Wassily Kandinsky

Russian Painter

December 16th, 1866 - December 13th, 1944

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• Wassily was a law teacher and then became an artist.
• He is one of Russia's most famous artists and the founder of abstract art.
• Painting were deeply spiritual for Kandinsky. He wanted to express human emotion through abstract forms and colors
• Kandinsky viewed music as a form of non-objective art - musicians could evoke images in listeners' minds merely with sounds. He wanted to do the same through his paintings and create “sounds and emotions” with the use of color, lines and form.
• His early paintings were inspired by Claude Monet

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Kandinsky’s early work:

• He was inspired by Claude Monet’s impressionist style.

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• The technique was more important than the subjects in the painting

The Blue Rider (1903)

Using Monet’s technique of paint “blobs” to create an “impression” of boats, trees and water.

Autumn Landscape with Boats (1908)

What is ABSTRACT ART?

Art that doesn’t represent anything specific in real life but uses LINES, SHAPES, COLOR and FORM to create designs and patterns that may look like objects and images.

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Kandinsky’s first abstract painting.

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Untitled (1910)

Composition IV (1911)

Composition VII (1913)

Squares with Concentric Circles (1913)

Circles in a Circle (1923)

His paintings began to evolve. He used more geometric shapes and straight lines...

Composition VIII (1923)