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{{Infobox artist
| bgcolour = #6495ED
| image = Vassily-Kandinsky.jpeg
| caption = Wassily Kandinsky, c. 1913 or earlier
| name = Wassily Kandinsky
| birth_name = Vassily Vassilyevic Kandinsky
| birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|16 December|1866|4 December}}
| birth_place = [[Moscow]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|12|13|1866|12|16|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Neuilly-sur-Seine]]
| nationality = [[Russia]]n
| field = [[Painting]]
| training = [[Academy of Fine Arts, Munich]]
| movement = [[Expressionism]]; [[abstract art]]
| works = ''On White II'', ''Der Blaue Reiter''
}}
'''Vassily Vassilyevich Kandinsky''' ({{IPAc-en|k|æ|n|ˈ|d|ɪ|n|s|k|i}}; {{lang-ru|Васи́лий Васи́льевич Канди́нский}}, ''Vasiliy Vasil’yevich Kandinskiy'', {{IPA-ru|vaˈsʲilʲɪj kɐnˈdʲinskʲɪj|pron}}; {{OldStyleDate|16 December|1866|4 December}} – 13 December 1944) was an influential [[Russia]]n [[Painting|painter]] and art [[theorist]]. He is credited with painting the first purely [[abstract art|abstract]] works. Born in [[Moscow]], Kandinsky spent his childhood in [[Odessa]]. He enrolled at the [[University of Moscow]], studying [[law]] and [[economics]]. Successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship (chair of [[Roman Law]]) at the [[University of Tartu|University of Dorpat]]—he began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30.

In 1896 Kandinsky settled in [[Munich]], studying first at [[Anton Ažbe]]'s private school and then at the [[Academy of Fine Arts, Munich|Academy of Fine Arts]]. He returned to Moscow in 1914, after the outbreak of [[World War I|World War I]]. Kandinsky was unsympathetic to the official theories on art in Communist Moscow, and returned to Germany in 1921. There, he taught at the [[Bauhaus]] school of art and architecture from 1922 until the [[Nazism|Nazis]] closed it in 1933. He then moved to [[France]] where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and producing some of his most prominent art. He died at [[Neuilly-sur-Seine]] in 1944.

== Artistic periods ==
[[File:Kandinsky-Blue Rider.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Der Blaue Reiter]]'' (1903)|alt=Painting of white horse and blue rider galloping across a green meadow from right to left]]
Kandinsky's creation of abstract work followed a long period of development and maturation of intense thought based on his artistic experiences. He called this devotion to [[inner beauty]], fervor of spirit, and spiritual desire ''inner necessity''; it was a central aspect of his art.

=== Youth and inspiration (1866–1896) ===
[[File:Wassily Kandinsky - Munich-Schwabing with the Church of St. Ursula.jpg|thumb|upright|Early-period work, ''Munich-Schwabing with the Church of St. Ursula'' (1908)|alt=Colorful abstract painting with buildings and a church in the background]]
Kandinsky was born in Moscow, the son of Lidia Ticheeva and Vasily Silvestrovich Kandinsky, a tea merchant.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kirjasto.sci.fi/kandinsk.htm |title=Wassily Kandinsky |publisher=Kirjasto.sci.fi |date=1944-12-13 |accessdate=2013-06-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=z76AeDVf_RkC&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=Lidia+Ticheeva+Kandinsky&source=bl&ots=y2VKsFzkFn&sig=Br0OFz1ToAetgci7f8O0ELu4H_4&hl=en |title=Wassily Kandinsky 1866-1944: a Revolution in Painting |publisher=Books.google.ca |date= |accessdate=2013-06-04}}</ref> Kandinsky learned from a variety of sources while in Moscow. Later in life, he would recall being fascinated and stimulated by colour as a child. His fascination with colour symbolism and psychology continued as he grew. In 1889, he was part of an ethnographic research group which travelled to the [[Vologda]] region north of Moscow. In ''Looks on the Past'', he relates that the houses and churches were decorated with such shimmering colours that upon entering them, he felt that he was moving into a painting. This experience, and his study of the region's folk art (particularly the use of bright colours on a dark background), was reflected in much of his early work. A few years later he first likened painting to composing music in the manner for which he would become noted, writing, "Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul".<ref name="Sadler2004">{{cite book|last=Kandinsky|first=Wassily|others=translated by Michael T. H. Sadler (2004)|title=Concerning the Spiritual in Art|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=0AV8LSrexjYC&pg=PA32|accessdate=26 December 2012|year=1911|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=9781419113772|page=32}}</ref>

In 1896, at the age of 30, Kandinsky gave up a promising career teaching law and economics to enroll in art school in Munich. He was not immediately granted admission, and began learning art on his own. That same year, before leaving Moscow, he saw an exhibit of paintings by [[Claude Monet|Monet]]. He was particularly taken with the impressionistic style of ''[[Haystacks (Monet)|Haystacks]]''; this, to him, had a powerful sense of colour almost independent of the objects themselves. Later, he would write about this experience:

{{Cquote2|That it was a haystack the catalogue informed me. I could not recognize it. This non-recognition was painful to me. I considered that the painter had no right to paint indistinctly. I dully felt that the object of the painting was missing. And I noticed with surprise and confusion that the picture not only gripped me, but impressed itself ineradicably on my memory. Painting took on a fairy-tale power and splendour.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lindsay|first=Kenneth C.|title=Kandinsky: Complete Writings on Art|year=1982|publisher=G.K. Hall & Co.|page=363}}</ref> |Wassily Kandinsky}}

Kandinsky was similarly influenced during this period by [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' which, he felt, pushed the limits of music and melody beyond standard lyricism.{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}} He was also spiritually influenced by [[Madame Blavatsky|H. P. Blavatsky]] (1831–1891), the best-known exponent of [[theosophy]]. Theosophical theory postulates that creation is a geometrical progression, beginning with a single point. The creative aspect of the form is expressed by a descending series of circles, triangles and squares. Kandinsky's book ''Concerning the Spiritual In Art'' (1910) and ''Point and Line to Plane'' (1926) echoed this theosophical tenet. Illustrations by John Varley in ''[[Thought Forms]]'' (1901) influenced him visually.<ref>Sixten Ringbom, The sounding cosmos; a study in the spiritualism of Kandinsky and the genesis of abstract painting, (Abo [Finland]: Abo Akademi, 1970), pgs 89 & 148a.</ref>

=== {{anchor|Artistic metamorphosis (1896–1911)}}Metamorphosis ===
[[File:Wassily Kandinsky, 1908, Murnau, Dorfstrasse (A Village Street), oil on cardboard, later mounted on wood panel, 48 x 69.5 cm, The Merzbacher collection, Switzerland.jpg|thumb|Wassily Kandinsky, 1908, ''Murnau, Dorfstrasse (Street in Murnau, A Village Street)'', oil on cardboard, later mounted on wood panel, 48 x 69.5 cm, The Merzbacher collection, Switzerland]]
[[File:Vassily Kandinsky, 1911, Reiter (Lyrishes) oil on canvas, 94 x 130 cm, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.jpg|thumb|Wassily Kandinsky, 1911, ''Reiter (Lyrishes)'', oil on canvas, 94 x 130 cm, [[Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen]], Rotterdam, Netherlands]]
[[File:Wasilly Kandinsky, 1912, Landscape With Two Poplars, 78.8 x 100.4 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|thumb|Wassily Kandinsky, 1912, Landscape With Two Poplars, 78.8 x 100.4 cm, The [[Art Institute of Chicago]]]]
Art school, usually considered difficult, was easy for Kandinsky. It was during this time that he began to emerge as an art theorist as well as a painter. The number of his existing paintings increased at the beginning of the 20th century; much remains of the landscapes and towns he painted, using broad swaths of colour and recognizable forms. For the most part, however, Kandinsky's paintings did not feature any human figures; an exception is ''Sunday, Old Russia'' (1904), in which Kandinsky recreates a highly colorful (and fanciful) view of peasants and nobles in front of the walls of a town. ''Riding Couple'' (1907) depicts a man on horseback, holding a woman with tenderness and care as they ride past a Russian town with luminous walls across a river. The horse is muted while the leaves in the trees, the town, and the reflections in the river glisten with spots of colour and brightness. This work demonstrates the influence of [[pointillism]] in the way the depth of field is collapsed into a flat, luminescent surface. [[Fauvism]] is also apparent in these early works. Colours are used to express Kandinsky's experience of subject matter, not to describe objective nature.

Perhaps the most important of his paintings from the first decade of the 1900s was ''The Blue Rider'' (1903), which shows a small cloaked figure on a speeding horse rushing through a rocky meadow. The rider's cloak is medium blue, which casts a darker-blue shadow. In the foreground are more amorphous blue shadows, the counterparts of the fall trees in the background. The blue rider in the painting is prominent (but not clearly defined), and the horse has an unnatural gait (which Kandinsky must have known). Some art historians believe {{Citation needed|date=November 2011}} that a second figure (perhaps a child) is being held by the rider, although this may be another shadow from the solitary rider. This intentional disjunction, allowing viewers to participate in the creation of the artwork, became an increasingly conscious technique used by Kandinsky in subsequent years; it culminated in the abstract works of the 1911–1914 period. In ''The Blue Rider'', Kandinsky shows the rider more as a series of colours than in specific detail. This painting is not exceptional in that regard when compared with contemporary painters, but it shows the direction Kandinsky would take only a few years later.

From 1906 to 1908 Kandinsky spent a great deal of time travelling across Europe (he was an associate of the [[Blue Rose (art group)|Blue Rose]] symbolist group of Moscow), until he settled in the small [[Bavaria]]n town of [[Murnau am Staffelsee|Murnau]]. ''The Blue Mountain'' (1908–1909) was painted at this time, demonstrating his trend toward abstraction. A mountain of blue is flanked by two broad trees, one yellow and one red. A procession, with three riders and several others, crosses at the bottom. The faces, clothing, and saddles of the riders are each a single colour, and neither they nor the walking figures display any real detail. The flat planes and the contours also are indicative of Fauvist influence. The broad use of colour in ''The Blue Mountain'' illustrates Kandinsky's inclination toward an art in which colour is presented independently of form, and which each colour is given equal attention. The composition is more planar; the painting is divided into four sections: the sky, the red tree, the yellow tree and the blue mountain with the three riders.

=== Blue Rider Period (1911–1914) ===
{{See also|Der Blaue Reiter}}
Kandinsky's paintings from this period are large, expressive coloured masses evaluated independently from forms and lines; these serve no longer to delimit them, but overlap freely to form paintings of extraordinary force. Music was important to the birth of abstract art, since music is abstract by nature—it does not try to represent the exterior world, but expresses in an immediate way the inner feelings of the soul. Kandinsky sometimes used musical terms to identify his works; he called his most spontaneous paintings "improvisations" and described more elaborate works as "compositions."
[[File:Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 27, Garden of Love II, 1912. Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show.jpg|thumb|thumb|Wassily Kandinsky, ''Improvisation 27 (Garden of Love II)'', 1912, oil on canvas, 47 3/8 x 55 1/4 in. (120.3 x 140.3 cm), The [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York. Exhibited at the 1913 [[Armory Show]].]]

In addition to painting, Kandinsky was an art theorist; his influence on the history of Western art stems perhaps more from his theoretical works than from his paintings. He helped found the [[Neue Künstlervereinigung München]] (Munich New Artists' Association), becoming its president in 1909. However, the group could not integrate the radical approach of Kandinsky (and others) with conventional artistic concepts and the group dissolved in late 1911. Kandinsky then formed a new group, the Blue Rider ([[Der Blaue Reiter]]) with like-minded artists such as [[August Macke]] and [[Franz Marc]]. The group released an almanac (''The Blue Rider Almanac'') and held two exhibits. More of each were planned, but the outbreak of [[World War I]] in 1914 ended these plans and sent Kandinsky back to Russia via [[Switzerland]] and [[Sweden]].

His writing in ''The Blue Rider Almanac'' and the treatise "On the Spiritual In Art" (which was released around the same time) were both a defence and promotion of abstract art and an affirmation that all forms of art were equally capable of reaching a level of spirituality. He believed that colour could be used in a painting as something autonomous, apart from the visual description of an object or other form.

These ideas had an almost-immediate international impact, particularly in the English-speaking world.<ref>See Michael Paraskos, "English Expressionism," MRes Thesis, University of Leeds, Leeds 1997, p103f</ref> As early as 1912, ''On the Spiritual In Art'' was reviewed by [[Michael Sadleir]] in the London-based ''Art News.''<ref>Michael Sadleir, Review of Uber da Geistige an der Kunst by Wassily Kandinsky, in "The Art News," 9 March 1912, p.45</ref> Interest in Kandinsky grew apace when Sadleir published an English translation of ''On the Spiritual In Art'' in 1914. Extracts from the book were published that year in [[Percy Wyndham Lewis|Percy Wyndham Lewis's]] periodical ''[[BLAST (magazine)|Blast]],'' and [[Alfred Orage|Alfred Orage's]] weekly cultural newspaper [[The New Age|''The New Age.'']] Kandinsky had received some notice earlier in Britain, however; in 1910, he participated in the Allied Artists' Exhibition (organised by [[Frank Rutter]]) at London's [[Royal Albert Hall]]. This resulted in his work being singled out for praise in a review of that show by the artist [[Spencer Frederick Gore]] in ''The Art News''.<ref>Spencer Frederick Gore, "The Allied Artists' Exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall (London)", in "The Art News," 4 August 1910, p.254</ref>

Sadleir's interest in Kandinsky also led to Kandinsky's first works entering a British art collection; Sadleir's father, [[Michael Sadler (educationist)|Michael Sadler]], acquired several woodprints and the abstract painting ''Fragment for Composition VII'' in 1913 following a visit by father and son to meet Kandinsky in Munich that year. These works were displayed in [[Leeds]], either in the University or the premises of the [[Leeds Arts Club]], between 1913 and 1923.<ref>Tom Steele, "Alfred Orage and the Leeds Arts Club 1893-1923" (Mitcham, Orage Press, 2009) 218f</ref>

=== Return to Russia (1914–1921) ===
{{Cquote2|The sun melts all of Moscow down to a single spot that, like a mad tuba, starts all of the heart and all of the soul vibrating. But no, this uniformity of red is not the most beautiful hour. It is only the final chord of a symphony that takes every colour to the zenith of life that, like the fortissimo of a great orchestra, is both compelled and allowed by Moscow to ring out.|Wassily Kandinsky<ref>Kandinsky, by Hajo Duchting, Taschen, 2007, pg 7</ref>}}

From 1918 to 1921, Kandinsky dealt with the cultural politics of Russia and collaborated in art education and museum reform. He painted little during this period, but devoted his time to artistic teaching, with a program based on form and colour analysis; he also helped organize the Institute of Artistic Culture in Moscow. In 1916 he met Nina Andreievskaya, whom he married the following year. His spiritual, expressionistic view of art was ultimately rejected by the radical members of the Institute as too individualistic and bourgeois. In 1921, Kandinsky was invited to go to Germany to attend the [[Bauhaus]] of [[Weimar]] by its founder, architect [[Walter Gropius]].

=== The Bauhaus (1922–1933) ===
[[File:kandinsky white.jpg|thumb|''On White II'' (1923)|alt=Abstract painting, with many colorful points]]
Kandinsky taught the basic design class for beginners and the course on advanced theory at the [[Bauhaus]]; he also conducted painting classes and a workshop in which he augmented his colour theory with new elements of form psychology. The development of his works on forms study, particularly on points and line forms, led to the publication of his second theoretical book (''Point and Line to Plane'') in 1926. Geometrical elements took on increasing importance in both his teaching and painting—particularly the circle, half-circle, the angle, straight lines and curves. This period was intensely productive. This freedom is characterised in his works by the treatment of planes rich in colours and gradations—as in ''Yellow – red – blue'' (1925), where Kandinsky illustrates his distance from the [[Constructivism (art)|constructivism]] and [[suprematism]] movements influential at the time.

The two-meter-wide ''Yellow – red – blue'' (1925) consists of several main forms: a vertical yellow rectangle, an inclined red cross and a large dark blue circle; a multitude of straight (or sinuous) black lines, circular arcs, monochromatic circles and scattered, coloured checkerboards contribute to its delicate complexity. This simple visual identification of forms and the main coloured masses present on the canvas is only a first approach to the inner reality of the work, whose appreciation necessitates deeper observation—not only of forms and colours involved in the painting but their relationship, their absolute and relative positions on the canvas and their harmony.

Kandinsky was one of [[Die Blaue Vier]] (Blue Four), formed in 1923 with [[Paul Klee|Klee]], [[Lyonel Feininger|Feininger]] and [[Alexej von Jawlensky|von Jawlensky]], which lectured and exhibited in the United States in 1924. Due to right-wing hostility, the Bauhaus left Weimar and settled in [[Dessau]] in 1925. Following a Nazi smear campaign the Bauhaus left Dessau in 1932 for [[Berlin]], until its dissolution in July 1933. Kandinsky then left Germany, settling in [[Paris]].

=== The Great Synthesis (1934–1944) ===
[[File:Kandinsky 1939 Composition-X.png|thumb|''Composition X'' (1939)|alt=Rectangular, multicolored abstract painting on black background]]

Living in a small apartment in Paris, Kandinsky created his work in a living-room studio. [[Biomorphism|Biomorphic]] forms with supple, non-geometric outlines appear in his paintings—forms which suggest microscopic organisms but express the artist's inner life. Kandinsky used original colour compositions, evoking Slavic popular art. He also occasionally mixed sand with paint to give a granular, rustic texture to his paintings.

This period corresponds to a synthesis of Kandinsky's previous work in which he used all elements, enriching them. In 1936 and 1939 he painted his two last major compositions, the type of elaborate canvases he had not produced for many years. ''Composition IX'' has highly contrasted, powerful diagonals whose central form gives the impression of an embryo in the womb. Small squares of colours and coloured bands stand out against the black background of ''Composition X'' as star fragments (or [[Solar filament|filament]]s), while enigmatic [[hieroglyph]]s with pastel tones cover a large maroon mass which seems to float in the upper-left corner of the canvas. In Kandinsky’s work some characteristics are obvious, while certain touches are more discrete and veiled; they reveal themselves only progressively to those who deepen their connection with his work.<ref>Michel Henry, ''Seeing the invisible, on Kandinsky'', Continuum, 2009, p. 38-45 (The disclosure of pictoriality)</ref> He intended his forms (which he subtly harmonized and placed) to resonate with the observer's soul.

== Kandinsky's conception of art ==
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2013}}

=== The artist as prophet ===
[[File:Kandinsky WWI.jpg|thumb|''[[Composition VII|Composition&nbsp;VII]]''—according to Kandinsky, the most complex piece he ever painted (1913)|alt=Large, colorful abstract painting]]
Writing that "music is the ultimate teacher," Kandinsky embarked upon the first seven of his ten ''Compositions''. The first three survive only in black-and-white photographs taken by fellow artist and friend [[Gabriele Münter]]. While studies, sketches, and [[Improvization Painting|improvisations]] exist (particularly of ''Composition II''), a Nazi raid on the [[Bauhaus]] in the 1930s resulted in the confiscation of Kandinsky's first three ''Compositions.'' They were displayed in the State-sponsored exhibit "[[Degenerate Art]]", and then destroyed (along with works by [[Paul Klee]], [[Franz Marc]] and other modern artists).

Influenced by [[theosophy]] and the perception of a coming New Age, a common theme among Kandinsky's first seven ''Compositions'' is the [[apocalypse]] (the end of the world as we know it). Writing of the "artist as prophet" in his book, ''Concerning the Spiritual In Art'', Kandinsky created paintings in the years immediately preceding World War I showing a coming cataclysm which would alter individual and social reality. Raised an [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]], Kandinsky drew upon the Jewish and Christian stories of [[Noah's Ark]], [[Jonah]] and the whale, Christ's [[resurrection]], the [[four horsemen of the Apocalypse]] in the [[book of Revelation]], Russian folktales and the common mythological experiences of death and rebirth. Never attempting to picture any one of these stories as a narrative, he used their veiled imagery as symbols of the archetypes of death–rebirth and destruction–creation he felt were imminent in the pre-[[World War I]] world.

As he stated in ''Concerning the Spiritual In Art'' (see below), Kandinsky felt that an authentic artist creating art from "an internal necessity" inhabits the tip of an upward-moving pyramid. This progressing pyramid is penetrating and proceeding into the future. What was odd or inconceivable yesterday is commonplace today; what is ''avant garde'' today (and understood only by the few) is common knowledge tomorrow. The modern artist–prophet stands alone at the apex of the pyramid, making new discoveries and ushering in tomorrow's reality. Kandinsky was aware of recent scientific developments and the advances of modern artists who had contributed to radically new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.

''Composition IV'' and later paintings are primarily concerned with evoking a spiritual resonance in viewer and artist. As in his painting of the apocalypse by water (''Composition VI''), Kandinsky puts the viewer in the situation of experiencing these epic myths by translating them into contemporary terms (with a sense of desperation, flurry, urgency, and confusion). This spiritual communion of viewer-painting-artist/prophet may be described within the limits of words and images.

=== Artistic and spiritual theoretician ===
[[File:Kandinsky - Composition VI (1913).jpg|thumb|''Composition VI'' (1913)|alt=Rectangular, multicolored abstract painting]]
As the ''[[Der Blaue Reiter]] Almanac'' essays and theorizing with composer [[Arnold Schoenberg]] indicate, Kandinsky also expressed the communion between artist and viewer as being available to both the senses and the mind ([[synesthesia]]). Hearing tones and chords as he painted, Kandinsky theorized that (for example), yellow is the colour of middle [[C (musical note)|C]] on a brassy trumpet; black is the colour of closure, and the end of things; and that combinations of colours produce vibrational frequencies, akin to chords played on a piano. Kandinsky also developed a theory of geometric figures and their relationships—claiming, for example, that the circle is the most peaceful shape and represents the human soul. These theories are explained in ''Point and Line to Plane'' (see below).

During the studies Kandinsky made in preparation for ''Composition IV,'' he became exhausted while working on a painting and went for a walk. While he was out, Gabriele Münter tidied his studio and inadvertently turned his canvas on its side. Upon returning and seeing the canvas (but not yet recognizing it) Kandinsky fell to his knees and wept, saying it was the most beautiful painting he had ever seen. He had been liberated from attachment to an object. As when he first viewed Monet's ''[[Haystacks (Monet)|Haystacks]]'', the experience would change his life.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}

In another episode with Münter during the Bavarian [[abstract expressionist]] years, Kandinsky was working on his ''Composition VI''. From nearly six months of study and preparation, he had intended the work to evoke a flood, baptism, destruction, and rebirth simultaneously. After outlining the work on a mural-sized wood panel, he became blocked and could not go on. Münter told him that he was trapped in his intellect and not reaching the true subject of the picture. She suggested he simply repeat the word ''uberflut'' ("deluge" or "flood") and focus on its sound rather than its meaning. Repeating this word like a mantra, Kandinsky painted and completed the monumental work in a three-day span.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}}

== Theoretical writings on art ==
Kandinsky's analyses on forms and colours result not from simple, arbitrary idea-associations but from the painter's inner experience. He spent years creating [[Abstract art|abstract]], sensorially rich paintings, working with form and colour, tirelessly observing his own paintings and those of other artists, noting their effects on his sense of colour.<ref>Michel Henry, ''Seeing the invisible, on Kandinsky'', Continuum, 2009, p. 5-11</ref> This subjective experience is something that anyone can do—not scientific, objective observations but inner, subjective ones, what French philosopher [[Michel Henry]] calls "absolute subjectivity" or the "absolute [[phenomenological life]]".<ref>Michel Henry, ''Seeing the invisible, on Kandinsky'', Continuum, 2009, p. 27</ref>

=== Concerning the spiritual in art ===
[[File:Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 27, Garden of Love II, 1912. Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show.jpg|thumb|Wassily Kandinsky, 1912, ''Improvisation 27, Garden of Love II'', Exhibited at the 1913 [[Armory Show]], New York]]
Published in 1912, Kandinsky's text, ''Du Spirituel dans l’art'', defines three types of painting; ''impressions'', ''improvisations'' and ''compositions''. While impressions are based on an external reality that serves as a starting point, improvisations and compositions depict images emergent from the unconscious, though ''composition'' is developed from a more formal point of view.<ref name="Pompidou">[http://mediation.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ENS-kandinsky-mono/ENS-kandinsky-monographie.html Centre Pompidou, Dossiers pédagogiques - Collections du Musée]</ref> Kandinsky compares the [[spirituality|spiritual]] life of humanity to a [[pyramid]]—the artist has a mission to lead others to the pinnacle with his work. The point of the pyramid is those few, great artists. It is a spiritual pyramid, advancing and ascending slowly even if it sometimes appears immobile. During decadent periods, the [[Soul (spirit)|soul]] sinks to the bottom of the pyramid; humanity searches only for external success, ignoring spiritual forces.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 61-75</ref>

Colours on the painter's palette evoke a double effect: a purely physical effect on the eye which is charmed by the beauty of colours, similar to the joyful impression when we eat a delicacy. This effect can be much deeper, however, causing a vibration of the soul or an "inner resonance"—a spiritual effect in which the colour touches the soul itself.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, pp. 105-107</ref>

"Inner necessity" is, for Kandinsky, the principle of art and the foundation of forms and the harmony of colours. He defines it as the principle of efficient contact of the form with the human soul.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 112 et 118</ref> Every [[shape|form]] is the delimitation of a surface by another one; it possesses an inner content, the effect it produces on one who looks at it attentively.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 118</ref> This inner necessity is the right of the artist to unlimited freedom, but this freedom becomes licence if it is not founded on such a necessity.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 199</ref> Art is born from the inner necessity of the artist in an enigmatic, mystical way through which it acquires an autonomous life; it becomes an independent subject, animated by a spiritual breath.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 197</ref>

The obvious properties we can see when we look at an isolated [[colour]] and let it act alone; on one side is the warmth or coldness of the colour tone, and on the other side is the clarity or obscurity of that tone.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 142</ref> Warmth is a tendency towards yellow, and coldness a tendency towards blue; yellow and blue form the first great, dynamic contrast.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 142-143</ref> Yellow has an ''eccentric'' movement and blue a ''concentric'' movement; a yellow surface seems to move closer to us, while a blue surface seems to move away.<ref name="Kandinsky, 1989, p. 143">Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 143</ref> Yellow is a typically terrestrial colour, whose violence can be painful and aggressive.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 148</ref> Blue is a celestial colour, evoking a deep calm.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, pp. 149-150</ref> The combination of blue and yellow yields total immobility and calm, which is green.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 150-154</ref>

Clarity is a tendency towards white, and obscurity is a tendency towards black. White and black form the second great contrast, which is static.<ref name="Kandinsky, 1989, p. 143"/> White is a deep, absolute silence, full of possibility.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 155</ref> Black is nothingness without possibility, an eternal silence without hope, and corresponds with death. Any other colour resonates strongly on its neighbors.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 156</ref> The mixing of white with black leads to gray, which possesses no active force and whose tonality is near that of green. Gray corresponds to immobility without hope; it tends to despair when it becomes dark, regaining little hope when it lightens.<ref name="Kandinsky, 1989, p. 157">Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 157</ref>

Red is a warm colour, lively and agitated; it is forceful, a movement in itself.<ref name="Kandinsky, 1989, p. 157"/> Mixed with black it becomes brown, a hard colour.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 160</ref> Mixed with yellow, it gains in warmth and becomes orange, which imparts an irradiating movement on its surroundings.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 162</ref> When red is mixed with blue it moves away from man to become purple, which is a cool red.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, pp. 162-163</ref> Red and green form the third great contrast, and orange and purple the fourth.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, pp. 163-164</ref>

=== Point and line to plane ===
[[File:Wassily Kandinsky - Points - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Points'', 1920, 110.3 × 91.8 cm, [[Ohara Museum of Art]]]]
In his writings, Kandinsky analyzed the geometrical elements which make up every painting—the ''point'' and the ''line.'' He called the physical support and the material surface on which the artist draws or paints the ''basic plane'', or BP.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 143</ref> He did not analyze them objectively, but from the point of view of their inner effect on the observer.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Du spirituel dans l'art'', éd. Denoël, 1989, p. 45 : "Les idées que je développe ici sont le résultat d'observations et d'expériences intérieures" c'est-à-dire purement subjectives. Cela vaut également pour ''Point et ligne sur plan'' qui en est "le développement organique" (avant-propos de la première édition, éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 9).</ref>

A point is a small bit of colour put by the artist on the canvas. It is neither a geometric point nor a mathematical abstraction; it is extension, form and colour. This form can be a square, a triangle, a circle, a star or something more complex. The point is the most concise form but, according to its placement on the basic plane, it will take a different tonality. It can be isolated or resonate with other points or lines.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 25-63</ref>

A line is the product of a force which has been applied in a given direction: the force exerted on the pencil or paintbrush by the artist. The produced linear forms may be of several types: a ''straight'' line, which results from a unique force applied in a single direction; an ''angular'' line, resulting from the alternation of two forces in different directions, or a ''curved'' (or ''wave-like'') line, produced by the effect of two forces acting simultaneously. A ''plane'' may be obtained by condensation (from a line rotated around one of its ends).<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 67-71</ref>

The subjective effect produced by a line depends on its orientation: a ''horizontal'' line corresponds with the ground on which man rests and moves; it possesses a dark and cold affective tonality similar to black or blue. A ''vertical'' line corresponds with height, and offers no support; it possesses a luminous, warm tonality close to white and yellow. A ''diagonal'' possesses a more-or-less warm (or cold) tonality, according to its inclination toward the horizontal or the vertical.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 69-70</ref>

A force which deploys itself, without obstacle, as the one which produces a straight line corresponds with ''lyricism''; several forces which confront (or annoy) each other form a ''drama''.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, pp. 80-82</ref> The ''angle'' formed by the angular line also has an inner sonority which is warm and close to yellow for an acute angle (a triangle), cold and similar to blue for an obtuse angle (a circle), and similar to red for a right angle (a square).<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 89</ref>

The basic plane is, in general, rectangular or square. therefore, it is composed of horizontal and vertical lines which delimit it and define it as an autonomous entity which supports the painting, communicating its affective tonality. This tonality is determined by the relative importance of horizontal and vertical lines: the horizontals giving a calm, cold tonality to the basic plane while the verticals impart a calm, warm tonality.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 143-145</ref> The artist intuits the inner effect of the canvas format and dimensions, which he chooses according to the tonality he wants to give to his work. Kandinsky considered the basic plane a living being, which the artist "fertilizes" and feels "breathing".<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 145-146</ref>

Each part of the basic plane possesses an affective colouration; this influences the tonality of the pictorial elements which will be drawn on it, and contributes to the richness of the composition resulting from their juxtaposition on the canvas. The ''above'' of the basic plane corresponds with looseness and to lightness, while the ''below'' evokes condensation and heaviness. The painter's job is to listen and know these effects to produce paintings which are not just the effect of a random process, but the fruit of authentic work and the result of an effort towards inner beauty.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, p. 146-151</ref>

This book contains many photographic examples and drawing from Kandinsky’s works which offer the demonstration of its theoretical observations, and which allow the reader to reproduce in him the inner obviousness provided that he takes the time to look at those pictures with care, that he let them acting on its own sensibility and that he let vibrating the sensible and spiritual strings of his soul.<ref>Kandinsky, ''Point et ligne sur plan'', éd. Gallimard, 1991, Appendice, p. 185-235</ref>

== {{anchor|Quotations on Kandinsky}}Quotations ==
{{Move to Wikiquote}}
* "The 'Pioneer' [Kandinsky] did not just produce a body of work whose sensuous magnificence and rich inventiveness eclipse even the most remarkable of his contemporaries. He also provided an explicit theory of abstract painting, exposing its principles with the utmost precision and clarity. So, the painted work is accompanied with a group of texts that at the same time clarify his work and make Kandinsky one of the main theorists of art. Facing the hieroglyphs of the last canvases of the Parisian period (which are said to be the most difficult), they provide the Rosetta stone on which the meaning of these mysterious figures is inscribed".<ref>[[Michel Henry]], ''Seeing the invisible, on Kandinsky'', Continuum, 2009, p.&nbsp;2</ref>
* "Kandinsky was fascinated by the expressive power of linear forms. Lyricism is the pathos of a force whose triumphant effort enters into action and encounters no obstacle. Because the straight line results from the initiative of a single, unopposed force, its domain is that of the lyric. When two forces are present and thus enter in conflict, as this is the case with the curve or the zigzag line, we are in domain of drama".<ref>Michel Henry, ''Seeing the invisible, on Kandinsky'', Continuum, 2009, p.&nbsp;52</ref>
* "Kandinsky calls abstract the content that painting must express, that’s to say this invisible life that we are. In such a way that the Kandinskian equation, to which we have alluded to, can be written in reality as follows : Interior = interiority = invisible = life = pathos = ''abstract''".<ref>Michel Henry, ''Seeing the invisible, on Kandinsky'', Continuum, 2009, p.&nbsp;11</ref>
* "Like the final climax of a giant orchestra, Moscow resounds victoriously".<ref>Wassily Kandinsky on the sunset of Moscow, ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art'', p.&nbsp;9</ref>

== Art market ==
{{external media | width = 210px | align = right | video1 = [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdPMdGUeYGk 1913 "Klänge (Sounds)" by Vasily Kandinsky], [[Museum of Modern Art]]}}
In 2012, [[Christie's]] auctioned Kandinsky's ''Studie für Improvisation 8 (Study for Improvisation 8)'', a 1909 view of a man wielding a broadsword in a rainbow-hued village, for $23 million. The painting had been on loan to the [[Kunstmuseum Winterthur]], Switzerland, since 1960 and was sold to a European collector by the Volkart Foundation, the charitable arm of the Swiss commodities trading firm Volkart Brothers. Before this sale, the artist's last record was set in 1990 when [[Sotheby's]] sold his ''Fugue'' (1914) for $20.9 million.<ref>Kelly Crow (November 7, 2012), [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323894704578105882889840890.html Christie's Sells Monet for $43.8 Million] ''[[Wall Street Journal]]''.</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Goethe]]'s ''[[Theory of Colours]]''
*[[History of painting]]
*[[Kandinsky Prize]]
*[[List of Russian artists]]
*[[Russian avant-garde]]
*[[Wassily Chair]]
*[[Western painting]]

== References ==
Note: Several sections of this article have been translated from its French version: ''Theoretical writings on art'', ''The Bauhaus'' and ''The great synthesis'' artistic periods. For complete detailed references in French, see the original version at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassily_Kandinsky

=== Notes ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Books by Kandinsky ===
* Wassily Kandinsky, M. T. Sadler (Translator), Adrian Glew (Editor). ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art''. (New York: MFA Publications and London: Tate Publishing, 2001). 192pp. ISBN 0-87846-702-5
* Wassily Kandinsky, M. T Sadler (Translator). ''Concerning the Spiritual in Art''. Dover Publ. (Paperback). 80 pp.&nbsp;ISBN 0-486-23411-8. or: Lightning Source Inc Publ. (Paperback). ISBN 1-4191-1377-1
* Wassily Kandinsky. [[Klänge]]. Verlag R. Piper & Co., Munich
* Wassily Kandinsky. ''Point and Line to Plane''. Dover Publications, New York. ISBN 0-486-23808-3
* Wassily Kandinsky. ''Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art''. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80570-7

=== References in English ===
* John E Bowlt and Rose-Carol Washton Long. ''The Life of Vasilii Kandinsky in Russian art: a study of "On the spiritual in art" by Wassily Kandinsky''. (Newtonville, MA.: Oriental Research Partners, 1984). ISBN 0-89250-131-6
* Magdalena Dabrowski. ''Kandinsky Compositions''. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2002). ISBN 0-87070-405-2
* Hajo Düchting. ''Wassily Kandinsky 1866–1944: A Revolution in Painting''. (Taschen, 2000). ISBN 3-8228-5982-6
* Hajo Düchting and O'Neill. ''The Avant-Garde in Russia''.
* Will Grohmann. ''Wassily Kandinsky. Life and Work''. (New York: Harry N Abrams Inc., 1958).
* Thomas M. Messer. ''Vasily Kandinsky''. (New York: Harry N Abrams Inc, 1997). (Illustrated). ISBN 0-8109-1228-7.
* Margarita Tupitsyn, ''Against Kandinsky'' (Munich: Museum Villa Stuck, 2006).
* [[Michel Henry]]: ''Seeing the Invisible. On Kandinsky'' (Continuum, 2009). ISBN 1-84706-447-7
* Julian Lloyd Webber, [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3653612/Seeing-red-looking-blue-feeling-green.html "Seeing red, looking blue, feeling green"], ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'' 6 July 2006.
* Sabine Flach, "Through the Looking Gass", in: ''Intellectual Birdhouse'' (London: Koenig Books, 2012). ISBN 978-3-86335-118-2

=== References in French ===
* Michel Henry. ''Voir l’invisible. Sur Kandinsky'' (Presses Universitaires de France) ISBN 2-13-053887-8
* Nina Kandinsky. ''Kandinsky et moi'' (éd. Flammarion) ISBN 2-08-064013-5
* Jéléna Hahl-Fontaine. ''Kandinsky'' (Marc Vokar éditeur) ISBN 2-87012-006-0
* François le Targat. ''Kandinsky'' (éd. Albin Michel, les grands maîtres de l’art contemporain) ISBN 2-226-02830-7
* ''Kandinsky. Rétrospective'' (Foundation Maeght) ISBN 2-900923-26-3 ISBN 2-900923-27-1
* ''Kandinsky. Œuvres de Vassily Kandinsky (1866–1944)'' (Centre Georges Pompidou) ISBN 2-85850-262-5

== External links ==
{{Commons|Wassily Kandinsky}}
{{Wikiquote|Wassily Kandinsky}}
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN0eMlj35oc Google Doodle for Wassily Kandinsky]
*{{findagrave|7719714}}
*[http://library.getty.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=76560 Wassily Kandinsky papers, 1911-1940] The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California. Russian-born artist considered to be one of the creators of abstract painting. Papers document Kandinsky's teachings at the Bauhaus, his writings, his involvement with the Russian Academy of Artistic Sciences (RAKhN) in Moscow, and his professional contacts with art dealers, artists, collectors, and publishers.

;Writing by Kandinsky
* {{gutenberg author|Wassily_Kandinsky}}
* {{cite web
| url = http://archive.org/details/onspiritualinart00kand
| title = Concerning the Spiritual in Art
|website= Guggenheim Internet Archives
| accessdate = 25 October 2013
}}
* [http://www.wassilykandinsky.net/ WassilyKandinsky.net], Biography and works of Wassily Kandinsky
<!-- * [http://wassilykandinsky.narod.ru/ VassilyKandinskyNarod.ru] suspected of possibly spammer site/engaged in fraudulous activity -->

;Paintings by Kandinsky
* {{MoMA artist|2981}}
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/kandinsky_wassily.html Artcyclopedia.com], Wassily Kandinsky at ArtCyclopedia
* [http://www.glyphs.com/art/kandinsky/ Glyphs.com], Kandinsky's compositions with commentary
* [http://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Wassily-Kandinsky/04CBBF058C28F32F Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 - 1944)] on MutualArt.com

{{Der Blaue Reiter}}
{{Modernism}}

{{Authority control|VIAF=22143802|GND=118559737}}

<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
| NAME = Kandinsky, Wassily
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Russian painter
| DATE OF BIRTH = 16 December 1866
| PLACE OF BIRTH = [[Moscow]]
| DATE OF DEATH = 13 December 1944
| PLACE OF DEATH = [[Neuilly-sur-Seine]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kandinsky, Wassily}}
[[Category:Wassily Kandinsky| ]]
[[Category:1866 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni]]
[[Category:Bauhaus]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia]]
[[Category:Russian Expressionist painters]]
[[Category:French people of Russian descent]]
[[Category:Modern artists]]
[[Category:Modern painters]]
[[Category:Moscow State University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Moscow]]
[[Category:Russian artists]]
[[Category:Russian avant-garde]]
[[Category:Russian Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:Russian painters]]
[[Category:Russian printmakers]]
[[Category:White Russian emigrants]]
[[Category:White Russians (movement)]]

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