Wassily Kandinsky, One Of The Pioneers Of Abstract Art

Art is part of each of our trips, as we always spend time visiting museums and other places where wonderful works are exhibited. Knowing a little more about the life and work of its creators helps us to enjoy these visits much more. Today we want to get closer to Wassily Kandinsky, for many, the first great representative of abstract art.

Who was  Wassily Kandinsky?

We are talking about a Russian painter born in Moscow in 1866 into a middle-class family. As a teenager he took music and drawing classes, making his inclinations clear. However, perhaps due to family pressures, he studied Law and Economics in his hometown, at the same university where he would later teach.

Claude Monet was one of his greatest inspirers.  It was upon seeing his works at the Impressionists’ exhibition in Moscow in 1895 that Wassily was fascinated. In fact, just a year later, he decided to abandon his profession to devote himself body and soul to painting.

Already in 1906 he moved to Paris, considered at that time as the cradle of artists. Kandinsky wanted to be one of them and considered that to achieve this, this city should be his home.

The evolution of Kandinsky

One of the reasons that prompted him to make abstract art was his concern for the materialism that he saw in the streets and in the hearts of many people. He understood this art as a liberation from this slavery, as revealed in his writing On the spiritual in art .

Wassily Kandinsky returned to his country, but had to leave early because his art was neither well regarded nor valued. So he went to Germany, where he collaborated closely with the Bauhaus school. This is the root of which he began to introduce geometric figures in his works.

Later, with the arrival of Hitler to power, he had to flee to Paris. It was in the French capital where he was able to unleash his creativity and abstract art.

Some works of Wassily Kandinsky

The abstract and the explosions of colors are the protagonists of the paintings of this Russian painter. Some of his works are exhibited in the best museums in the world, let’s take a tour of them:

Composition 8

Painted in 1923, it represents a set of lines, shapes and colors that are not arranged at all at random. However, it allows an open interpretation. Some have seen in it a mystery of material things that people tend to buy in search of happiness, which in the end is ephemeral.

This point is demonstrated by a black circle that highlights that materialism is nothing more than a point that blackens new life. Who would say that you can learn so much from an abstract painting? It is exhibited at The Solomon Guggenheim, in New York.

Yellow, red and blue

This became one of his most famous works thanks to a figure resembling a face on the left side of the canvas, a technique later copied by Picasso himself. You can enjoy this work of art at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Around the line

This work that he made in France in 1943, shortly after obtaining nationality, shows the artist’s interest in organic sciences. An explosion of color on a dark background reminiscent of the most rudimentary organisms.

Blue sky

If one thing is clear when viewing Kandinsky’s works, it is undoubtedly his love of vivid colors. But in this work, in addition, his fascination for natural sciences, especially botany and zoology, is appreciated in those forms that seem to float on the blue background.

This work that he did just when he moved to France, recalls another of the greats: Joan Miró. It is no coincidence since it was at that time that the two met. The influence that the Catalan painter had on Kandinsky remains latent in this painting of peculiar beauty.

In blue

Another of the great masterpieces of the Russian painter is this one, born from the fusion of several German expressionists who formed the group “The Blue Rider”, from which the name of this work comes.

Getting closer to this Wassly Kandinsky helps us see the world differently. His concern for world problems and the attempt to help solve them through his art is an interesting fact that helps to better understand great artists like him.