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Avant-GardeArtist:
Wassily
Kadinsky
By LewisLawrence
12/1/11Munich-Schwabing with the Church ofSt. Ursula (1908)
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The Artist
Wassily WassilyevichKandinksy was bornDecember 16, 1866, inMoscow, Russia. He spent
much of his life creating andtheorizing about art. He ishighly regarded as, in artisticrelation, the father ofabstraction. His early works
are traditionally inspired withrather small illustrations ofabstract ideas, but much ofhis later work showedmaturity and development in
technique and aesthetic thatwas considered a new,
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Youth
As a young person, he wasrecalled to have aremarkable interest andtaste in color. His inspirationcame from people like
Monet, who painted large orsmall scale realisticlandscapes. He was movedby Monets piece, Haystacks,(1906, Shown right) andconsidered it a piece of great
color and interest. He isquoted about this piecesaying:
That it was a haystack the catalogue informed me. I could not recognizeit. This non-recognition was painful to me. I considered that the painterhad no right to paint indistinctly. I dully felt that the object of thepainting was missing. And I noticed with surprise and confusion that thepicture not only gripped me, but impressed itself ineradicably on my
memory. Painting took on a fairy-tale power and splendour.
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ReligionKandinsky was mostly influencedby the Ukrainian theosophistHelena Petrovna Blavatsky. Ageneral view of theosophy is that
creation is a gemoetricalprogression, beginning with asingle point, created from circles,triangles, and squares.
Additionally Kandinsky believed inHermeticism, a belief in the ideathat the physical world is areflection of the spiritual one,which had gained popularity in theera of Romanticism. Kandinsky
Staff of
Hermes
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Music is the
ultimate teacher.
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Blue RiderThe works of
Kandinsky during thisperiod have beendescribed as
Kandinsky's paintingsfrom this period arelarge, expressive[coloured] massesevaluatedindependently fromforms and lines;these serve no longerto delimit them, butoverlap freely to formpaintings ofextraordinary force.His pieces had asimple, blue riderwho would besorrounded by abeautiful landscape.In addition to beingcalled The Blue Rider,the Blue Riders werea group Kandinskyhad formed, withwhom its membersshared similar artisticinterest. Thecontinuation of the
Blue Rider period wasprospected to bemore continuous, but
Der Blaue Reiter (1903)
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7/13Composition VII (1913)
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The Bauhaus and Synthesis
During his period of teaching at theBauhaus, developing his theory of colors,and augmenting his work andproductivity. This period, from 1922-1933
was when Kandinskys work got reallyinteresting and abstract. Giving thegeometric figures more importance.Afterwards Kandinsky continued his
geometric abstraction, creating cleaner,focusing on inner beauty, peace, andreflected a growing influence of cubism.His work, though, was not valued later ondue to a lack of abstract appreciation inareas like Paris, who idolized
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Several Circles (1926)
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11/13Composition IX (1936)
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12/13Composition X (1939)
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Comparison of Kandinskys firstand last work.
Odessa Port (1898)Composition (1944)