lect10.htm
Kandinsky, Wassily (1866-1944)
-Russian painter, whose exploration of the possibilities of abstraction
make him one of the most important innovators in modern art.
-Both as an artist and as a theorist he played a pivotal role in
the development of abstract art.
-Born in Moscow in 1866, Kandinsky spent his early childhood
in Odessa. His parents played the piano, and Kandinsky learned
the piano and cello at an early age.
-The influence of music in his paintings cannot be overstated,
down to the names of his paintings
Improvisations, Impressions, and Compositions.
-He said: "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies,
the soul is the piano with many strings.
The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another,
to cause vibrations in the soul.''
-The main concept: color and musical harmony are linked.
-Kandinsky used color in a highly theoretical way associating
tone with timbre (the sound's character), hue with pitch, and
saturation with the volume of sound. He even claimed that
when he saw color he heard music.
-In 1886, he enrolled at the University of Moscow, to study
law and economics.
-After graduation, Classd at the Moscow School of Law.
-He enjoyed success not only as a teacher but also
-wrote extensively on spirituality, a subject that
remained of great interest and ultimately exerted
substantial influence in his work.
-At the age of thirty, Kandinsky left Moscow
and went to Munich to study life drawing, sketching and
anatomy, regarded then as basic for an artistic education.
-Kandinsky studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Munich, Germany, from 1896 to 1900.
-His early paintings were naturalistic in style.
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Autumn in Bavaria 1908; Oil on cardboard, 33x45cm;
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
-In 1909, after a trip to Paris during which he was
highly impressed by the works impressionists,
his paintings became more highly colored and
loosely organized.
Improvisation 7, 1910. Oil on canvas, 131 x 97 cm;
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
-His paintings made no reference to objects of the
physical world and derived their inspiration and
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titles from music.
-In 1911, along with Franz Marc, Kandinsky formed
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group (so called for
Kandinsky's love of blue and Marc's love of horses).
-He produced both abstract and figurative works during
this period, all of which were characterized by brilliant
colors and complex patterns.
Composition IV , 1911. Oil on canvas,
159.5 x 250.5 cm (62 7/8 x 98 5/8 in);
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen, Dusseldorf.
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Composition V, 1911 (170 Kb); Oil on canvas,
190 x 275 cm (6' 3 7/8" x 9' 1/4"); Private collection
-Around 1913 he began working on paintings
that came to be considered the first totally
abstract works in modern art.
Composition VI, 1913. Oil on canvas, 195 x 300 cm
(6' 4 3/4" x 10'); Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
-Kandinsky's influence on the course of 20th-century art
was further increased by his activities as a theorist and teacher.
-In 1912 he published Concerning the Spiritual in Art,
which spread his ideas through Europe. He also taught at
the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts from 1918 to 1921
in and Germany, from 1922 to 1933.
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Sea Battle 1913. Oil on canvas, 145 x 119.7cm (57 x 47 in);
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.,
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund. 1978.48.1 (2725)
-Improvisation 31 has a less generalized title, Sea Battle,
and by taking this hint we can indeed see how he has used
the image of two tall ships shooting cannonballs at each
other, and abstracted these specifics down into the glorious
commotion of the picture.
Though it does not show a sea battle, it makes us
experience one, with its confusion, courage, excitement,
and furious motion.
-Kandinsky says all this mainly with the color, which bounces
and balloons over the center of the picture, roughly curtailed
at the upper corners, and ominously smudged at the bottom right.
There are also smears, whether of paint or of blood. The action
is held tightly within two strong ascending diagonals, creating
a central triangle that rises ever higher. This rising accent gives
a heroic feel to the violence.
-After World War I (1914-1918), Kandinsky's abstractions
became increasingly geometric in form, as he abandoned
his earlier fluid style in favor of sharply etched outlines
and clear patterns.
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Contrasting Sounds,1924; Oil on cardboard,
70x49.5cm; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
-He was one of the most influential artists of his generation.
As one of the first explorers of the principles of "pure"
abstraction, Kandinsky can be considered an artist
who paved the way for abstract expressionism,
the dominant school of painting since World War II (1939-1945).
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On White II,1923; Oil on canvas,
105 x 98cm; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Yellow, Red, Blue,1925; Oil on canvas, 127x200cm;
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
-His reputation became firmly established in the United States
through numerous exhibitions and his work was introduced
to Solomon Guggenheim, who became one of his most
enthusiastic supporters.
What some find hard about abstract art is the very
demanding, time-consuming labor that is implicitly required.
Yet if we do not look long and with an open heart,
we shall see nothing but superior wallpaper.
-Kandinsky died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris,
on December 13, 1944.
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Malevich, Kasimir (1878-1935)
-Kasimir Malevich is Russian abstract painter.
-His earliest work shows the influence of cubism,
distinguished by great clarity of outline.
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-In 1912 he began to develop his own style,
known as suprematism (referring to supremacy of
feeling over all other artistic considerations).
-In this completely nonobjective approach
he used only geometric elements-rectangles and squares,
first with some color and then with white on white.
-After this he seems to have realized he could go no
further along this road and virtually gave up abstract
painting, turning more to teaching, writing, and making
three-dimensional models that were important in the
growth of Constructivism.
Soldier of the First Division 1914; Oil and collage on canvas,
53.6 x 44.8 cm (21 1/8 x 17 5/8 in);
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
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The Aviator (1914). State Tretyakov Gallery.
-In 1919 he started teaching at the art school at Vitebsk,
where he exerted a profound influence on Lissitzky, and
in 1922 he moved to Leningrad, where he lived for the
rest of his life.
-He visited Warsaw and Berlin in 1927, accompanying an
exhibition of his works and visited the Bauhaus.
-In the late 1920s he returned to figurative painting,
but was out of favor with a political system that now
demanded Socialist Realism from its artists and
he died in neglect.
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Running Man
1932-34; Oil on canvas,
79 x 65 cm (31 1/8 x 25 5/8 in);
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
-However, his influence on abstract
art, in the west as well as Russia, was enormous.
The best collection of his work is in the Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam.
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Self Portrait
1933; Oil on canvas, 73 x 66 cm (28 3/4 x 26 in);
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
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