Kandinsky Essay Research Paper The Early Years

Kandinsky Essay, Research Paper

The Early Years Of Kandinsky’s Life

Wassily Kandinsky was born on December 4, 1866 in Moscow. His father was a successful tea merchant named

Vasily Silestrovich, and his mother was a teacher named Lydia Kandinskaia. From early on in his life, Kandinsky acquired a love for travel. His parents to Florence in 1869 where the young Kandinsky attended Nursery School. When his father’s health began deteriorating in 1871, Wassily and his parents moved back to Russia, this time to the smaller town of Odessa. Shortly after returning to Russia, his parents divorced.

During the early years of Kandinsky’s life, he discovered a love a color and shape. Kandinsky cherished the watercolors he received from his aunt, and began painting small pictures as early as age five. His parents seem to have been the type of people who would have supported their son’s artistic ambitions had he actually had them, but for Kandinsky, painting was only a hobby and not a career.

After Kandinsky’s parents divorced, Kandinsky lived with his aunt, Elizaveta Tikheeva. He attended high school and took a few art and music classes in addition to the regular curriculum. The Cello fascinated Kandinsky, and he became quite a good cellist, but like art, Kandinsky did not see music as a true career.

Instead, Kandinsky followed a more practical ambition, and studied law and economics at the University of Moscow beginning in 1886. Kandinsky calmly suppressed his artistic yearnings throughout his University years, because his highly intellectual mind would not allow him to act irrationally. He finished University in 1892, after which he accepted a university assistantship. A few months later, he marries his distant cousin, Ania Shemiakina. At this point in his life, it seemed that Kandinsky should have settled into a middle class, bourgeoise lifestlye, with his academic career, his sturdy home, and his obedient wife.

Far from accepting accepting the secure life Kandinsky created for himself, Wassily abruptly makes a dramatic shift in his life. Upon seeing an exhibit of French paintings in Moscow, Kandinsky is impressed by Monet’s famous “Haystacks”, a piece of impressionistic genius. For the first time, Kandinsky realizes that art can be a career, and he begins to re-evaluate his own artistic potential.

In 1896, Kandinsky moved to Munich, Germany, leaving his bride behind in Russia. At this point in his life, when he was already thirty years old, it was crystal clear to Kandinsky that he wanted to dedicate his life to art. Munich was a hotbed of artistic activity in Europe, and Wassily took full advantage of the art education offered there by enrolling in art school. Kandinsky’s intellectual abilitiy to comprehend the aesthetic and philosophical principles of art far exceeded his actual artistic abilities, much to his frustration. This slowly began to change, however, as Kandinsky experimented with artistic styles and grew to develop his own distinct artistic form.

Kandinsky studied at the Azbe school in Munich and the Munich Academy where he met other painters such as Stuck, Jawlensky and Werefkin. He created the Phalanx Group, a loosely organized group of artists who were on the cusp of modernity in Munich. Included were Werefkin and Jawlensky. This marked the beginning of a period of exhaustive production by Kandinsky. The sheer volume of paintings he created at the time is incredible, and the spree lasted until 1906. During this period, his work took a shift from the obviously impressionistic “The Blue Rider” to more abstract works. He experimented with pointillism and using bold colors. He travelled extensively to such places as Vienna, Venice, Holland, Paris, and Tunisia, picking up new ideas everywhere he went. Also during this time, Kandinsky struck up a casual relationship with one of his art students, Gabriele Muenter, with whom he had a relationship with until 1916.

In 1909, a renewed Kandinsky returned to Munich after three years of travel. From 1906 to 1908 Kandinsky went through a period of depression, but this ended upon his return to Munich. This new Kandinsky began working on his “Improvisations”, clearly more abstract than his previous works. Kandinsky’s works during this period were bold and bright and splashed across the entire canvas. Shapes were rounded and indistinct. In 1911, Kandinsky began “compositions” a group of paintings that show a progression in Kandinsky’s artistic ability. Black lines define shapes and colors are no longer fuzzy and blended.

In 1911, Kandinsky made mojor changes in both his artistic and personal life. He divorced Ania, although the two really had not been together since Kandinsky moved to Munich. He also formed “The Blaue Reiter” artist group, probably the most famous group to which Kandinsky belonged. All of the modernist biggies were in this group such as Klee and Marc.

In 1914, with the outbreak of World War one, the Russian-born Kandinsky realized that he was an enemy in Munich, and decided to return to Moscow. While in Munich, Kandinsky lived through the October Revolution in 1917 and ensuing changes that occured afterwards. Kandinsky worked for the Soviet government and their artistic campaigns. His work included collecting contemporary art using state funds to be placed in in “museums of artistic culture”. In 1917, Kandinsky also married