Art
1944), was a renowned painter,
printmaker, watercolorist,
theoretician, and Bauhaus teacher.
He was born in Moscow, Russia, and
created art during a time of
experimentation and innovation
amidst a tumultuous society on the
threshold of the modern world.
Kandinsky Created
Deeply Spiritual
Abstraction
Kandinsky’s huge accomplishments
span almost all the major artistic
movements of the first half of the
twentieth century. He embraced all
artistic styles — from the sinuous,
organic forms of Art Nouveau to
the wild colors of Fauvism and
Blaue Reiter, to the mysteries of
Surrealism, and the constructivism
of the Bauhaus period, and more
-- until he developed his own
signature style.
A modern master, Kandinsky is
credited with painting the first
purely abstract works. He is most
known for his spiritual abstraction
and led other abstract painters
who believed that art should
provide a religious message. As
opposed to traditional realism that
focused on physical matter and
materialism produced by their
predecessors, abstract artists
focused foremost on the spirit.
In this realm, the profound artist
wrote often about the correlations
between painting and composing
music. One of his famous
quotations is: “Colour is the
keyboard, the eyes are the
hammers, the soul is the piano with
many strings. The artist is the hand
which plays, touching one key or
another, to cause vibrations in the
soul.”
He Gave Up Teaching
Law to Pursue His
Artistic Passion
As a youth Kandinsky was always
fascinated by color however, he
succumbed to his parents’ wishes
to pursue studies in law and
economics. When he was 30 years
old he was appointed Professor to
the Department of Law, at Derpt
University in Tartu. To the shock
and dismay of many individuals at
the time Kandinsky decided to give
up this promising career teaching
in order to follow his passion for
painting. He enrolled in art school
in Munich and changed the course
of his life and art world history.
It is a widely known fact that
Kandinsky’s decision to pursue art
was influenced by an exhibition he
saw of the French impressionists.
In particular, it was the powerful
color in Monet’s “Haystacks”, that
inspired him the most.
“Kandinsky: A Retrospective”has
been co-curated by Angela Lampe,
the Curator of Modern Art at the
Centre Pompidou, and Brady
Roberts, Chief Curator at the
Milwaukee Art Museum.
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N Art Museum Dr
Milwaukee, WI
To learn more about “Kandinsky: A
Retrospective”, visit the
Milwaukee Museum of Art’s
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