Wassily Kandinsky1866-1944

I applied streaks and blobs of colours onto the canvas with a palette knife and made them sing with all the intensity I could

Colour is the keyboard , the eyes are the harmonies, 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.

Wassily Kandinsky

• Born in Moscow, Russia in 1866.

• Was a lecturer in Law at University,(1895) in Russia but gave up his job to study painting in Munich.

• He was a member of the avante-garde painting group called the Blue Rider. Show his abstract style of paintings with the group.

• Kandinsky was very spiritual about his art making.

• He was commented as saying, That his belief in art is based on the harmony of colour and form.

• He believed that every colour had an inner voice and a meaning.

• He carefully plans each painting to express, through the colours and abstract forms, exactly the feelings and spiritual ideas he wishes to communicate.

"It was from the catalog I learned this was a haystack. I was upset I had not recognized it. I also thought the painter had no right to paint in such an imprecise fashion. Dimly I was aware too that the object did not appear in the picture..."

Claude MONET1840–1926Haystacks at Giverny, the evening sun 1888 (Morning Snow Effect)

The End of the Summer, at Giverny, 1891

Wassily Kandinsky. Volga Song. 1906. Tempera on cardboard. 49 x 66 cm. Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.

Russian Woman in a Landscape (1906)

Old Town II

Gabriele Munter

Gabriele Munter Painting in Kallmunz

Cemetery and Vicarage in Kochel

Picture XVI; The Great Gate of Kiev

Improvisation 26 (Oars) Oil on canvas, 1912 42.1" x 38.2

Study for Painting with White Lines (Bild mit weissen Linien), 1913. Watercolor, india ink, and pencil on paper, 15 11/16 x 14 1/8 inches

Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle)

1913; Oil on canvas, 145 x 119.7cm (57 x 47 in);

Small Pleasures 1913

Composition VII

To The Unknown Voice

Wassily Kandinsky, White Line, No. 232, oil on canvas, 1920.

Composition VIII 1923

On White II 1923

Wassily Kandinsky, Black and Violet, oil on canvas, 1923.

Contrasting Sounds

1924

Yellow, Red, Blue 1925

Wassily Kandinsky, Several Circles, oil on canvas, 1926.

Wassily Kandinsky, Softened Construction, oil on canvas, 1927.

Red Oval

On Points

Dominant Curve

Decisive Pink

Capricious

Around the Circle

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition X, oil on canvas, 1939.

Composition: Storm Guided student questions

What colours do you see?

What colours do you see the most of?

What types of lines do you see?

Does anything in this painting remind you of a storm?

How does this painting make you feel?

Is there any place in this painting that seems restful to you? How?

Would you like to be standing in the middle of this painting?

What do you think it would feel like? Why?