Wassily Kandinsky 1866-1944

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow, December 1866 (he died in 1944, a few days shy of his 78th birthday), becoming a scholar of law and economics, painter, printmaker, and author later on in his life. Raised in an Orthodox faith, Kandinsky kept his beliefs throughout his entire life, and achieving academic success in the earlier part of his life in an Odessa school, in this Crimea part of Russia. Graduating in 1892 Kandinsky had a very promising academic career, being appointed lecturer and an assistant to the faculty of the Moscow University.   Then, in 1896, when Kandinsky was 30 years old, he abandoned his results of academic knowledge, turned down a professorship at the University of Dorpat in Estonia and left to Munich, Germany to study painting. In 2006 Kandinsky and his art was credited for “capturing the spirit of Modernity better than any other” (pg 49, Paradoxy of Modernism, Ch.2).

Robert Scholes

Odessa 1898

 Kandinsky's Lady in Moscow 1912Kandinsky's All Saints 1911

Kandinsky was Russian (not Polish as mentioned in Rhythm Vol. 1, No. 4, pg 24), was a very sensitive and observant child, and art (the traditional Russian religious icon, Rembrandt oils) and music (especially Wagner's symphony “Lohengrin”) always fascinated him.

Kandinsky had strong reactions to his surroundings; he played cello and piano, and got his first box of oil paint at age fourteen. He was blown away by the French Impressionist paintings at the 1895 Moscow exhibit, especially Monet’s“Haystack” painting. Leading the academic career, Kandinsky  thought that while in Munich he could get the training he needed (to become an artist) while participating in various art circles, since Munich was a major European arts center in very active experimental grounds for  artists at the turn of the century. One must point out, since you can’t mention modernism without mentioning Picasso, that Picasso once took a similar route (abandoning further academic traditions and going to another country to pursue his personal style in art).

Monet's Haystack

Picasso's the Poet 1910

Maybe to be modern, it must have been necessary to go through a drastic changing transformation in one’s lifestyle (another country, language) to pursue the development of personal expression, exposure to other resources as fuel. Whatever the style or medium, an artist expresses himself best in “personal necessity”, as Kandinsky put it.

Kandinsky’s “personal necessity” appears to be quite an important subject in one of his books called Concerning the Spiritual in Art, published in 1911. His published book was “a valuable commentary on the whole modern movement” and “aid to the appreciation of the author's ideals as an artist” (pg 24, Rhythm, Vol. 1, No. 4).

          

 

Only after traveling around Germany, Italy, Holland, Tunisia and France, between 1903 in 1908 was Kandinsky exposed to the art world enough to achieve a breakthrough in his own work. As well as seeing liberation of color through Fauvist paintings between 1906 – 1907. That is when Kandinsky, fueled by the belief of the spiritual reality in a nonrealistic art began to change his abstract Expressionism paintings into “strong surging forms” and "curling framework” (pg 274, Painting in the Twentieth Century). His belief in the spiritual may be one of the reasons why Kandinsky was featured and mentioned in so many New Age journals. Alfred Richard Orage was the editor of The New Age, and was always interested in modern political literature and art. He also involved himself with mysticism and the idea of the afterlife. The spiritual and mysticism might be a link of the way Kandinsky was in some sort of form constantly mentioned in fifteen different issues of The New Age.

As Robert Scholes states in the Modern Journal Project, Kandinsky is “now considered to be one of the founders of abstract art”. Abstract art is one of the main elements in modernism as a whole. Not that everybody revered abstract art, it was quite the opposite view that many have took while reading so many of the journals in the early 1900’s.

One thing that may have contributed to that is that the public did not understand abstract art and chose to compare Kandinsky to the more “structured work” of Picasso and saw Kandinsky’s work as “much more scattered”, lacking control, “rather causeless”; sadly that opinion may have just came from a lack of comprehension and meaning behind all of his work (pg 661, The New Age, Vol. 14, No. 21), in which they themselves admit that they “have not understood the intensity of the force (the cosmic consciousness) inspiring their efforts, the force which finds further expression in the paintings and writings of Kandinsky” (pg 258, The New Age, Vol. 16, No. 10). Kandinsky’s work was yet to be studied and “there is very little enthusiasm among” them “for contemporary art” (pg 183, The New Age, Vol. 16, No. 7).

  

Kandinsky strongly felt that paint had an independent life of its own emerging from the tube; “exultant, solemn, brooding, dreamy, self – absorbed, deeply serious, withroguish exuberance, with sigh of release with a deep sound of mourning, with defiant power and resistance, with submissive suppleness and devotion”. (pages 371-372, Complete Writing on Art) An artist must know his capabilities, limits, levels of concentration while learning nothing forgotten or unused. This Kandinsky believed thoroughly and always continued to develop his personal way of expression. There are colored streams of movement in his pictures, however the descriptions of his personal emotion or known objects are removed; non- representational. Kandinsky’s principles of “internal necessity” followed him throughout his lifetime in art; “three mystical sources- elements of personality, style, and pure and eternally artistic” (pg 173, Complete Writing on Art).

The “Compositions” were a number of ten paintings done by Kandinsky between 1909 and 1939. They (Compositions) were one of the forms Kandinsky used in his paintings. The forms were derived from symphonic musical compositions which Kandinsky put into three categories; Impression, Improvisation and Composition. He later explained his work as “an expression of a slowly formed inner feeling, which comes into utterance only after long maturing. In this reason, consciousness and purpose play an overwhelming part. But of the calculation, nothing appears only a feeling” (pg 57, Concerning the Spiritual in Art).

Composition 1 & 2

 

 Composition 3 & 4

 Composition 5 & 6

 Composition 7 & 8

 Composition 9 & 10

 

Kandinsky believed that art can be a magical world in which a person can come into whether an artist or a common spectator. A world which is detached from the world we are used to, yet containing symbols and thoughts we might be acquainted with in our everyday life. All 10 of his "Compositions" have relationships of colors in different sections of the pictures; colors that he thought about were calculated on a psychological mood level.

The elements of some compositions almost metamorphose into other elements, creating the overall image, symbolic and systematically arranged by calculated thought emerging from a feeling; an “aura" emanating from the world Kandinsky saw around him.

Most of the “Compositions” series are overall compositions with other smaller closed-off imagery and elements like lovers, horses, soldiers, geometric or organic shapes and so on. Which externally are in a hostile relationship to one another with individual meanings, colors and forms, yet still serve the purpose of the image. That would be exactly like a musical symphony with different instruments making different sounds to create one whole harmonious sound and effect, “various colours, likening them to musical instruments” (pg 26, Rhythm, Vol. 1, No. 4) . Kandinsky made many remarks concerning the relationship and effect of music in his art. His compositions were done like well orchestrated music, except with paint, not instruments, “which he calls symphonic” (pg 125, Blast, No. 1). The best description of Kandinsky’s style is he is a “musician of colour and line” (pg69, The Blue Review, Vol. 1, No. 1).

  

There have been poets that have made writing their poetry coherent with the sound of music into a form of science, Rene Ghil for example, “he writes poetry that can be played by an orchestra”, same idea as Kandinsky composing  his art to music (pg 26, Rhythm, Vol. 1, No. 4). But not all poetry is so compatible with Kandinsky, one in particular is not so subtle in its' judgment of not just Kandinsky’s life and work but the entire group of Expressionist artists. This poem was printed in The New Age Volume 15, Number 23 page 553, called “A Faery Tale” by L. Aaronson.

“Once upon a time there was a group of faeries who

had among them a very foolish male-faery. He was so

fond of colour and he had such a little soul that he

could not bear subtleties of tone and shade. So they

changed him into a mortal, a nd put him into a field. It

was midday and the sun was shining very hotly. The

leaves glistened green and swung in the sunlight. The

sky was very blue, and the hay very yellow ; but

the faery was dissatisfied. There was not enough colour

for him; there were too many shades of the same green,

the same blue, and the same yellow.

Towards evening he fell asleep. When he awoke night

had come, and all colour had gone. The sky was

filled with stars, and every thing was in shadow. . . .

Our faery was disgusted. This was worse than ever.

Now the colours were few and very sombre; and he

hated the stars with their monotonous sameness of

blue. . . . He had grown hungry, so he got up and

began to walk towards a red haze that hung upon the sky.

After a while he came to a place of many streets and

many people; but they were all sombrely dressed. Once

he saw a red tie . . . and was nearly converted to Socialism

by it. . . . After much walking he came upon a

very wide road rolling out along a river . . . and here

were wonderful colours. There was an old Scotsman

drinking, and many lamps, and letters : all vividly

coloured. And he clapped his hands and shouted with

glee. He nearly forgot his hunger. Later he came to an

underground railway station and there he saw brightly painted

advertisements . . . and the women were so

loudly dressed : he almost forgave them their black shoes

and white faces. So he became an utter imbecile,and a painter a la

mode Kandinsky, and in his spare time he painted advertisement posters.”

One of the reasons you can be so very fascinated by this poem is because it is so simply ambiguous on one hand. On the other hand, you find something so brutally vile that it’s hard to believe that any one singular entity that is entirely based on the premise of each and every element and line of this poem is biased and can be interpreted to be insulting without ever stating any actual examples or facts. One has to wonder what was it about Kandinsky’s work that bothered L. Aaronson so much that he needed to so blatantly insult not just the work but the man as a whole calling him “foolish” with a “little soul”. Making references that "gods green earth" and the "night sky" wasn’t beautiful enough for Kandinsky and that he “hated” it.  Was it necessary to mention Socialism, was him being a Socialist ever in question, not to mention the analogy of the “red tie” as a symbol of Russian Communism? Or the subtle remarks of “white” and “black” to many of Kandinsky’s paintings?  To the final insult of naming the “faery” that’s referred to Kandinsky as an “imbecile” for “painting advertisement posters”. Kandinsky did do few commercial pieces, he also taught art and wrote books that featured his work, theories and philosophy on art. None of which gave Aaronson the right to judge him so cruelly and without merit. His poem was not based on constructive criticism of Kandinsky, it was a hate poem that got published, much like the hate mail of our time today. With every negative opinion, you could always find its' counterpart, where Kandinsky's work was stated to be “simply gorgeous”, “so vital, so intense” and his work to be characterized as one of the “finest modern pictures” (pages 154 and 160, The New Age, Vol. 15, No. 7).

 One of Kandinsky's cover designs.

 Kandinsky's Riding Amazon 1911

There are things that are universal to us all and Kandinsky had a excellent grip on some of them, and went ahead into incorporating objects and feelings of creations around him into his work; like leaping horses in some of his “Compositions”. As a child, he had a Piebold stallion, which obviously left an impression on him, almost forming a part of his personality. In the earlier compositions (1, 2 and 4) horses can be understood on at least three levels; as just an image, his feelings and love of horses on a personal level, anagogical (Horses of the Apocalypse), and on a mysterious, spiritual level. Some compositions are peaceful and flowing and some have a feeling of turmoil, war, and violence, depending on the time period of the painting (there are undoubtedly changes of mood and overall design and symbolism throughout the 1909 to 1939 “Compositions”). Kandinsky’s paintings vary in style: personal (merging); catastrophic, grandiose, violent and constantly stirring themselves; geometrically precise and vibrant; geometric with organic shapes and hard-edged; and last ones that are almost surreal, abstract and disorderly.

The historical changes of art, politics, nature, human views and opinions, communication and inventions was what Kandinsky absorbed and then gave back through his art. Kandinsky went through his life learning, progressing, feeling and trying to express himself. And expressing yourself just might be the hardest and most complicated part of any of our lives. So one might have interpreted his art right, or maybe not.

We are all very fortunate that we have preserved and still have access to such a great amount of art work to use for ourselves to form our own opinions.In the beginning, most early 1900’s critics admitted that they may not have seen enough of Kandinsky’s work, but that didn’t stop them from making comparisons of himtoWyndham Lewis,Velasquez and Picasso, who they regarded as a great artist, and they expressed their opinionsinissues of The New Age. In later volumes of The New Age, you get the feeling that Kandinsky and his work were better analyzed and understood in the sense of it being “ spiritual or psychological, and apparently came from that desire for infinite harmony which underlies all forms of life and experience" (pg 198, The New Age, Vol. 27, No. 13).

They were finally able to label it, which in hand made it bearable and understandable, where as before they could only compare it to work previously done by other artists. He was a founder of different (abstract) art at the turn of the century; “he took his chance and put forward The Art of Spiritual Harmony… he tried to establish a spiritual harmony”. Kandinsky accomplished his goal, he established a whole new form of “art which will be entirely unrepresentative and purely spiritual. He claims that his Art is absolutely emotional” (pg 264, The New Age, Vol. 30, No. 20).

In conclusion, after further research one can see how Kandinsky and all of his work is purely emotionally based and created, which earned him the label of an “Expressionist Artist”.  Expressionism being one of the major “isms” in art which made up modernism: Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism that were named by Ezra Pound.

Reference:

Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art. Da Capo Press.

Wassily Kandinsky, M. T. Sadler Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Dover Publ. (free e-book download from Project Gutenberg @ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5321 )

Werner Haftmann, Painting in the Twentieth Century. 1971 Praeger Publishers

Robert Scholes, Paradoxy of Modernism, 2006 Publisher: Yale University Press

A.R.Orage, The New Age, 

• Volume 14, Number 14, 1914

• Volume 14, Number 21, 1914

• Volume 15, Number 7, 1914

• Volume 15, Number 23, 1914

• Volume 16, Number 7, 1914

• Volume 16, Number 10, 1915

• Volume 16, Number 11, 1915

• Volume 16, Number 12, 1915

• Volume 16, Number 14, 1915

• Volume 22, Number 18, 1918

• Volume 24, Number 17, 1919

• Volume 24, Number 19, 1919

• Volume 24, Number 23, 1919

• Volume 27, Number 13, 1920

• Volume 30, Number 20, 1922

Blast : Review of the Great English Vortex Number 1 and Number 2 1914, 1915

Rhythm : Art Music Literature Quarterly Volume 1 Number 4, 1911, 1912

The Blue Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1913

To hear Wagner's symphony Lohengrin go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh2dxZebpIw&feature=related