1866-1944, abstract expressionist, co-founder of the artist group "The Blue Rider" Kandinsky has, like no other, the written "Alphabet of 20th century art". In his abstract painting he brought the original force of colour and composition without the distraction of mapping of object effect. The mystery of life could be captured and represented only by the abstract clash of colour and graphic form in his opinion.

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and died in 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. The Economist and lawyer decided in 1896 with his relocation to Munich, finally for an artistic career and began the study of art there. In 1901 he founded time school "Phalanx", he met his future partner of the Munich years Gabriele Munter. Many travels through Europe and Tunis marked its artistic possibilities of expression through the various impressions. Gabriele Munter bought a house in Murnau in 1909, this was a longer period of stay in the town and in Munich.

Kandinsky's early Munich pictures were under the influence of Art Nouveau and the Russian folk art, whose fairy-tale themes long worked in his works after. The glass paintings of the co-founder of the "New Artists' Association Munich" from 1909 and the “The Blue Rider “of 1911 reflect Kandinsky impressions of popular Bavarian art tradition.

During the First World War, the Russians held back on in Moscow. In 1922 he returned to Germany and played a decisive role at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau. Ultimately, it took Kandinsky however to Paris. He lived from 1933 with his wife, whom he had married in Russia, until his death in the metropolis on the Seine.

The encounter with the Russian constructivists showed his mark in Kandinsky's work through geometry and lines that are in dynamic tension with each other. In his theoretical writings he outlined the fundamental harmony of abstract art. The close relationship between music and painting discovered the viewer not only in his paintings, but it is also underlined by the composer Kandinsky: "Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, and the soul is the sound body with many strings. The artist is the virtuoso who brings the soul to vibrate with its grips ...”

Artistic movement that replaced the Impressionism in the early 20th century.

Expressionism is the German form of the art revolution in painting, graphics and sculpture, which found its precursor in the works of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in the late 19th century. The Expressionists tried to advance to the basic elements of painting. With vibrant, unbroken colors in large areas and with the emphasis on line and the resulting targeted suggestive expressiveness they fought against the artistic taste established by bourgeoisie.

The most important representatives of Expressionism were the founders of "Die Brücke" (The Bridge): Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller and Franz Marc, August Macke, among others.

Masters of Viennese Expressionism are Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.

The Fauvism is the French form of Expressionism.

Related Links:
Brücke
Fauvism