Artistic MetomorphosisWassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Born in Moscow Attended the University of Moscow

where he studied Law and Economics.

Quite successful in his profession, he was offered a professorship at the University of Dorpat.

He didn’t begin painting until the age of 30.

Finally enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich to pursue painting.

“The Blue Rider” (Kandinsky, 1903)

"Munich-Schwabing with the Church of St. Ursula“(Kandinsky 1908)

The Blue Rider Group

Kandinsky formed The Blue Rider Group in 1911 with like-minded artists such as Franz Marc and August Macke.

The paintings of this period are composed of large and very expressive colored masses evaluated independently from forms and lines which serve no longer to delimit them but are superimposed and overlap in a very free way to form paintings of an extraordinary force.

The Blue Rider Group held two exhibits and planned more. Unfortunately, the outbreak of WW1 in 1914 sent Kandinsky back to Russia.

“Composition VII (Kandinsky, 1913)

Composition VI, (Kandinsky 1913

Russia 1914-1921

During this time in Kandinsky’s life, he devoted most of his time to teaching art and painted little.

Although he participated in the organization of the Institute of Artistic Culture in Moscow, ultimately he felt rejected for his expressionistic, spiritual view of art.

In 1921 Kandinsky received the mission to go to Germany to attend the Bauhaus of Weimar, on the invitation of its founder, the architect Walter Gropius.

Bauhaus (1922-1933)

Founder Walter Gropius- “Form follows Function” The Bauhaus was an innovative architecture and

art school whose objectives included the merging of plastic art with applied arts, reflected in its teaching methods based on the theoretical and practical application of the plastic arts.

Kandinsky taught the basic design class for beginners and the course on advanced theory, and also conducted painting classes.

Between 1926 and 1933 Kandinsky painted 159 oils and 300 water colors. Many of them, unfortunately, have been lost after Nazis declared Kandinsky's and many other artists' paintings to be “degenerate”.

"On White II" (Kandinsky 1923)

Paris (1934-1944)

The Bauhaus was closed in 1933 by the Nazis.

Kandinsky moves to Paris to continue painting until his death.

Composition X (Kandinsky, 1939)