Wassily Kandinsky's Accomplishments

Wassily Kandinsky became a painter rather late in life. It is only after finishing his studies at the University of Moscow, in his early thirties and completely mature that he decides to fully commit to art. This important decision would change his life. However, neither himself nor his social and artistic circle, could then assume he would encounter a decisive step fifteen years later. The transition to the non-figurative art where he would create his famous Improvisations and Compositions that created his fame. Kandinsky was one of the rare painters of the 20th Century who not only had flourished in such a heavy political environment but also, whose creations escaped any explanations. Only a few influential artists actually succeeded
in pushing the boundaries to create a new formal language. Kandinsky was one of them. "Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential." (Kandinsky). Abstract art is a painting (or a sculpture) that does not depict something in the natural world, rather, the subject of the work being based on what one sees; such as color, shapes, brushstrokes and so on. This essay will elaborate on this great artist who considered himself as an innovator in his domain and on whether he was the first one to push the boundaries of art into abstract.

Wassily Kandinsky was born in 1866 in Moscow to well-educated, upper-class parents of mixed origins as his father was born close to Mongolia while is mother was a Muscovite.
An important part of Kandinsky’s life was spent in Odessa a cosmopolitan city populated by mainly Western Europeans and other ethnic groups. At an early age, he expressed an uncommon sensitivity towards sound, word and colors – in other words, the arts. His father encouraged what he perceived as a gift and pushed him into drawing and music lessons. Despite early exposure to the arts, Kandinsky did not make it a priority in his life until much later and first achieved his law studies at the University of Moscow. He later decided to abandon his law career to attend art school in Munich in 1896 where he was introduced to the artistic avant-garde by Alexei Jawlensky and others. In 1901, with the help of three other young artists, Kandinsky co-founded “Phalanx” an artists’ association opposed to the conservative views of the traditional art institutions. He will then meet Gabriele Münter – one of his students – becoming his companion with whom he will spend the next fifteen years. In 1903, he will close the “Phalanx” school and will travel throughout Europe with Münter where he will familiarize himself with the growing Expressionist movement and develop his own style based on his different artistic sources he witnessed during his
travels. During this period, Kandinsky painted one of his most famous paintings “Der Blaue Reiter” (The Blue Rider) which would later become an association of painters led by him and Franz Marc. Both shared an interest in abstracted forms and prismatic colors, which they felt, had spiritual values that could counteract the corruption and materialism of their age. The “Blue Rider” had a symbolic representation as it was a symbol for moving beyond realistic representation for Kandinsky, and as a prominent subject in Marc’s work, alongside with other animals, symbolized rebirth. “Der Blaue Reiter” was then dissolved in the outbreak of World War I. Kandinsky’s paintings became more and more abstract with time, distancing his work from the surrounding world as he gradually refined his style. To that effect, he began titling his works Improvisation, Composition or Impression to further stress the distance from the objective world. Proving that he was a pioneer in the abstract painting movement, Kandinsky published his first theoretical treatise on abstraction in 1911, “Concerning Spiritual Art”. The treatise stated that the artist was a spiritual being that communicated through and was affected by lines, colors and compositions. Nonetheless, Kandinsky was not the only one in the field of the abstract, various artists such as Piet Mondrian or Kasimir Malevich had their own formulations of abstraction and acted independently from one another. They all turned to abstract around the same period though, being between 1911 and 1917, simultaneity which can be explained by similar preoccupations. Interestingly enough all of them had a spiritual approach to art and for some of them, were very interested in music as well (La Naissance de l’Art Abstrait, Morisset). During the early 1910s, Kandinsky produced both abstract and figurative works expanding his interest in non-objective painting. The following painting, Composition VII was an early example of his synthesis between spiritual, emotional and non-referential art through complex patterns and colors. One of the drafts made with watercolors was considered for a long time, to be the first abstract painting of the history of art, since it was signed and dated in 1910 with the inscription “abstract watercolor” in the back of it. Today, it is considered as an experiment for the painting he then finished in 1913 as some elements are clearly identifiable; however, the work was unusually large among the studies and presented very loose structure of various forms found in the final painting. Composition VII was done in only three days, after preparing more than thirty preparatory drafts. The photographs show the evolution of Kandinsky’s work as photographed during the three consecutive days by Münter. Kandinsky's "first abstract painting" – 1910 (Centre G. Pompidou). Composition VII 1913 (Kandinsky, Rétrospective, Fondation Maeght, 2001) In becoming more and more abstract in his paintings, Kandinsky wrote one of the most famous treatises on art with the purpose of elucidating the crucial problems faced by himself and other pioneering abstractionists (Washton Long, 217). As a matter of fact, Kandinsky was attracted to the idea of abstraction in order to create a utopian world, in doing so there would be no place for materialism since he felt it dominated the times he lived in, hence representing it in his abstract paintings. Nonetheless, Kandinsky feared that abstraction would leave people perplex and the fact they would not comprehend his work, this is why he led his spectators step by step in the process of his art becoming more and more abstract. Painting was, above all, deeply spiritual for Kandinsky. He was looking to convey profound spirituality as well as the depth of human emotion through a universal visual language of abstract forms and colors. “It is not obvious (‘geometrical’) constructions that will be richest in possibilities for expression but hidden ones, emerging unnoticed from the canvas and meant definitely for the soul rather than the eye.” Kandinsky’s concept of the hidden image was influenced by the symbolist aesthetic, thus confirming the fact that his art had symbols and could qualify as spiritual. Nonetheless, since this movement (abstraction) was moving away from descriptive language, which could be seen as too individualistic and subjective, Kandinsky, and others, felt they were distancing themselves from “the special gift of the poet from reaching the people” (Art Journal, XXXIV/3). Hence, being concerned that the message he wanted to convey would either be misinterpreted or not understood at all. In 1922, Kandinsky was asked to teach at the Bauhaus, the Weimar school of applied design, founded a few years earlier in 1919. He taught there until the school was forced to close in 1933 due to the pressure of the National Socialist Government (Nazi). While he was teaching there, he lived with Klee and their close relation is reflected in their influence on each other’s work. Kandinsky painted two of the most important paintings of his career, “In Blue” and “Yellow – Red – Blue” (Gelb – Rot – Blau). He believed that colors provoked emotions, red was lively and confident, green was peaceful with inner strength, blue was deep and supernatural, yellow could be warm, exciting or even disturbing and white seemed silent but full of possibilities. It is also clear that during his period at the Bauhaus; Kandinsky adopted more suggestive, emotive and literary titles. Some are related to his own writing “Inner Simmering”; others emphasize colors, “Tension in Red”. He was concerned of the relationship his paintings would have with the spectator thus focusing on contrasts of colors or qualities, for instance, “Hard but Soft” (Kandinsky at the Guggenheim, Barnett). A final move in 1933 to Paris will mark the final stage of the creative and way of life of Kandinsky.
A change in style was apparent, nevertheless, it is difficult to differentiate between innovation and culmination of past tendencies. While in Paris, he will be choosing larger canvases, using more biomorphic forms, adding sand to his oil paintings and introducing new hues into his palette (Barnett). In a certain respect, his first Paris paintings will be a continuation of his work at the Bauhaus that he will take further and modify; for instance “Accompanied Center” was transformed from a watercolor to a major painting. During his Paris period, Kandinsky continued to write, limiting himself to shorter texts expressing familiar points of view on the correspondence between painting and music as he states in “L’Art Concret”, or his belief in abstract art which he now preferred to call “concrete art” in “Abstract Concrete”. He will also be rather isolated, as impressionism and cubism dominated the artistic scene at that time, and his geometric abstract paintings will receive suspicion and would not be recognized before some time. Nonetheless, he played an important role in the philosophic foundation for later modern movements, in particular abstract expressionism and its variants like color field painting. His work had a large influence on artists such as Gorky (which also helped shape the New York School’s aesthetic), but was also of interest to Pollock, Rothko and
many more. Because of the war, Kandinsky could not find canvases and other painting materials; his last works will be painted on wood or canvas boards. He was a remarkable painter for many reasons; however, his technical proficiency was impressive as well. Throughout his life, he used a variety of painting materials, including water-soluble pigments, varnish, bronze, aluminum paint and grains of sand in his oil paintings. Like many painters at during the Second World War, the Nazis will confiscate 57 of his canvases during the purge of what they called “degenerate art”. Despite the fascist proscription against his art, his works were valued on the other side of the Atlantic. Notably, Solomon R. Guggenheim was an avid collector of Kandinsky’s abstract works. His works became key to the shaping of the museum’s philosophy, dedicating its opening to the modern avant-garde art. Through it all, Kandinsky remained a vital and prolific painter, and as importantly, an art theorist, a creative force of great importance to the development of the 20th Century art. Much of his work was enshrined by Hilla Rebay, the first director of the Guggenheim museum, who promoted non-objective painting above all other form of abstraction. She was inspired by his works as well as his written than his paintings, with the philosophy that the task of painter, is to convey his inner world, rather than imitate the natural one.