Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (16 December 1866 – 13 December 1944) was a Russian-born painter and art theorist who is widely credited as one of the pioneers of purely abstract painting — the radical proposition that visual art could express spiritual and emotional states through colour, form, and composition alone, without any reference to the visible world. His theoretical treatise Concerning the Spiritual in Art (Über das Geistige in der Kunst, 1911) articulated the intellectual foundation for this revolution and remains one of the most influential texts in the history of modern art.

Life

Kandinsky was born in Moscow into a wealthy, cultivated family. He studied law and economics at the University of Moscow and was offered a professorship in jurisprudence, which he declined. At thirty, he abandoned a promising academic career to study painting in Munich — a decision triggered, he later said, by two experiences: seeing one of Monet’s Haystacks at an exhibition (which made him realise that a painting could move the viewer without depicting a recognisable object) and attending a performance of Wagner’s Lohengrin (which convinced him that music and painting could achieve similar effects through different means).

In Munich, he studied at the Azbé school and the Munich Academy, founded the Phalanx artists’ group, and travelled extensively. He was a central figure in the Munich avant-garde, co-founding the influential Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group in 1911 with Franz Marc. The group — which also included August Macke, Paul Klee, and others — sought a synthesis of the arts based on spiritual expression rather than naturalistic representation.

After the outbreak of World War I, Kandinsky returned to Russia, where he briefly held institutional positions under the Soviet government. He left Russia in 1921 and joined the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he taught from 1922 to 1933 alongside Klee, Josef Albers, and László Moholy-Nagy. When the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933, he moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, where he lived until his death.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911)

Kandinsky’s most important theoretical work argues that art should aspire to the condition of music — expressing inner states directly through sensory means, without the intermediary of representation. He develops a theory of colour in which each colour has specific psychological and spiritual properties: yellow is “warm, cheeky, exciting”; blue is “deep, peaceful, supernatural”; red is “alive, restless, confident.” He argues that the artist’s task is not to copy nature but to express “inner necessity” — the spiritual impulse that demands a particular combination of colour and form.

The book is simultaneously mystical, systematic, and polemic. Kandinsky draws on theosophy, Steiner, Goethe’s colour theory, and his own synaesthetic experiences (he associated specific colours with specific musical sounds). The treatise provided the theoretical justification for abstract art and was enormously influential on subsequent painters, designers, and educators.

Point and Line to Plane (1926)

Kandinsky’s second major theoretical work, published as part of the Bauhaus book series, extends his analysis to the fundamental elements of visual art: the point (a static element), the line (a point set in motion), and the plane (the surface on which the composition exists). The book is more analytical and systematic than Concerning the Spiritual in Art and reflects the influence of the Bauhaus emphasis on rigorous formal analysis.

The Art

Kandinsky’s painting evolved through several distinct phases. His early work (before 1910) is figurative, influenced by Russian folk art and Art Nouveau. The transitional period (1910–1913) — which includes the Compositions, Improvisations, and Impressions — marks the emergence of full abstraction, with increasingly non-representational forms and intensely saturated colour. The Bauhaus period (1922–1933) is more geometric, cooler, and more precisely structured, reflecting the school’s rationalist atmosphere. The Paris period (1933–1944) introduced biomorphic forms — organic, amoeba-like shapes — that anticipated aspects of later abstract art.

Influence and Legacy

Kandinsky’s influence on the development of abstract art is incalculable. His theoretical writings provided the intellectual framework that made abstraction intellectually defensible, and his paintings demonstrated that non-representational art could achieve emotional and spiritual depth. His work at the Bauhaus helped establish the integration of art and design education that persists to this day.

Collecting Kandinsky

Über das Geistige in der Kunst (1911, R. Piper Verlag, Munich) in first German edition brings $1,000–$5,000. Punkt und Linie zu Fläche (1926, Albert Langen Verlag, Bauhaus book series) brings $300–$1,500. English translations are more affordable. Original Kandinsky artworks bring $1,000,000–$40,000,000+ at auction.