Kandinsky, Wassily (1866 - 1921).

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Kandinsky, Wassily (1866 – 1921)

Kandinsky was a Russian born painter, born in Moscow. In 1896, aged 30, he went to Munich to study art. In 1901 he founded the “Phalanx” group. The main purpose of which was to introduce advanced French painting to the “backward” Munich. The French were experimenting with new ideas such as cubism. Kandinsky and the other members of the Phalanx felt they had to introduce these experiments into the Munich artistic society.

In 1911, Kandinsky became involved in “Der Blaue Reiter” (The Blue Rider) named after one of his paintings. His preferences during this period were violent and apocalyptic. One piece demonstrating this is the “Improvisation 26” of 1912 shown on my final piece.

This piece gives the impression of an explosion. The black lines coming from the centre to the edge looks to me like something symbolic of flying across the piece. I will come back to “Improvisation 26” later.

Kandinsky became interested in theosophy. Theosophy is selecting the best parts of a religion and manipulating them to suit ones ends.

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Kandinsky was definitely influenced by theosophy when his book “On the Spiritual in art”, published in 1912, he spoke of a new epoch of great spirituality. (Epoch meaning a period marked by special events).

At the beginning of the First World War, Kandinsky returned to Russia. Later in Russia he resumed his activity as an abstract painter.

After the 1917 “Bolshevik Coup”, Kandinsky was kept busy by administrative work, including the foundation of museums throughout Russia and attempted to reform the art school system.

In 1918 Kandinsky became a member of the Fine Arts division of ...

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