“Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the

soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key

or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.”

-Kandinsky

COMPOSITION 8 (KOMPOSITION 8), JULY 1923. OIL ON CANVAS, 55 1/8 X 79 1/8 INCHES (140 X 201 CM). SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW

YORK,SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDING COLLECTION, BY GIFT 37.262. © 2009 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/ADAGP, PARIS

Wassily Kandinsky

• Wassily Kandinsky was among the first to establish a truly abstract art in which color and form take on a life of their own.

• Born in Moscow into a wealthy family, his early education was in legal studies.

• When he was 30 years old, he went to Munich to study art. Although reserved and persnickety by nature, he was a great organizer: in 1911, he founded the Blue Rider Group of avant-garde painters.

• When he was 30 years old, he went to Munich to study art. Although reserved and persnickety by nature, he was a great organizer: in 1911, he founded the Blue Rider Group of avant-garde painters

• Kandinsky's paintings from this period are

large, expressive colored masses

evaluated independently from forms and

lines; these serve no longer to delimit

them, but overlap freely to form paintings

of extraordinary force.

Music

• Kandinsky was a friend of the Austrian composer Arnold Schonberg (1874-1951), who developed the revolutionary twelve-tone technique.

• Music was important to the birth of abstract art, since music is abstract by nature—it does not try to represent the exterior world, but expresses in an immediate way the inner feelings of the soul. Kandinsky sometimes used musical terms to identify his works; he called his most spontaneous paintings "improvisations" and described more elaborate works as "compositions".

• About Schonberg, http://youtu.be/u5dOI2MtvbA

• Piano example of 12-tone, http://youtu.be/xrjg3jzP2uI

• After the outbreak of World War 1, he returned to Russia to try to organize artistic life in the new state, but the aspiration perished and he returned to Germany to become an inspired teacher at the Bauhaus.

• When the Nazis closed the Bauhaus he moved to France, where he continued to develop his highly personal style of abstract painting.

• Capable of sophisticated conceptual thought, he developed his ideas in theoretical writings as well as paintings. The connections between art and music were a prime concern because he had an unusual sensitivity to sound, be literally able to “hear” colors- a quality known as “synesthesia.”

• Kandinsky was isolated in Paris, since abstract painting—particularly geometric abstract painting—was not valued; the artistic fashions were primarily impressionism and cubism. Living in a small apartment, he created his work in a living-room studio. Biomorphic forms with supple, non-geometric outlines appear in his paintings—forms which suggest microscopic organisms but express the artist's inner life. Kandinsky used original colour compositions, evoking Slavic popular art. He also occasionally mixed sand with paint to give a granular texture to his paintings

COMPOSITION 8 (KOMPOSITION 8), JULY 1923. OIL ON CANVAS, 55 1/8 X 79 1/8 INCHES (140 X 201 CM). SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW

YORK,SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDING COLLECTION, BY GIFT 37.262. © 2009 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/ADAGP, PARIS

Composition #8

• Painted at the height of his powers, Kandinsky regarded this as one of his most important works- a successful expression of his theories about the emotional properties of shape, line, and color. At the time of its completion, he was teaching at the Bauhuas and working on his book “Point and Line”

Abstract Art

One of the questions facing the first abstract painters was

whether the elimination of any recognizable subject matter

would simply leave an arrangement of color and form that was

merely decorative with no spiritual depth. Kandinsky

established that this was not so and that abstract art could fulfill

the aim of all high art since the Renaissance: to uplift and touch

the human soul.

• Looking at a painting such as this requires an approach fundamentally different from that of traditional figurative art. A good starting point is to stand close so that the colors and forms fill the field of vision. Relaxing the eye and mind allows what is seen to reach the part of the brain that responds to music. Analysis and attempts to read it as a design destroy its impact.

• Triangle and Circle

– Kandinsky believed that abstract art could be as

profound as the greatest figurative painting. He wrote

“The impact of the acute angle of a triangle on a circle

produces an effect no less powerful than the finger of

God touching the finger of Adam in Michelangelo”

Circles

• The painting explores numerous aspects of Kandinsky’s theories. In 1926, the artist wrote “Angular lines are youthful…curved lines are mature….the point (small circle)…is a small world cut off more or less equally on all sides.

Lines and Angles

• According to Kandinsky, horizontal lines are (or sound) “cold and flat” whereas verticals are “warm and high” Acute angles are “ warm, sharp, active and yellow” and right angles are “cold, controlled and red”

Color and

Spirituality

• According to

Kandinsky, “Green

is well balanced

and corresponds to

attenuated sounds

of the violin” red

“can give the

impression of a

strong drum beat,”

while blue can be

seen “in the depth

of the organ.”

Yellow

• According to Kandinsky’s theories, yellow “processes a certain capacity to ascend higher and higher and attain heights unbearable to the eye and spirit.”

• Blue “descends into infinite depths

• Light Blue “develops the sound of a flute”

Fun Fact

• After and unsuccessful mattiage with his

cousin, Kandinsky had a close relationship

with the painter Gabriele Munter, whish

was highly creative for them both. In 1917,

following his retuwn to Russia, he married

Nina Anreeswky.

Wind and Clouds, 1910

Gabriele Münter

1877 - 1962

Movements: Expressionism

Landscape with Church II

1910

Pre-war

• Vasily Kandinsky, Composition VI, 1913, oil on canvas,195 x 300 cm

COMPOSITION 8 (KOMPOSITION 8), JULY 1923. OIL ON CANVAS, 55 1/8 X 79 1/8 INCHES (140 X 201 CM). SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW

YORK,SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDING COLLECTION, BY GIFT 37.262. © 2009 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/ADAGP, PARIS

“Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the

soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key

or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.”

-Kandinsky