionism, in the book: Modernism. Analysis and criticism of the main directions, M., 1969, p. 101-11.
- Grohmann W. Wassily Kandinsky. Life and work, N.Y., 1958.
- Baedecker. Deutschland. Verlag Karl Baedeker. 2002. - ISBN 3-8297-1004-6
- 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 pp. 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.
- Rappaport A. Kandinsky in London // Rossica. - 2002.- Issue 7/8: Revelations in Color: Dionisy & Kandinsky. Or: Kandinsky in London // Idem.
- Valery Turchin. Kandinsky in Russia. M.: Artist and Book, 2005. - 448 p. - ISBN 5-9900349-1-1
- Azizyan I.A. The theoretical legacy of V. V. Kandinsky in the artistic consciousness of the 20th century // Questions of the theory of architecture: Architectural and theoretical thought of New and Contemporary times / Collection scientific works edited by I. A. Azizyan. - M.: KomKniga, 2006. P. 189-249.
- Kozhev, A. Concrete (objective) painting by Kandinsky (1936) // “Atheism” and other works. - M.: Praxis, 2007. - P. 258-294.
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