Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866. He studied economics and law at the University of Moscow before becoming a professor.

He was 30 before he went to Munich, Germany and began to truly study art. He focused, at first, on creating sketches and studies of human bodies.

He settled in Germany after World War I where he taught art at the Bauhaus school and painted until the Nazis came into power. At that point (1933), he went back to France where he remained for the rest of his life.

On a somewhat-side note, the Nazis took some of Kandinsky’s paintings, displayed them in a collection of art they deemed inappropriate and unworthy, and then destroyed the paintings. The exhibition was called “Degenerate Art.” I will post more about this tomorrow.

Kandinsky’s earliest paintings were quite realistic. Then he moved into a style similar to that of the Impressionists before he began creating completely abstract paintings. Yesterday I used Monet’s Water Lilies to show this movement toward the abstract. Today, you can see that Kandinsky developed the same way except that Kandinsky became a truly abstract artist in the end. Check out Olga’s Kandinsky Gallery for pictures. All (or at least most) of his works are posted there in order. As you click through the pages, you can clearly see Kandinsky’s work become more and more abstract.

Kandinsky was especially interested in color, even as a child. Beginning in his earlier, more realistic paintings, Kandinsky used color to show emotion rather than to make objects look real. As he grew as an artist, Kandinsky became more concerned with the power of color in describing what he was feeling. He wanted to use color to make his viewers feel emotion, too.

Gradually, Kandinsky became more abstract. He began to paint objects as patches of color instead of painting perfect details such as facial features or individual leaves on trees. Remember that Kandinsky studied the human body and knew how to paint people well. He liked the abstract more than the realistic. As he grew as an artist, his figures became less realistic until the viewer could no longer identify known objects in his paintings.

Kandinsky was trying to create the same effect on a viewer of his paintings as a beautiful piece of music has on a listener. When you listen to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, for example, you don’t see snow or swirling fall leaves, or a muddy spring garden after a rain storm. You feel the seasons happening but you don’t actually see them. This is what Kandinsky was trying to do in his paintings.

Kandinsky’s ideas about art are possibly more important than even the paintings he created. He wrote three books about his ideas.

There are two Kandinsky projects posted at Art Projects for Kids. They both look pretty good but I’ve only tried this one, not this one. If you do either of the projects, please comment about your experience. I would love to hear about it and other readers would benefit from your comments as well. Happy creating!


EDITED TO ADD: Practice Geometry Using Kandinky's Art

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29 comments:

Molly said...

Tis was a very intresting website and i am doing a Kndinsky art project and it has helped me alot. I don't think I need to go on another website because this one was brilliant.

Molly

Kalli said...

I'm a local Bucks County, Pennsylvania artist and came across your website/blog while researching Kandinsky with my son. I love your website. Thank you! Last year my 5 year old did a few inspired art projects in his private Kindergarten art class while studying famous artists. This year, in public school, he is still talking about Kandinsky, he had a impact on his impressional mind. Thanks again,
Kalli Nicholas-Haeflein
Handmade Greeting Card Desiner and retail website owner of http://www.winterberrycards.com

Jessica said...

Wow. Thanks for sharing that story, Kalli. I'm happy my site could help your son discover a great artist and I hope he finds many more artists to love as he grows.

Gummy Google said...

I have a homework to do on Wassily Kandinsky. This website is the best (I really mean "The BEST") website of Kandinsky I've ever been to!!!☺ ☻ ☺ ☻ :D (Smiley!)
All the other websites are so boring to read and all so complicated to me (sorry to other websites!), but I have finally found a wonderful website to look at! This is SOOOOOOOOO GREAT!!!!

Anonymous said...

i'm doin an art project at school and this site has come in very handy for finding facts to include in my presentation:)

The Sinai Academy said...

Hi I just did the Torn Paper from the Fabulous blog Art Projects for Kids. with my Grade 1's They LOVED it THANKS for the inspiration and great info. Love from Cape Town!

Kaecey said...

Thanks for offering such a great site! I am a homeschool mom to four and we are currently studying Kandinsky. We've done a few projects from the blog you mention, and your bio and links have been a wonderful tool. =)

Anonymous said...

oh my god !! i have no idea who you are bu thank youu so much for this, i have homework for textiles on KAndinsky due in tomorrow.. you are a complete life saver. plus you dont usse big word you use paragraphs correctly and you only tell us theimportant stuff instead of the whole he went to school at blah blah blah. Thankyouu soo much love Beckyy xxxx

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I am 12 years old and I am doing an art project of Kandinsky.
This page was great!!
I think better than wikipeda because I didnt understan wikipedia.Thanks!!!

A girl said...

thx i found this really useful

Anonymous said...

awesome!!!
i actually understood it all!!!
im soo happy
i had an art project due today and i didnt do it so now i have to make a poster in one day
this is really good for fast info.
:)

Anonymous said...

Very informative.. in fact, so informative that i probably don't need to go to another website. im doing an art homework in school that's due in for today soo... THANKS! this is ARTastic!!! :D

WIS student
UAE

Anonymous said...

this was great thx soooooooooo much!!

Anastasia said...

i really love this art it is really cool

Lucy said...

WOW Thanks sooo much hope ill use this site moremy art teacher will be sooo happy.thank you again and keep on doing more!!!

Lucy

Robie said...

thank you, I used this for my homework at school :) You helped me alot. I just need one more fact though, lol.

Anonymous said...

wow this website has helped a lot it was so useful thanks a lot. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this website ! (: I'm doing a art project about Kandinsky and other painters and this website helped me a lot
I'm from Spain , but I'm in a Bilingual class and this is perfect! ^^

Anonymous said...

This kid ( my 11 yr. old son) is "too clever" even for Wikipedia, so as his project he decided to colour the whole page, while I am reading the facts... Hopefully something will stick, although art teacher may not like the meaning of colour...Good site

Anonymous said...

i have homework on kandinsky and this site has helped alot!

thanks xx

Anonymous said...

Very helpful!

Anonymous said...

This was very intersting and it has helped me a lot on my project thanks xxx

Anonymous said...

hi i'm Amy
I am doing a project at school on kandinsky.we have to do a A3 piece of work on him and make a canvas painting.well you never really no if wikipedia is a good site so i am glad i found you.
thank you very much because our teacher didnt really give us alot of information!

Anonymous said...

thanx so much !! this website really helped me !!

Anonymous said...

Wow thanks, this website realy helped me on my art project. :) :D xxx

Anonymous said...

Hi IAM Alice,

This website really helped because i couldnt find any other websites that were any good to me,i was just about to give up when i found this website and i thought wow this is really going to help with my project for school. thanks

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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