Impression, improvisation, composition. Famous paintings by Wassily Kandinsky

Creativity of Wassily Vasilyevich Kandinsky

(1866-1944)

The work of Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky is a unique phenomenon of Russian and European art. It was this artist, endowed with a powerful talent, brilliant intellect and subtle spiritual intuition, who was destined to make a real revolution in painting and create the first abstract compositions.

The fate of Kandinsky was not quite usual. Until the age of thirty, he did not even think about art. After graduating from the law faculty 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 Derpt (now Tartu, Estonia) to take the position of Privatdozent. But in the 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. Having abandoned 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 studied first at a private school of painting, and later at the Munich Academy of Arts under 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 shaping the creative personality of the painter. At the same time, Kandinsky was excited and inspired by the Russian artistic tradition: icons, ancient temples, fairy-tale characters. All of them are often present in his works, which indicates the influence of the masters of the "World of Art" on him.

Kandinsky was a born leader. Already in 1901, having barely finished his studies, he headed the Falanga art society, participated in its exhibitions and worked in the school created under him. In 1909, the master organized the "New Munich Art Association", and in 1912 - the Blue Rider group.

In the works of Kandinsky 1900-1910. various 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 cycle 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 focus all the means of painting on the transfer of 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 “6 Spiritual in Art” (1911), but the practical solution came to him suddenly and unusually. The artist himself described the upheaval that had taken place in his mind in the work “Steps” (1918): “I ... suddenly saw in front of me an indescribably beautiful picture, saturated with inner burning. At first I was amazed, but now with a quick step I 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 my own picture, leaning against the wall and standing on its side ... In general, it became undeniably clear to me that day that objectivity is harmful to my paintings.

Probably, at that moment, the shocked master hardly realized that the picture accidentally placed on its side would become the source of a new trend in art - abstractionism. According to Kandinsky, it is the line and color spot, and not the plot, that are the carriers of the spiritual principle, their combinations give rise to an “inner sound” that evokes a response in the soul of the viewer.

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 impression is born as a direct impression of the external world, then improvisation unconsciously expresses internal impressions. Finally, composition is the highest and most consistent form of abstract painting. It has no direct links to reality. Color spots and lines form a breathtaking element of movement. Kandinsky's compositions did not have individual names - only numbers (out of ten such works, seven 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.

Wassily Kandinsky - Russian artist and art theorist, marked the beginning of a dramatic period in the work of Kandinsky and became a harbinger of the emergence of abstract art. He conceived a new style, now known as On the spiritual in art ».

Bauhaus

had a profound influence on the development of modern fine arts. He was the one who freed the painting from the limiting representation and created the basis for the evolution of abstract art. His enormous influence on the art world forever changed the way painting was perceived. The artist's works were based on philosophical principles, which steadily progressed into picturesque images.

Kandinsky is, perhaps, first of all, a thinker, and then an artist. He recognized only the direction in which a saturated configuration could move and relentlessly pursued it, setting an example for other avant-garde creators. The essence of Kandinsky's abstraction is the search for a universal synthesis of music and painting, seen as parallels with philosophy and science.

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866. From early childhood, he was surprised by the variety of colors in nature, and he was constantly interested in art. Despite success in economics and law, he abandoned a promising career in the social sciences to pursue a creative vocation.

The exhibition of Claude Monet, which the young artist visited, was the decisive impetus that inspired him to devote himself to the study of fine art. When he entered the art school in Munich, Kandinsky was already 30 years old. Even without being accepted the first time, he continued to study independently.

Vasily Vasilyevich spent two years at an art school, after which a period of wandering followed. The artist visited the Netherlands, France, Italy and Tunisia. At the time, he produced paintings heavily influenced by Post-Impressionism, reliving his childhood in Russia in imaginative landscapes of idealist significance to the artist. He settled in the town of Murnau, near Munich, and continued his exploration of landscapes, endowing them with vigorous lines and bold, hard colors.

Kandinsky thought about music, trying to convey its abstract features in other art forms. In 1911, a group of like-minded artists was formed in Munich, headed by Kandinsky. They named themselves " The Blue Rider" - "Der Blaue Reiter". Among the participants were such famous German expressionists as August Macke and Franz Marc. The group published an almanac with their own views on contemporary art and held two exhibitions before disbanding at the start of World War I in 1914.

The transition to use The transition to the use of basic pictorial elements marked the beginning of a dramatic period in Kandinsky's work and became a harbinger of the emergence of abstract art. He conceived a new style, now known as lyrical abstraction. The artist, through drawing and drawing, imitated the flow and depth of a musical work, the coloring reflected the theme of deep contemplation. In 1912 he wrote and published the seminal study "On the spiritual in art ».

In 1914, Kandinsky had to return to Russia, but he did not stop experimenting. He even participated in the restructuring of Russian art institutions after the revolution. But the true significance of his brilliant innovation became apparent only in 1923 after he returned to Germany and joined the teaching corps " Bauhaus”, where he became friends with another creative avant-garde artist, Paul Klee.

Kandinsky worked on a new pictorial formula consisting of lines, dots, and combined geometric shapes representing his visual and intellectual explorations. The lyrical abstraction has shifted towards a more structured, scientific composition.

After ten years of fruitful work, in 1933 the Nazi authorities closed the Bauhaus school. Kandinsky was forced to move to France, where he spent the rest of his life.

For the last eleven years the Russian genius has devoted the constant pursuit of a great synthesis of his abstract ideas and visual discoveries. He returned to intense color and lyricism, reaffirming his original views on the true nature of painting. The great artist took French citizenship and created some of the most famous works of art in his new homeland. He died in 1944 in Neuilly at the age of 77.

The new Nazi authorities in 1937 proclaimed the works of Wassily Kandinsky, as well as the works of his contemporaries Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Franz Marc and Piet Mondrian, "degenerate art", and two years later, more than a thousand paintings and thousands of sketches were publicly burned in the atrium of a fire station in Berlin. However, the persuasive power of Wassily Kandinsky's iconic artwork did not fade under the weight of history and triumphed on the stage of art history.

1. Sequence, 1935

This is practically a piece of music, marked by a late period in the work of Kandinsky. Closed fields with scattered elements of the composition flowing into certain forms. The artist returned to his abstract roots.

2. Blue Rider, 1903

This painting was the inspiration for the creation of one of the most influential groups in the history of modern art - Der Blaue Reiter. This early work is written on the edge of abstraction.

3. “Beach baskets in Holland”, 1904

Landscape borrowed from a trip to the Netherlands. The scene is presumably influenced by Impressionism.

4. "Autumn in Murnau", 1908

The gradual transition to abstraction is marked by expressionism in the landscape.

5. “Akhtyrka. Red Church, 1908

Russian landscape in which the artist resurrected his homesickness.

6. "Mountain", 1909

An almost completely abstract landscape, with small outlines suggesting a hill and human figures.

7. "The first abstract watercolor", 1910

This work is of historical value as Kandinsky's first fully abstract watercolor.

8. "Improvisation 10", 1910

Improvisation in drawing and color gives clues, but does not fully reveal or concretize the images. early abstraction.

9. "Lyrical", 1911

In his painting, the artist often relied on musical ideas, so the lyrical nature of his strokes came naturally. This is one of his "artistic poems".

10. "Composition IV", 1911

There is a story that Kandinsky thought he had completed the painting, but as soon as his assistant accidentally turned it the other way, the perspective and overall impression of the canvas changed, making it beautiful.

11. "Improvisation 26 (Rowing)", 1912

Kandinsky often called his paintings in the manner of musical works - improvisation and composition.

12. "Improvisation 31 (Battleship)", 1913

A typical example of lyrical abstraction with strong color and emotional content.

13. "Squares with concentric circles", 1913

Already a real deep abstraction. Thus, Kandinsky conducted research in the field of color and geometry.

14. “Composition VI”, 1913

After extensive preparation for this painting, Kandinsky completed it in three days, chanting the German word "uberflut", which means flood, as a mantra for inspiration.

15. Moscow, 1916

During his stay in Moscow during the war years, Kandinsky was struck by the bustle of the big city. It is rather a portrait of the capital than a landscape reflecting all its power and turbulence.

16. "Blue", 1922

Another study of color in a very limited geometric form.

17. Black and Purple, 1923

One of the paintings painted after returning to Germany. We see still rich colors in the composition, but a distinctly sharp geometric twist pushes the lyrical strokes aside.

18. "On White II", 1923

Visual representation on two main nuances - black and white. The two opposites create a strong contrast, maintaining tension in a painting that mimics the struggle between life and death.

19. "Yellow, red, blue", 1925

As the name suggests, this is primarily an exploration of the potential of primary colors that adorn a geometric composition.

20. Composition X, 1939

This picture is also written under the influence of music. The visual elements are proportional to the musical components of the perfect symphony. Kandinsky believed that this is the secret of true painting

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 series of outstanding geniuses, one can name an artist named Wassily Kandinsky. Pictures and biography of this outstanding person definitely deserve special attention.

Who is Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky?

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. Later, it was this man who became one of the founders of abstractionism. He also has credits for creating several creative societies. Therefore, the Russian hudzhonik is widely known not only in Russia, but also abroad. Let's turn to the life path that Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky went through. Paintings by this remarkable artist are now in many museums around the world.

Life in Russia

The future artist was born in Moscow in 1866 in the family of a successful businessman. Soon after the birth of the artist, 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 the Moscow University Kandinsky Vasily Vasilyevich. Pictures at that time did not interest him much, because he wanted to devote his life to the legal business. 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 the work of Monet. By the way, he was already 30 at that time.

After arriving from abroad, the artist began to actively participate in social and educational activities, but in 1921 Kandinsky V.V. I decided not to return to my homeland. This was due to significant disagreements with the authorities. However, even despite the forced departure, the artist until the end of his days kept in his heart love for the Russian people and culture, which he expressed on his canvases.

Life abroad

For the first time the artist went abroad in 1897. He traveled extensively in 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. he was abroad only for a short time, but after that he moved permanently. During these years, he took up art, writing, as well as teaching at the university.

In 1933 the artist went to France and lived there for quite a long time. He spent several months in the United States, but in 1944 Kandinsky V.V. died in France.

Thanks to his travels, the artist Kandinsky Vasily Vasilyevich became world famous. critics in the best light are well 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 really bring new thinking into it.

Art

The artist began painting professionally in 1900, when he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. At the beginning he worked in the style of avant-gardism. After bright young works Kandinsky V.V. moved more to folklore themes, where Russian modernism was combined in the most interesting way with medieval legends and estate motifs, for example, as in the painting "Motley Life".

The master liked to create with the help of oils and watercolors, but at the same time he paid considerable attention to graphics and woodcuts.

Return 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 space themes that are inherent in constructivism, however, the master retained this. This is clearly seen in the paintings "In the 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 on the canvases "Dominant Curve" or "Blue Sky".

Famous paintings by Wassily Kandinsky

This talented person is known all over the world. The artist Kandinsky Vasily Vasilyevich 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 so appreciated now. You can’t even pick another word, because in 2012 the painting “Sketch for Improvisation No. 8” was sold for $ 23.4 million.

Almost all the works created by Kandinsky Vasily Vasilyevich became famous. The paintings of his authorship "In Grey", "Vibration" and "Cossacks" can be called one of his most popular works, but it is rather difficult to make a choice, since they all amaze the eyes and thoughts of admirers.

Other talents

Speaking of Kandinsky V.V., we must not forget that he was not only an artist. From a young age, he had a passion for writing and even published his art articles from Berlin. Later, the artist published a whole series of his books, where he described in detail his approach to art, worldview, as well as the 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 not be specific objects, otherwise they would distract from the high meaning.

In early December 2011, new price records were set at Russian auctions in London. Summing up the results of the year, we have compiled a list of the most expensive works by Russian artists based on the results of auction sales.

33 most expensive k. Source: 33 most expensive k.

According to the ratings, the most expensive Russian artist is Mark Rothko. His White Center (1950), sold for $72.8 million, in addition, ranks 12th in the list of the most expensive paintings in the world in general. However, Rothko was Jewish, born in Latvia, and left Russia at the age of 10. Is it honestwith a similar stretch chase for the records? Therefore, Rothko, as well as other emigrants who left Russia before becoming artists (for example, Tamara de Lempicki and Chaim Soutine), we deleted from the list.

No. 1. Kazimir Malevich - $60 million

The author of "Black Square" is too important a person for his works to be often found on the free market. So this picture came to auction in a very difficult way. In 1927, Malevich, about to arrange an exhibition, brought almost a hundred works from his Leningrad workshop to Berlin. However, he was urgently recalled to his homeland, and he left them for storage to the architect Hugo Hering. He saved the paintings during the difficult years of the fascist dictatorship, when they could well have been destroyed as "degenerate art", and in 1958, after Malevich's death, he sold them to the Stedelek State Museum (Holland).

At the beginning of the 21st century, a group of Malevich's heirs, almost forty people, began legal proceedings - because Hering was not the legal owner of the paintings. As a result, the museum gave them this painting, and will give away four more, which will surely cause a sensation at some auction. After all, Malevich is one of the most forged artists in the world, and the origin of the paintings from the Stedelek Museum is impeccable. And in January 2012, the heirs received another painting from that Berlin exhibition, taking it away from the Swiss museum.

#2 Wassily Kandinsky - $22.9 million

The auction price of a piece is affected by its reputation. This is not only a big name of the artist, but also "provenance" (origin). A thing from a famous private collection or a good museum is always more expensive than a work from an anonymous collection. The "Fugue" comes from the famous Guggenheim Museum: once director Thomas Krenz removed this Kandinsky, a painting by Chagall and Modigliani from the museum collections, and put them up for sale. For some reason, with the money received, the museum acquired a collection of 200 works by American conceptual artists. Krenz was condemned for a very long time for this decision.

This canvas of the father of abstractionism is curious because it set a record back in 1990, when the auction halls of London and New York had not yet been filled with reckless Russian buyers. Thanks to this, by the way, it did not disappear into some very private collection in a luxurious mansion, but is on permanent display in the private Beyeler Museum in Switzerland, where anyone can see it. A rare occasion for such a purchase!

No. 3. Alexei Yavlensky - 9.43 million pounds

Approximately $18.5 million was paid by an unknown buyer for a portrait depicting a girl from a village near Munich. Shokko is not a name, but a nickname. The model, coming to the artist's studio, each time asked for a cup of hot chocolate. So “Shokko” took root behind her.

The sold picture is included in his famous cycle "Race", depicting the domestic peasantry of the first quarter of the 20th century. And, right, portraying with such mugs that it's scary to look at. Here, in the form of a shepherd, the peasant poet Nikolai Klyuev, the forerunner of Yesenin, is revealed. Among his poems there are the following: "In the fire, the scarlet flower has become deaf and faded - The light-brat is daring Far from the sweetheart."

No. 19. Konstantin Makovsky - 2.03 million pounds

Makovsky - a salon painter, known for a huge number of hawthorn heads in kokoshniks and sundresses, as well as a painting "Children running from a thunderstorm", which at one time was constantly printed on gift boxes of chocolates. His sweet historical paintings are in stable demand among Russian buyers.

The subject of this painting- Old Russian "kissing rite" Noble women in Ancient Russia were not allowed to leave the female half, and only for the sake of honored guests could they go out, bring a cup and (the most pleasant part) allow themselves to be kissed. Pay attention to the picture hanging on the wall: this is the image of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, one of the first equestrian portraits that appeared in Russia. Its composition, although it was brazenly copied from the European model, was considered unusually innovative and even shocking for that time.

No. 20. Svyatoslav Roerich - $2.99 ​​million

The son of Nicholas Roerich left Russia as a teenager. Lived in England, USA, India. Like his father, he was interested in Eastern philosophy. Like his father, he painted many paintings on Indian themes. In general, his father occupied a huge place in his life - he painted more than thirty of his portraits. This picture was created in India, where the clan settled in the middle of the century. Paintings by Svyatoslav Roerich rarely appear at auctions, and in Moscow, works of the famous dynasty can be seen in the halls of the Museum of the East, to which the authors presented them, as well as in the Museum of the International Center of the Roerichs, which is located in a luxurious noble estate right behind the Pushkin Museum. Both museums do not like each other very much: the Oriental Museum claims both the building and the collections of the Roerich Center.

No. 21 Ivan Shishkin - £1.87m

The main Russian landscape painter spent three consecutive summers on Valaam and left many images of this area. This work is a little gloomy and does not look like a classic Shishkin. But this is explained by the fact that the picture belongs to his early period, when he did not grope for his style and was strongly influenced by the Düsseldorf school of landscape, in which he studied.

We have already mentioned this Düsseldorf school above, in the recipe for a fake "Aivazovsky". " Shishkins" are made according to the same scheme, for example, in 2004 at Sotheby's exhibited "Landscape with a Stream" of the painter's Dusseldorf period. It was estimated at $ 1 million and was confirmed by the examination of the Tretyakov Gallery. An hour before the sale, the lot was removed - it turned out to be a painting by another student of this school, the Dutchman Marinus Adrian Kukkuk, bought in Sweden for 65 thousand dollars.

No. 22. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin - 1.83 million pounds

A portrait of a boy with an icon of the Virgin was found in a private collection in Chicago. After it was handed over to the auction house, experts began research in an attempt to determine its origin. It turned out that the painting was at exhibitions in 1922 and 1932. In the 1930s, the artist's works traveled around the States as part of an exhibition of Russian art. Perhaps it was then that the owners acquired this painting.

Note the empty space on the wall behind the boy. At first, the author thought to write a window with a green landscape there. This would have balanced the picture both in terms of composition and colors - the grass would have something in common with the green tunic of the Mother of God (by the way, according to the canon, it should be blue). Why Petrov-Vodkin painted over the window is unknown.

No. 23. Nicholas Roerich - 1.76 million pounds

Before visiting Shambhala and beginning to correspond with the Dalai Lama, Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich specialized quite successfully in the Old Russian theme and even made ballet sketches for the Russian Seasons. The sold lot belongs to this period. The depicted scene is a wonderful phenomenon above the water, which is observed by a Russian monk, most likely Sergius of Radonezh. It is curious that the picture was painted in the same year as another vision of Sergius (then the youth Bartholomew), appearing in our list above. The stylistic difference is enormous.

Roerich painted many paintings and the lion's share of them - in India. He donated several pieces to the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research. Recently two of them, "Himalaya, Kanchenjunga" and "Sunset, Kashmir appeared at an auction in London. It was only then that the Institute's junior researchers noticed that they had been robbed. In January 2011, Indians applied to a London court for permission to investigate the crime in England. The interest of thieves in Roerich's heritage is understandable, because there is a demand.

No. 24. Lyubov Popova - 1.7 million pounds

Lyubov Popova died young, so she failed to become famous like another Amazonian avant-garde Natalya Goncharova. Yes, and her legacy is smaller - therefore, it is difficult to find her work for sale. After her death, a detailed inventory of the paintings was compiled. This still life was known for many years only from a black and white reproduction, until it surfaced in a private collection, turning out to be the most significant work of the artist in private hands. Pay attention to the Zhostovo tray - maybe this is a hint of Popova's taste for folk crafts. She came from a family of an Ivanovo merchant who was engaged in fabrics, and she herself created many sketches of propaganda textiles based on Russian traditions.

No. 25. Aristarkh Lentulov - 1.7 million pounds

Lentulov entered the history of the Russian avant-garde with a memorable image of St. Basil's Cathedral - either cubism, or a patchwork quilt. In this landscape, he tries to break up space in a similar way, but it doesn't come out as exciting. Actually, therefore Basil the Blessed» in the Tretyakov Gallery, and this picture- in the art market. Still, once museum workers had the opportunity to skim the cream.

No. 26. Alexei Bogolyubov - 1.58 million pounds

The sale of this little-known artist, albeit a beloved landscape painter of Tsar Alexander III, for such crazy money is a symptom of the frenzy of the market on the eve of the 2008 crisis. Then Russian collectors were ready to buy even minor masters. Moreover, first-class artists rarely sell.

Perhaps this picture was sent as a gift to some official: it has a suitable plot, because the Cathedral of Christ the Savior has long ceased to be just a church, and has become a symbol. And a flattering origin - the picture was kept in the royal palace. Pay attention to the details: the brick Kremlin tower is covered with white plaster, and the hill inside the Kremlin is completely unfurnished. Well, why bother trying? In the 1870s, Petersburg was the capital, not Moscow, and the Kremlin was not the residence.

No. 27. Isaac Levitan - 1.56 million pounds

Completely atypical for Levitan, the work was sold at the same auction as Bogolyubov's painting, but it turned out to be cheaper. This is due, of course, to the fact that the picture does not look like "Levitan ". Its authorship, however, is indisputable, a similar plot is in the Dnepropetrovsk Museum. 40,000 light bulbs, with which the Kremlin was decorated, were lit in honor of the coronation of Nicholas II. In a few days, the Khodynka disaster will happen.

No. 28. Arkhip Kuindzhi - $3 million

The famous landscape painter painted three similar paintings. The first is in the Tretyakov Gallery, the third is in the State Museum of Belarus. The second, presented at the auction, was intended for Prince Pavel Pavlovich Demidov-San Donato. This representative of the famous Ural dynasty lived in a villa near Florence. In general, the Demidovs, having become Italian princes, had fun as best they could. For example, Pavel's uncle, from whom he inherited the princely title, was so rich and noble that he married Napoleon Bonaparte's niece, and one day he whipped her in a bad mood. The poor lady struggled to get a divorce. The picture, however, did not get to Demidov, it was acquired by the Ukrainian sugar factory Tereshchenko.

No. 29. Konstantin Korovin - 1.497 million pounds

Impressionists a very “light”, sweeping style of writing is inherent. Korovin is the main Russian impressionist. It is very popular among scammers; according to rumors, the number of fakes at auctions reaches 80%. If a painting from a private collection was exhibited at the artist's personal exhibition in a famous state museum, then its reputation is strengthened, and at the next auction it costs much more. In 2012, the Tretyakov Gallery is planning a large-scale exhibition of Korovin. Maybe there will be works from private collections. This paragraph is an example of the manipulation of the reader's mind by the example of listing facts that do not have a direct logical connection between them.

• Please note that from March 26 to August 12, 2012 the Tretyakov Gallery promises to arrangeKorovin's exhibition . Read more about the biography of the most charming of the Silver Age artists. in our review vernissages of the State Tretyakov Gallery in 2012.

No. 30. Yuri Annenkov - $2.26 million

Annenkov managed to emigrate in 1924 and made a good career in the West. For example, in 1954 he was nominated for an Oscar as a costume designer for the film "Madame de..." The most famous of his early Soviet portraits- the faces are cubist, faceted, but completely recognizable. For example, he repeatedly drew Leon Trotsky in this way - and even repeated the drawing many years later from memory, when the Times magazine wanted to decorate the cover with him.

The character depicted in the record portrait is the writer Tikhonov-Serebrov. He entered the history of Russian literature mainly through his close friendship with. So close that, according to dirty rumors, the artist's wife Varvara Shaikevich even gave birth to a daughter from the great proletarian writer. It is not very noticeable on the reproduction, but the portrait is made using the collage technique: glass and plaster go over the layer of oil paint, and even a real doorbell is attached.

#31 Lev Lagorio - £1.47m

Another minor landscape painter, for some reason sold for a record price. One of the indicators of the success of the auction is the excess of the estimate ("assessment") - the minimum price that the experts of the auction house set for the lot. The estimate of this landscape was 300-400 thousand pounds, and it was sold 4 times more expensive. As one London auctioneer said: "Happiness is when two Russian oligarchs compete for the same subject.

No. 32. Viktor Vasnetsov - 1.1 million pounds

Bogatyrs became a calling card back in the 1870s. He returns to his stellar theme, like other veterans of Russian painting, during the years of the young Soviet republic - both for financial reasons and to feel in demand again. This picture is the author's repetition "Ilya Muromets" (1915), which is kept in the House-Museum of the Artist (on Prospekt Mira).

No. 33. Eric Bulatov - 1.084 million pounds

The second living artist on our list (he also said that the best way for an artist to raise the price of his work is to die). By the way, this is the Soviet Warhol, underground and anti-communist. He worked in the genre of Sots Art, which was created by the Soviet underground, as our version of Pop Art. "Glory to the CPSU" is one of the artist's most famous works. According to his own explanations, the letters here symbolize the lattice that blocks the sky from us, that is, freedom.

Bonus: Zinaida Serebryakova - £1.07m

Serebryakova loved to paint nude women, self-portraits and her four children. This ideal feminist world is harmonious and calm, which cannot be said about the life of the artist herself, who with difficulty escaped from Russia after the revolution and spent a lot of energy to get her children out of there.

"Nude" is not an oil painting, but a pastel drawing. This is the most expensive Russian drawing. Such a high amount paid for graphics is comparable to the prices for Impressionist drawings and caused great surprise at Sotheby's, who started trading with £150,000 and received a million.

The list is based on the prices indicated on the official websites of the auction houses. This price is the sum of the net worth (voiced when the hammer comes down), and« buyer's premium" (additional percentage of the auction house). Other sources may indicate "pure» price. The dollar to pound exchange rate often fluctuates, so British and American lots are located relative to each other with approximate accuracy (we are not Forbes).

Additions and corrections to our list are welcome.

Wassily Kandinsky was not born an artist, he came to painting quite late - at the age of 30. However, over the remaining half century, he managed to become famous not only for his paintings, but also for his theoretical treatises, the most famous of which is “On the Spiritual in Art”. Largely due to this work in the world, Kandinsky is known as the founder of abstractionism.

Childhood and youth

Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky was born on December 4 (16), 1866 in Moscow into a noble family. The father, the famous merchant Vasily Silvestrovich, came from the ancient Kyakhta family of the Kandinskys, who were considered descendants of the kings of the Mansi Kondinsky principality. Great-grandmother is a princess from the Tungus family of the Gantimurovs.

The family spent most of their fortune on travel. During the first 5 years after the birth of Vasily, they traveled around Russia and Europe, in 1871 settling in Odessa. Here the future artist received a classical education, while developing creatively. A private teacher taught him to play the piano and cello, drawing. At a young age, the boy skillfully handled the brush, combined, it seemed, incongruously bright colors. Later, this feature formed the basis of the style of painting he developed - abstractionism.

The parents did not consider their son's talent. By their will, in 1885 Wassily Kandinsky entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law, Department of Political Economy and Statistics. Having missed two years due to illness, in 1893 he successfully completed his studies.

Since 1895, he worked in the Moscow printing house "Partnership of I. N. Kushnever and Co" as an artistic director. In 1896, an invitation was received to take the place of professor of law at the University of Dorpat, but Vasily Vasilyevich refused in favor of realizing himself as an artist.

Painting and creativity

As Wassily Kandinsky wrote in his diaries, two events influenced the decision to become an artist: an exhibition of the French Impressionists in 1895, which showed, among other things, Haystack, and the opera Lohengrin at the Bolshoi Theater. At the moment when the future great artist and art theorist realized the true purpose, he was 30 years old.

In 1896, Kandinsky entered the private school of Anton Azbe in Munich. There he received his first advice on building a composition, working with form and color. The unusualness of his work has become the subject of ridicule of colleagues in the brush. The realist Igor Grabar recalled:

“He painted small landscape sketches, using not a brush, but a palette knife and overlaying individual planks with bright colors. It turned out motley, in no way coordinated sketches. We all treated them with restraint, joking with each other over these exercises in the "purity of colors." Kandinsky also did not succeed too much with Azhbe and did not shine with talents at all.

The riot of colors was not to the taste of the German painter Franz von Stuck, with whom Vasily Vasilyevich studied at the Munich Academy of Arts. Because of this, throughout 1900, Kandinsky painted black and white works, concentrating on graphics. A year later, the future abstract artist opened the Münchner Malschule Phalanx school, where he met Gabrielle Münter, a promising young artist. She became Kandinsky's muse and mistress.

At that time, landscapes saturated with colors came out from under the brush of Vasily Vasilyevich: “Old Town”, “Blue Mountain”, “Street in Murnau with Women”, “Autumn Landscape”, etc. There was a place for portraits, for example, “Two on a horse ".

In 1911, Kandinsky wrote the first book, On the Spiritual in Art. In fact, the treatise became the first theoretical justification for the emergence of such a genre as abstractionism. Vasily Vasilyevich talked about the means of embodying creativity: color, shape, thickness of lines. In 1914, the abstract artist began working on his second theoretical work, which was called Point and Line on a Plane. He saw the light in 1926.

The war of 1914 forced Kandinsky to return to his homeland, to Moscow. He taught at the Free Workshops, then at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. In the classroom, he promoted a free style of writing, because of which he often came into conflict with fellow realists. Vasily Vasilyevich objected:

“If an artist uses abstract means of expression, this does not mean that he is an abstract artist. It doesn't even mean that he is an artist. There are as many dead triangles (be they white or green) as there are dead chickens, dead horses, and dead guitars. It is as easy to become a "realistic academic" as it is to become an "abstract academic".

After the closure of the Bauhaus in 1933, Kandinsky immigrated to Paris. In France, abstractionism as a genre was absent in principle, so the public did not accept the innovative creations of the artist. Trying to adapt, Vasily Vasilyevich relied on form and composition, softening bright, catchy colors. He created the paintings "Sky-blue", "Complex-simple", playing on contrasts.

Personal life

Wassily Kandinsky had three women in his personal life.

Anna Filippovna Chemyakina was the artist's cousin and was 6 years older. The wedding took place in 1892, and more from loneliness than love.

In 1902, Kandinsky met the German artist Gabriele Münter. A year later, the couple became engaged, despite the fact that Chemyakina divorced only in 1911.

Young Munter, who was 11 years younger, wanted to become the wife of Vasily Vasilyevich. And the artist delayed this moment, often traveled without a companion. In the spring of 1916 he left for Moscow, promising to prepare papers for marriage. And he kept his promise - in the winter of 1917 he got married. True, not on Munter, but on Nina Nikolaevna Andreevskaya, whom he met by phone in 1916.

Then Nina was 17 years old, and Kandinsky was almost 50, and in the joint photos they looked more like a daughter with her father. But their love seemed pure and sincere.

“I was surprised by his amazing blue eyes…”, Nina wrote about their first meeting.

At the end of 1917, their son Vsevolod was born, who was affectionately named Lodya. Less than three years later, the boy died. Since then, the topic of children has become taboo in the Kandinsky family.

Death

Wassily Kandinsky lived a long life - death overtook him at the age of 78 in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

The tragedy happened on December 13, 1944. The body rests in the Neuilly New Cemetery, in the communes of Puteaux.

No. 1. In 1926, David Paladin, a future cartographer soldier, was born in Chinley, Arizona. During the war years, he was taken prisoner, and the young man ended up in a concentration camp. He endured all possible bullying until one day the prisoners were released. Since the Paladin showed no signs of life, he was taken among hundreds of others to be buried. On the way, the soldier stirred. He was urgently taken to the hospital.

The young man spent two and a half years in a coma, and when he regained consciousness, he introduced himself as Wassily Kandinsky in pure Russian. As proof of the honesty of the words spoken, the now former soldier painted a picture that art historians considered suitable for the style of the great abstract artist.

After leaving the hospital, David, nicknamed the New Kandinsky, continued to paint, got a job as a teacher at the Arizona College of Art, and then opened his own school. Under the signature of Kandinsky, he painted more than 130 paintings.

It is said that the Paladin was once put under hypnosis. He spoke about "his" biography: he was born in Moscow in the family of a businessman, studied in Odessa, had three wives. And all this is in the voice of Kandinsky. At the end of the session, the young man said:

“But why is there no rest for my soul even after death? Why did she possess this man? Maybe in order to complete the unfinished cycle of paintings ... ".

No. 2. Wassily Kandinsky's cousin, Viktor, is a renowned psychiatrist whose only patient was himself. At age 30, Victor had his first bout of what would later become known as schizophrenia. The psychiatrist was tormented by sound and figurative hallucinations, delirium, and the “open thoughts” syndrome. He, realizing that he was not healthy, began research. On their basis, Viktor Kandinsky wrote the treatises “On Pseudohallucinations”, “On the Question of Insanity”, which proved that schizophrenia is treatable.

True, in practice, the patient's biography had a sad end - during the next attack, the psychiatrist kept the following record:

“I swallowed so many grams of opium. I am reading Tolstoy's Cossacks. Reading becomes difficult. I can't write anymore, I can't see clearly anymore. Sveta! Sveta!".

Victor died at the age of 40.

Number 3. Wassily Kandinsky wrote poetry in prose. In 1913, the collection "Sounds" was published, which included seven works.

Artworks

• 1901 - "Summer"
• 1903 - "The Blue Rider"
• 1905 - "Gabriel Munter"
• 1908-1909 - "Blue Mountain"
• 1911 - "All Saints"
• 1914 - Fugue
• 1923 - "In the black square"
• 1924 - "Black accompaniment"
• 1927 - "Peaks on an arc"
• 1932 - "Right - Left"
• 1936 - "Dominant Curve"
• 1939 - "Complex-simple"
• 1941 - "Various Incidents"
• 1944 - "Ribbon with squares"

When it comes to abstractionism, many people who are far from art immediately issue their categorical verdict: daub. This is followed by the phrase that any toddler will surely draw better than these artists. At the same time, the very word "artists" will certainly be uttered with demonstrative contempt, which in some cases will even border on disgust.

AiF.ru, as part of a cultural educational program, tells what one of the most famous abstract artists tried to display on his canvases Wassily Kandinsky.

Painting "Composition VI"

Year: 1913

Exhibited in the museum: Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Initially, Kandinsky wanted to call the painting "Composition VI" "The Flood", since in this work the painter intended to depict a catastrophe of a universal scale. Indeed, looking closely, we can see the outlines of the ship, animals and objects, as if sinking in swirling masses of matter, as if in the waves of a stormy sea.

Kandinsky himself later, speaking about this canvas, noted that "there would be nothing more wrong than sticking the label of the original plot on this picture." The master specifically pointed out that in this case the original motif of the picture (the Flood) was dissolved and moved to an internal, purely pictorial, independent and objective existence. “A grandiose, objectively occurring catastrophe is at the same time an absolute and self-sounding hot song of praise, like the anthem of a new creation that follows the catastrophe,” Kandinsky explained. As a result, the painter decided to assign a numbered name to the canvas, since any other could cause unnecessary associations among art connoisseurs that would spoil the emotions that the picture should evoke.

Painting "Composition VII"

Painting "Composition VII". Photo: reproduction

Year: 1913

"Composition VII" is called the pinnacle of Kandinsky's artistic work in the period before the First World War. Since the painting was created very painstakingly (it was preceded by more than thirty sketches, watercolors and oil paintings), the final composition is a combination of several biblical themes: the resurrection from the dead, Judgment Day, the Flood and the Garden of Eden.

The idea of ​​the human soul is displayed in the semantic center of the canvas, the cycle marked with a purple spot and black lines and strokes next to it. He inevitably draws in himself, like a funnel, spewing out some rudiments of forms, spreading in countless metamorphoses throughout the canvas. Colliding, they merge or, on the contrary, break against each other, setting the neighboring ones in motion... It is like the very element of Life arising from Chaos.

Painting "Composition VIII"

"Composition VIII". A photo: "Composition VIII", Wassily Kandinsky, 1923

Year: 1923

Museum exhibited: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

"Composition VIII" is fundamentally different from the previous work in this series, because instead of blurry outlines, for the first time there are clear geometric shapes. The main idea as such is absent in this work; instead, the artist himself gives a specific description of the figures and colors of the picture. So, according to Kandinsky, the horizontals sound “cold and minor”, ​​and the verticals sound “warm and high”. Sharp corners are “warm, sharp, active and yellow”, while straight ones are “cold, restrained and red”. The green is "balanced and matches the subtle sounds of the violin", the red "may give the impression of a strong drumming", and the blue is present "deep in the organ". Yellow "has the ability to rise higher and higher, reaching heights unbearable to the eye and spirit." Blue "descends into the bottomless depths." Blue "develops the sound of the flute."

Painting "Troubled"

Painting "Troubled". Photo: reproduction

Year: 1917

Exhibited in the museum: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The name "Troubled" was chosen for the picture not by chance. Obscurity and "disturbance" are displayed in the work of Kandinsky by a dramatic clash of centripetal and centrifugal forces, as if breaking against each other in the center of the canvas. This causes a feeling of anxiety, which grows as you “get used to” the work. The mass of additional colors provides a kind of orchestration of the main struggle, now pacifying, now exacerbating the turmoil.

Painting "Improvisation 20"

Painting "Improvisation 20". Photo: reproduction

Year: 1911

Exhibited in the museum: State Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin, Moscow

In his works of the "Improvisation" series, Kandinsky sought to show the unconscious processes of an internal nature that arise suddenly. And the twentieth work of this category, the artist depicted the impression of his "inner nature" from the running of two horses under the midday sun.

• 
  "Boats of Rapallo", Wassily Kandinsky, year unknown.
• 
  Moscow, Zubovskaya Square. Etude, Wassily Kandinsky, 1916.
• "Lesson with a canal", Wassily Kandinsky, 1901.
• 
  "Old City II", Wassily Kandinsky, 1902.
• "Gabriel Münter", Wassily Kandinsky, 1905.
• 
  "Autumn in Bavaria", Wassily Kandinsky, 1908.
• 
  "The first abstract watercolor", Wassily Kandinsky, 1910.
• 
  "Composition IV", Wassily Kandinsky, 1911.
• "Moscow I", Wassily Kandinsky, 1916