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michael5000's review against another edition
2.0
An odd little biography in some ways. For one thing: well, close your eyes and imagine a Kandinsky painting. Think of a few of them. Imagine what a stylistically typical Kandinsky painting looks like. OK, good, now open your eyes, I'm trying to write to you. The classic Kandinsky paintings you just imagined are barely represented in this biography, and on the few pages where they make their brief appearance, Düchting apologizes for this brief lapse in Kandinsky's taste. This is, in other words, a biography of Kandinsky by someone who doesn't really like Kandinsky very much -- or at least, doesn't like that part of Kandinsky's work for which he is remembered, admired, and studied, which comes to much the same thing.
Also, Kandinsky himself comes off as a real crank. But that's OK. He was a heckuva a painter. There's lots of great pictures in this well-printed book, of course -- but be prepared not just for the early work characteristic of a biography, but also for a deliberate focus on work that most casual Kandinsky fans would consider his B-sides and outtakes.
Also, Kandinsky himself comes off as a real crank. But that's OK. He was a heckuva a painter. There's lots of great pictures in this well-printed book, of course -- but be prepared not just for the early work characteristic of a biography, but also for a deliberate focus on work that most casual Kandinsky fans would consider his B-sides and outtakes.
ronanmcd's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure having read the book that I would feel comfortable explaining the genesis of Kandinsky's art, how he arrived at it or what he took it to mean. Other than to say the book introduces it as synaethestic, he ultimately teaches himself to respond to the world by producing pictures that move like music.
And that's good enough.
And that's good enough.
partypoison109's review against another edition
1.0
Loved the artwork, but the actual text wasn't it.
blueyorkie's review
4.0
1. He trained as a lawyer
Before devoting himself completely to art, Kandinsky complied with his parents’ wishes and studied law at Moscow State University. He graduated in 1893 and taught law at the university for three years. He was then offered a position as a professor of law at the University of Dorpat in Tartu (in present-day Estonia). Kandinsky, who had just turned 30, decided instead to focus on painting.
2. He was inspired by music
Kandinsky believed that art was closely connected to music. He was inspired to give up his law career in part by the production of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” at the Bolshoi Theater. Kandinsky described the experience in his autobiography, Steps: “Violins, deep basses and especially the wind instruments represented for me the full force of the twilight hour; in my mind, I saw all my colours, they were all there, in my mind’s eye. Wild, almost crazy lines, were being painted in front of me.” Music inspired him to create new works throughout his career. For example, after a concert by Arnold Schoenberg in Munich in 1911, he painted “Impression III (Concert)” (Lenbachhaus Gallery, Munich).
3. He was a designer and a photographer
Finding synthesis between the arts was extremely important for Kandinsky, and he did not restrict himself to art and music. He designed interiors, clothes and furniture and created sketches for painting on porcelain. He also was interested in photography and cinematography.
4. He painted scenes from country estate life
In search of a new language of art, Kandinsky first tried different styles. In 1896, he was stunned by an exhibition of Monet’s “Haystacks” in Moscow. Later, while studying at the school of Anton Ažbe in Munich, Kandinsky tried using separate brushstrokes and pure colours. He felt close to art nouveau and symbolism. During this phase, he painted traditional country estate scenes, such as “Crinoline Lady” (1909, Tretyakov Gallery). Following his time in Europe, Kandinsky’s works showed elements of fauvism and the Les Nabis movement.
5. Critics called him a drug addict and a madman
Kandinsky’s first abstract works were preceded by a gradual simplification and destruction of form, which he practised not only in painting but also in xylography. At the second exhibition of the New Munich Artists’ Association in 1910, which included such artists as Picasso, Braque and van Dongen, Kandinsky presented his “Sketch for “Composition II” (Guggenheim Museum, New York). Critics greeted it with scathing comments, including writing that the work had been painted by a madman or somebody “under the influence of morphine or hashish.”
6. He painted the world’s first abstract picture
“Picture with a Circle” is considered the first abstract painting in Kandinsky’s career and the first abstract painting in the world. Created in 1911, it is currently on display at the National Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi. According to the artist, nature gives an impulse for creativity, but there is no point in copying it. Instead, colour sets the main emotional tone of work and helps create the composition, and form is a combination of planes and lines that create movement.
7. He created new genres
By giving up a subject matter in paintings, Kandinsky introduced a new classification of genres. In place of the previously used categories of the portrait, landscape and still life, Kandinsky created “impressions” – works that retained a connection with nature; “improvisations” – spontaneous and often unconscious expressions of internal impressions and emotions; and “compositions” – a synthesis of an external form and an internal substance expressed with the help of lines and colours.
8. He breathed life into colour
For Kandinsky, colours had value in themselves not connected to the subject matter of a painting. He called his paints “animate creatures” and believed they had the power to get right to the soul of the beholder. Based on Goethe’s theories, Kandinsky came up with his own interconnections: yellow is reminiscent of the sound of the flute, is responsible for earthly things, highlights movement towards the viewer and corresponds to a triangle. The colour blue, on the other hand, represents celestial tranquillity, sadness, movement away from the viewer, a circle and the sound of the cello. Red embodies boiling inside and the form of a square; and green, immobility and a lack of emotion.
9. He was at odds with the rationalism of Russian avant-garde artists
The irrational and emotional nature of Kandinsky’s works ran counter to the rationalism of other Russian avant-garde artists. This disconnect became particularly clear after the revolution when Kandinsky was teaching at newly established art institutes with Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova and Lyubov Popova. Unable to realize his ideas in Russia, Kandinsky moved to the Bauhaus in Germany in 1922. There he taught analytical drawing and mural painting.
10. He did not conform to the spirit of the USSR
Wassily Kandinsky was a very prolific artist. Between 1909 and 1914, when he was developing abstraction, Kandinsky created some 200 paintings and numerous sketches. Many of them have been lost. In the Soviet Union, they were sent to provincial museums and hidden in storerooms since they did not conform to the spirit of socialist realism, the reigning art form of the time. In Nazi Germany, they were classified as degenerate art.
Source: https://www.rbth.com/multimedia/people/2016/12/16/10-little-known-facts-about-wassily-kandinsky_659824
Before devoting himself completely to art, Kandinsky complied with his parents’ wishes and studied law at Moscow State University. He graduated in 1893 and taught law at the university for three years. He was then offered a position as a professor of law at the University of Dorpat in Tartu (in present-day Estonia). Kandinsky, who had just turned 30, decided instead to focus on painting.
2. He was inspired by music
Kandinsky believed that art was closely connected to music. He was inspired to give up his law career in part by the production of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” at the Bolshoi Theater. Kandinsky described the experience in his autobiography, Steps: “Violins, deep basses and especially the wind instruments represented for me the full force of the twilight hour; in my mind, I saw all my colours, they were all there, in my mind’s eye. Wild, almost crazy lines, were being painted in front of me.” Music inspired him to create new works throughout his career. For example, after a concert by Arnold Schoenberg in Munich in 1911, he painted “Impression III (Concert)” (Lenbachhaus Gallery, Munich).
3. He was a designer and a photographer
Finding synthesis between the arts was extremely important for Kandinsky, and he did not restrict himself to art and music. He designed interiors, clothes and furniture and created sketches for painting on porcelain. He also was interested in photography and cinematography.
4. He painted scenes from country estate life
In search of a new language of art, Kandinsky first tried different styles. In 1896, he was stunned by an exhibition of Monet’s “Haystacks” in Moscow. Later, while studying at the school of Anton Ažbe in Munich, Kandinsky tried using separate brushstrokes and pure colours. He felt close to art nouveau and symbolism. During this phase, he painted traditional country estate scenes, such as “Crinoline Lady” (1909, Tretyakov Gallery). Following his time in Europe, Kandinsky’s works showed elements of fauvism and the Les Nabis movement.
5. Critics called him a drug addict and a madman
Kandinsky’s first abstract works were preceded by a gradual simplification and destruction of form, which he practised not only in painting but also in xylography. At the second exhibition of the New Munich Artists’ Association in 1910, which included such artists as Picasso, Braque and van Dongen, Kandinsky presented his “Sketch for “Composition II” (Guggenheim Museum, New York). Critics greeted it with scathing comments, including writing that the work had been painted by a madman or somebody “under the influence of morphine or hashish.”
6. He painted the world’s first abstract picture
“Picture with a Circle” is considered the first abstract painting in Kandinsky’s career and the first abstract painting in the world. Created in 1911, it is currently on display at the National Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi. According to the artist, nature gives an impulse for creativity, but there is no point in copying it. Instead, colour sets the main emotional tone of work and helps create the composition, and form is a combination of planes and lines that create movement.
7. He created new genres
By giving up a subject matter in paintings, Kandinsky introduced a new classification of genres. In place of the previously used categories of the portrait, landscape and still life, Kandinsky created “impressions” – works that retained a connection with nature; “improvisations” – spontaneous and often unconscious expressions of internal impressions and emotions; and “compositions” – a synthesis of an external form and an internal substance expressed with the help of lines and colours.
8. He breathed life into colour
For Kandinsky, colours had value in themselves not connected to the subject matter of a painting. He called his paints “animate creatures” and believed they had the power to get right to the soul of the beholder. Based on Goethe’s theories, Kandinsky came up with his own interconnections: yellow is reminiscent of the sound of the flute, is responsible for earthly things, highlights movement towards the viewer and corresponds to a triangle. The colour blue, on the other hand, represents celestial tranquillity, sadness, movement away from the viewer, a circle and the sound of the cello. Red embodies boiling inside and the form of a square; and green, immobility and a lack of emotion.
9. He was at odds with the rationalism of Russian avant-garde artists
The irrational and emotional nature of Kandinsky’s works ran counter to the rationalism of other Russian avant-garde artists. This disconnect became particularly clear after the revolution when Kandinsky was teaching at newly established art institutes with Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova and Lyubov Popova. Unable to realize his ideas in Russia, Kandinsky moved to the Bauhaus in Germany in 1922. There he taught analytical drawing and mural painting.
10. He did not conform to the spirit of the USSR
Wassily Kandinsky was a very prolific artist. Between 1909 and 1914, when he was developing abstraction, Kandinsky created some 200 paintings and numerous sketches. Many of them have been lost. In the Soviet Union, they were sent to provincial museums and hidden in storerooms since they did not conform to the spirit of socialist realism, the reigning art form of the time. In Nazi Germany, they were classified as degenerate art.
Source: https://www.rbth.com/multimedia/people/2016/12/16/10-little-known-facts-about-wassily-kandinsky_659824
lauren_endnotes's review against another edition
WASSILY KANDINSKY 1866-1944: A Revolution in Painting by Hajo Düchting, tr. from the German by Ilmar Lehtpere, Taschen 1991.
Biography and art history of the Russian modern artist, Wassily Kandinsky. Born in Moscow, grew up in Siberia and later Odessa. Trained as a lawyer, he left that profession to fully focus on art, moving to Munich (returning to Moscow a few years later, and then settling in Germany and France).
The beauty of a book like this is that it traces both visually and chronologically the style that Kandinsky is so well known for - the colors, the linear and geometric expressions, through time. The experimentation with color really came first, and he began to experiment more and more with form, deeply inspired by other artists - musicians, dramatists, and poets. He even wrote some "zines" that mixed his art - primarily woodcuts - with some of his own poetry.
As he started to experiment more, there was a backlash by the art world establishment, art critics in Munich stating how work "was that of a madman, or someone under the effects of morphine or hashish."
However, with time, his brilliance was fully recognized, and he achieved great renown in his lifetime, becoming one of the most well-known and influential modern artists.
Biography and art history of the Russian modern artist, Wassily Kandinsky. Born in Moscow, grew up in Siberia and later Odessa. Trained as a lawyer, he left that profession to fully focus on art, moving to Munich (returning to Moscow a few years later, and then settling in Germany and France).
The beauty of a book like this is that it traces both visually and chronologically the style that Kandinsky is so well known for - the colors, the linear and geometric expressions, through time. The experimentation with color really came first, and he began to experiment more and more with form, deeply inspired by other artists - musicians, dramatists, and poets. He even wrote some "zines" that mixed his art - primarily woodcuts - with some of his own poetry.
As he started to experiment more, there was a backlash by the art world establishment, art critics in Munich stating how work "was that of a madman, or someone under the effects of morphine or hashish."
However, with time, his brilliance was fully recognized, and he achieved great renown in his lifetime, becoming one of the most well-known and influential modern artists.
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