Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky was born In Moscow on December 4,1866, the son of a tea merchant. He initially began a career in law, and in 1886, he began studying law and economics at the University of Moscow. In 1893, he was appointed as an attache at the Moscow University faculty of law, but two years later , he took a job as artistic director of an art printing works also in Moscow. In 1896 , he saw an exhibit of French art , and was overwhelmed by one of Claude Monet¹s haystack series, and decided to concentrate on art , and move to Munich , Germany. He studied at the studio of Anton Azbe for two years before being admitted to Franz von Stuck¹s class at the academy in 1900 , where he met fellow student Paul Klee. The following year, he formed the Phalanx group and began writing the first of many essays on art. His paintings at this time were colorful Russian scenes that incorporated images of folklore. Kandinksy would become famous for abstracting these images into a kind of visual code , and the images became part of his famous series of ³improvisations.² IN December 1911, Kandinsky exhibited his work as part of Der Blaue Riter group ( The Blue Rider) along with works by Henri Rousseau, August Macke, Paul Klee and Franz Marc. Kandinsky¹s famous essay , ³On The Spiritual In Art² was also published in 1911, and in 1913, Kandinsky exhibited works at the Armory show in New York. In 1922, Kandinsky accepted a post teaching at the famous Weimar Bauhuas, and along with fellow Bauhaus teachers Paul Klee and Lyonel Feininger started Der Blau Vier ( The Blue Four) , who exhibited paintings in the U.S.A. The Bauhaus moved to Dessau in !925, and Kandinksy moved into one of the Master¹s houses there designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius ( Klee lived next door to Kandinsky). The Bauhuas was eventually closed by the National Socialists, and in 1937, 14 of Kandinksy¹s canvases were seized and exhibited by the Nazis in the ³Degenerate Art ³ exhibit in Munich. By this time, Kandinsky¹s work had changed from the free improvisations of his early work to the more precise execution of abstract , almost geometric forms, and until his death in 1944, his work concentrated on the relation of these abstract forms to each other with emphasis on the harmony of colors. There is a wonderful database of Kandinsky¹ s work at Orazio Centaro¹s Art Images on the Web (http://www.ocaiw.com/kandisk.htm) , that features links to images on the Web . Also noteworthy is the collection at Carol Gerten¹s Fine Art virtual museum (http://sunsite.unc.edu/cjackson/kandinsk... - Nick Burton
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