Who is Wassily Kandinsky? Kandinsky Vasily. Biography, titles, descriptions of paintings In what style did Kandinsky paint?

Katrina "Gravity" Wassily Vasilyevich Kandinsky wrote in 1935. Against a dark background of the painting, the artist depicted a composition of clear lines, circles and squares. He marked the center of the canvas with a kind of axis consisting of one horizontal […]

The canvas was created during the period of creative growth of the artist. It perfectly reflects his personality at that time. In one of his first fundamental abstract canvases, the painter uses black strokes against a background of bright colors, […]

The canvas was created during the period when the artist painted his best works. After his return to Germany, he worked in an environment of revival of all types of art and attention to abstract painting among wonderful colleagues, […]

Painting by Wassily Kandinsky " Old city"was written during a period of creative quest, in 1902 and refers to the artist’s early works. The work was created in the Art Nouveau direction, characterized by its generalized forms. Like many other early […]

From 1900 to 1910, Wassily Kandinsky worked for the World of Art magazine, which published Russian symbolism. The main theme for the work of the Symbolists of that time was the culture of the Russian nobility of the 17th century and […]

The painting was painted in oil on canvas in 1919, during the dawn creative path Wassily Kandinsky. Art critics compare “White Oval” with music embodied in the picture, imbued with the state of the author’s soul, his deep feelings. Such […]

Wassily Vasilievich Kandinsky (12/16/1866, Moscow, Russian empire- 13/13/1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) - an outstanding Russian painter, graphic artist and theorist visual arts, one of the founders of abstract art. He was one of the founders of the Blue Rider group.

Biography of Wassily Kandinsky.

The family into which Wassily Kandinsky was born came from an ancient Transbaikal family; his great-grandmother was a Tungus princess. As a child, little Vasily had to travel a lot around Russia and Europe with his parents. After his family settled in Odessa, Kandinsky graduated from high school, received elementary art and musical education. In 1885, the Kandinsky family returned to Moscow, and in the same year Vasily entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law. Kandinsky interrupted his studies twice: the first time for health reasons, and the second time due to an expedition to the Vologda province. In 1893 he graduated from the university and went to work at the printing house of the Partnership of I. N. Kushnerev and Co. as artistic director.

In 1896, V. Kandinsky left for Munich, where he met outstanding, and then beginning, Russian artists such as,. Then it was Kandinsky who decided to connect his life with art, or rather with painting. And already in 1897, Vasily Vasilyevich began studying painting in the private studio of A. Ashbe. Three years later, in 1900, he entered the Munich Academy of Arts, and also from this year began a series of travels: he visited North Africa, Italy, France, while not forgetting to stop by Moscow and Odessa.

In 1901, Wassily Kandinsky organized the creative association “Phalanx” and an art school attached to it, where he began his pedagogical activity. In general, Kandisky’s life is very closely connected with many artistic associations: in 1909 he founded the “New Munich artistic association" And in 1910 and 1912 he took part in exhibitions of the creative association “Jack of Diamonds”, as a protest against everything academic. Parallel to this movement, Kandinsky creates his own innovative ethic about “rhythmic” color in painting.

In 1911, together with Franz Marc, they started another creative association and subsequently an almanac called “The Blue Rider”. Not only artists took part in it, but also dancers and composers who were interested in expressionism, fauvism and cubism. Members of this association were such artists as Marianna Veryovkina, Alexey Yakovlensky and Paul Klee. During the same period, V. Kandinsky hosted the first personal exhibition.

In 1914, Wassily Kandinsky returned to Russia and stopped in Moscow. During the Moscow period, he created mainly landscapes, working in realistic and semi-abstract styles. In 1917, the artist tied the knot with Nina Nikolaevna Andreevskaya. And after the revolution of the same year, he accepted its views and actively participated in public works. Soon Kandinsky takes part in organizing the protection of monuments and helps in the founding of the Museum of Pictorial Culture Russian Academy artistic sciences. Also during this period, he worked on his autobiography, on the book “Steps,” and taught at various art schools.

In 1918-1921, Wassily Kandinsky held various positions and positions: he was a member of the art board of the Fine Arts Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, he headed a reproductive workshop, and was awarded the title of honorary professor at Moscow University. During these years, the artist worked mainly on compositions on glass. The most famous of them are “Amazon” and “Amazon in the mountains”.

In December 1921, Wassily Kandinsky was offered to go to Berlin to establish friendly relations and organizing exhibitions of Russian art. Upon arrival in Berlin, the artist receives an invitation to work in art school“Bauhaus”, which he accepts, automatically becoming an emigrant and “defector” to Russia.

In 1928, V. Kandinsky became a German citizen. Also at this time the artist comes global recognition and fame as a leading painter in abstract style. But in 1933 everything changes dramatically. With the Nazis coming to power in Germany, all abstract art was persecuted, and Kandinsky’s works were called “degenerate.” In light of these events, he was forced to leave for France. Together with his wife, he settles in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. In 1939, the artist renounced German citizenship and adopted French. During these years, Wassily Kandinsky was in dire need, which is why his works decreased in size and began to use gouache and cardboard. During this period, paintings such as “Sky Blue”, “Complicated-Simple”, “Motley Ensemble” are far from romantic, they are overflowing with passion and emotions. Once again, the public does not accept the artist’s views, turning away from him. Neuilly-sur-Seine became the last city where the artist lived. He died in this city in 1944 and was buried in the New Neuilly Cemetery.

In 1889 he took part in an ethnographic expedition in the Vologda province, where he met folk art and iconography.

In 1893, after graduating from the university with a 1st degree diploma, he was left at the department of political economy and statistics, in 1895 he wrote a dissertation, but left science and devoted himself to art.

He refused a professorship at the University of Dorpat in Estonia and in 1896 went to Munich to study painting. Kandinsky studied at the school of Anton Ashbe, and in 1900 he moved to the Academy of Arts in the class of the artist and sculptor Franz Stuck.

In 1901, Kandinsky founded the Phalanx art society, which organized exhibitions of young artists; In 1902 he became president of the society. In 1902, Kandinsky also became a member of the Berlin Secession, an association of artists and sculptors.

In the early 1900s, the artist traveled extensively throughout Europe and North Africa, came to Russia, but chose Munich (1902-1908) as his permanent residence, then the town of Murnau in the Bavarian Alps.

IN early work Kandinsky used impressions from nature as the basis for creating colorful landscapes ("The Blue Rider", 1903). The middle and second half of the 1900s were marked by a passion for Russian antiquity. In the paintings “Song of the Volga” (1906), “Motley Life” (1907), “Rock” (1909), the artist combined the rhythmic and decorative features of Russian and German Art Nouveau with the techniques of pointillism (the manner of painting with separate, unisolated strokes) and stylization of folk popular prints.

Kandinsky also worked in the fields of decorative and applied arts(sketches of women's jewelry, furniture fittings), plastic arts (modeling in clay), experimented with painting on glass.

During this period, he performed albums of engravings “Poems without Words” (1904) and “Woodcuts” (1909). Exhibited at the Berlin Secession (since 1902), the Paris Salon d'Automne (1904-1912) and the Salon of Independents (since 1908), participated in group exhibitions in Munich, Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin, Warsaw, Rome and Paris, as well as in Moscow (from 1902, 1906) and St. Petersburg (1904, 1906).

At the same time, he wrote correspondence about artistic life Munich for the magazines "World of Art" (1902) and "Apollo" (1909-1910).

In 1909, Kandinsky headed the Munich New art society, created as a result of the refusal of the organizers of the secession to accept innovative works. In 1911, due to aesthetic differences, he left the society and, together with the German painter Franz Marc, created the Blue Rider association. In 1912, he published an almanac of the same name, which became the program document of the artistic avant-garde.

In 1911, Kandinsky painted his first abstract watercolor; in 1911-1913 he painted a series of non-objective paintings, “Impressions,” “Improvisations,” and “Compositions.”

In 1912, Kandinsky published the book “On the Spiritual in Art,” in which he gave the first theoretical basis abstract art; sent a report of the same name to the All-Russian Congress of Artists in St. Petersburg (December 1911 - January 1912).

In 1913 he published the poetry book Klänge ("Sounds"), accompanied by woodcuts.

In October 1912, the artist’s first personal exhibition took place in the gallery of the Berlin association Der Sturm. The association's publishing house published his album of paintings Rückbliсke, as well as a number of theoretical works.

At the beginning of the First World War (1914-1918), Kandinsky returned to Russia. After the October Revolution of 1917, he was mainly occupied with the reorganization of artistic life. In 1918, he joined the Board of Fine Arts of the People's Commissariat for Education, in 1919 he became a member of the International Bureau of Fine Arts of the People's Commissariat for Education, one of the organizers and scientific secretary of the Museum of Pictorial Culture in Petrograd.

In 1920 he was director of the Institute artistic culture(INHUK) in Moscow and a professor at Moscow University, in 1921 - vice-president of the Russian Academy of Art Sciences. Participated in a number of artist exhibitions.

At the end of 1921, Kandinsky was sent to Berlin to create the international department of the Academy of Artistic Sciences and decided not to return to Russia.

In 1922, at the suggestion of the architect Walter Gropius, he taught wall painting and the theory of form at the Bauhaus training center in Weimar (Association of the Weimar Academy of Art and the School of Applied Arts; since 1925 - in Dessau).

In the Bauhaus, the artist was the leader of abstract art.

In the 1920-1930s, Kandinsky created an album of prints "Small Worlds" (1923), abstract scenery for "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky for the theater in Dessau (1928), a design project

Music room for the International Architecture Exhibition in Berlin (1931).

He annually held personal exhibitions in Europe and the USA, participated together with Jawlensky, Feininger and Klee in exhibitions of the Blue Four group, in international exhibitions and exhibitions of Russian art.

During this period, he wrote the book “Point and Line on a Plane” (1926), which was translated into several languages.

In 1933, after the closure of the Bauhaus by the Nazis, Kandinsky received French citizenship in 1939.

In Germany, his works were demonstrated for propaganda purposes at the exhibition “Degenerate Art” (1937), and then removed from museums.

In 1936-1944, Kandinsky held solo exhibitions at the Parisian gallery J. Bucher, exhibited at the Neumann gallery, the Museum contemporary art, Guggenheim Museum in New York, Guggenheim Gallery in London.

In November-December 1944, the artist’s last lifetime personal exhibition took place in Paris.

December 13, 1944 Wassily Kandinsky, near Paris in France. He was buried in the cemetery in Neuilly.

Kandinsky was officially married twice. In 1892 he married his cousin Anna Chemyakina, the marriage ended in the early 1900s and was dissolved in 1911. In 1917 in Moscow, he married Nina Andreevskaya (1893 or 1899-1980), the daughter of an officer. In the same year, their son Vsevolod was born, who soon died. After the death of her husband, Nina Kandinskaya sold and donated his paintings to museums, organized memorial exhibitions, and in 1973 published a book of memoirs, “Kandinsky and Me.” In the early 1970s, she bought a house in Switzerland, where she was killed by a robber on September 2, 1980 (the crime remained unsolved). According to her will, 150 of her husband’s paintings went to the Museum of Modern Art in Paris (Center Pompidou).

Also close friend the artist was his student Gabriela Munter. Promising to marry her, on the eve of the First World War he left Germany, leaving his works and papers in the care of Munter. After his return with his young wife in 1921, Münter refused to return the paintings. On her 80th birthday, Münter donated all of her paintings to the Lenbachhaus gallery in Munich.

Currently Kandinsky. At auctions, his creations are valued at tens of millions of dollars.

In 2007, the Kandinsky Prize was established in Russia - one of the most important national awards in the field of contemporary art.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Kandinsky is, perhaps, first of all a thinker and then an artist. He recognized only the direction in which a rich 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. WITH early childhood he was amazed by the variety of colors in nature, and he was constantly interested in art. Despite his success in studying 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, became a decisive impetus that inspired him to devote himself to the study of fine art. When he entered art school in Munich, Kandinsky was already 30 years old. Even without being accepted the first time, he continued his independent studies.

Vasily Vasilyevich spent two years at art school, after which a period of wandering followed. The artist visited the Netherlands, France, Italy and Tunisia. At that time, he created paintings heavily influenced by Post-Impressionism, reliving his childhood in Russia in creative landscapes that had an idealistic meaning for the artist. He settled in the town of Murnau, near Munich, and continued to explore landscapes, giving them energetic lines and bold, hard colors.

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

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 planned a new style, currently known as lyrical abstraction. The artist, through drawing and sketching, 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 " About 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 ingenious 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. Lyrical abstraction shifted towards a more structured, scientific composition.

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

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

The new Nazi authorities in 1937 declared the works of Wassily Kandinsky, like those of his contemporaries Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Franz Marc and Piet Mondrian, to be “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 iconic artwork Wassily Kandinsky did not fade under historical hardships and emerged victorious on the stage of art history.

Painting by Wassily Kandinsky:

1. "Sequence", 1935

This is practically a musical work, marking the late period in Kandinsky's work. Closed fields with scattered elements of the composition flowing into certain forms. The artist returned to his abstract roots.

2. “The Blue Rider”, 1903

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

3. Beach Baskets in Holland, 1904

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

4. “Autumn in Murnau”, 1908

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

5. “Akhtyrka. Red Church", 1908

Russian landscape, in which the artist resurrected his homesickness.

6. “Mountain”, 1909

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

7. “First abstract watercolor”, 1910

This work has historical value as Kandinsky's first completely abstract watercolor.

8. “Improvisation 10”, 1910

Improvisation in drawing and color gives clues, but does not fully reveal or specify 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 "poems of art".

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 painting changed, making it beautiful.

11. “Improvisation 26 (Rowing)”, 1912

Kandinsky often named his paintings in the manner 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 within three days, repeating 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 turmoil big city. This is more of a portrait of the capital than a landscape, reflecting all its power and turbulence.