Wassily Kandinsky — Founder of Abstract Art
“The more frightening the world becomes, the more art becomes abstract.”
— Wassily Kandinsky
Russian painter and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Credited with painting one of the first purely abstract modern works, Kandinsky developed his abstract style with the express intent of being accessible to all audiences.
A sensitive and reflective child, Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866. He studied law and economics at the University of Moscow and became Associate Professor of Law after his graduation. Everything changed when he visited a Monet exhibition at Moscow in 1896, where he saw a painting from Monet’s Haystack series. The colour and composition of the work had a profound impact on Kandinsky.
At the age of 30, Kandinsky gave up his career and moved to Munich to study art. He rejected the prevailing established Munich School of painting and begin to experiment with a more sensuous and symbolic content in his art. It is here, where one is forced to remember Howard Roark, our revered Fountainhead hero and reckon: “is rebellion the existential force sparking new art”?
He took inspiration in creating these abstracts from the celestial creatures above us. In his artworks (Several Circle (1926), Deepened Impulse (1928)) the coloured circles seem to float on a black background, recalling the planets that orbit the universe according to the laws of gravitational attraction, which keeps them linked together in eternal cosmic dance.
Through constant experimentation and extensive preparatory work Kandinsky’s artistic means developed from an essentially figurative impressionist style to pure abstraction. This powerful transformation can be spotted in his advancing landscape paintings- a much lesser-known side of Kandinsky’s art.
Attention to how the landscapes portrayed by the painter change over time, evolving from purely impressionist views to works where colours are separated from shapes and play the leading role, in a full Kandinsky style. The landscapes evolve, as his painting style perfectly summing up the artistic evolution of the Russian artist.
In 1903, the artist painted his first milestone artwork, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), in which we notice an almost Impressionist Kandinsky. It’s perhaps the most important of Kandinsky’s paintings depicting a scene of a man in a blue cape astride a white horse. The painting in fact gave its name to a movement born at the behest of Kandinsky and other artist of the time (including Frank Marc and Paul Klee), joining the group to express spiritual truths through paintings. Klee, Marc and Kandinsky shared a mutual interest in abstract forms and prismatic colour which they felt had spiritual values that could counteract the corruption and materialism of their age.
The Russian artist felt that colours had value beyond the painting, the artwork had the power to get right to the soul of the beholder, and so had colours. He condoned blue with spirituality, the darker it is, the more it awakens the human desire for eternal (as seen in The Blue Rider).
Considered a milestone for 20th century Modern Art, this oil on canvas portrays different geometric forms in a magnificent colour scheme. White for Kandinsky was the sum of all colours, and they cancel each other out into it. It is like an absolute silence where we do not perceive emotions; a non-sound. However, their neutrality makes it rich in potential, latent energy. It is the pause between one bar and another in a musical performance, which is a prelude to other sounds. On White II is the most famous of the numerous abstract geometrical artworks of Wassily Kandinsky.
Music, being abstract in nature, Kandinsky made a case for the similarity of music and visual art in terms of expression. The artist used musical terms such as “improvisation” and “composition” in the titles of his pre-war paintings, emphasising the link between the two art forms. This painting is the last in his lifelong series of Compositions. In his hierarchy of colours, black represents dryness, shadow, lack of light; a no-colour. Black is the silence, the final pause of a musical performance; the end.
