Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Quotation

Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential. - Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Books

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Research

Powerpoint: The Road to Expressionism
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Biographical

Wassily Kandinsky (or Vasily Kandinsky), 1866 - 1944, was a painter and art theorist. He was born in Russia but lived for many years in Paris and Munich. The Blaue Reiter group of artists was established in Munich in 1911 and Kandinsky was one of the founders. Other well-known artists that were part of it were Franz Marc, August Macke, Gabriele Munter and Paul Klee. The members were interested in European Medieval art and primitivism as well as the contemporary, non-figurative art scene in France. The name of the movement comes from a painting of a blue knight that was used on the front of an almanac edited by its members. Kandinsky was a lecturer at the Bauhaus - a short name for Staatliches Bauhaus - an art school in Germany from 1919-1933. The school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919; in 1925 the school moved to Dessau, and again in 1932 to Berlin. Walter Gropius was the head of the school throughout 1919-1928, followed by Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The school was closed on the order of Nazi regime in 1933. It had a major impact on art and architecture trends for the next decades. The main interest of the school was architecture but also other branches of art. It issued a magazine Bauhaus and a series of books Bauhausbuecher. The head of printing and design was Herbert Bayer. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Wassily Kandinsky.]

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