Kandinskys Art :: Wassily Kandinsky Artists Painters Essays

Since my first encounter with Kandinskys art I was amazed by theircomplexity and constantly wondered about the creative and intellectualmind, which was responsible for them. The few books I managed to findon Kandinsky were extremely useful as they outlined his entire careerand had a substantial amount of illustrations. There were also anumber of websites available on the Internet, which containedcritiques from other art historians, critics and fellow artists fromaround the world. But there is not a large number of his paintingsavailable in Britain therefore could only experience his art at firsthand on three occasions. If I were to attempt this coursework again Iwould perhaps try to widen my research by travelling outside of theU.K. and experiencing at first hand some of Kandinskys more than grandpieces, in order to fully feel their effects.IntroductionUpon my first encounter with Kandinskys painting, my eyes and indeedmy mind were overcome with a sense of puzzlement, as it seemedi mpossible to decipher what lay beneath his passionate use of colourand distorted forms. Kandinsky hoped by freeing colour from itsrepresentational restrictions, it, like music could adjure up aseries of emotions in the soul of viewer, reinforced by correspondingforms. Throughout this essay, I will follow Kandinskys quest for apure, purloin art and attempt to determine whether his passionatebelief in this spiritual art and his theories on its effects on thesoul, can truly be mat up and appreciated by the average viewer, who atfirst glance would most likely view Kandinskys paintings as simplyabstract.Kandinsky was indeed a visionary, an artist who by histheoretical ideas of creating a new pictorial language sought torevolutionize the art of the twentieth-century. Regarded as thefounder of abstract painting, he broke free from liberal arts traditionallimitations and invented the first painting for paintings sake,whereby the dissolution of the object and subsequent promotion ofcolou r and form became means of expression in their own right. Thistheory stemmed from his fundamental belief of the importance of aspiritual art, which could be extracted only from the inner voiceof the artist. Kandinsky believed that this spiritual domain wasindestructible and therefore had the utmost positive power tocreate artistic messages that were as alive and pure as nature. Hispreoccupation with music and the freedom of expression that itprovided, fascinated Kandinsky and inspired his observations on thesounds of colours, a theory based on an idea that these colours hada psychological effect on the viewer similar to the emotional effectcreated by a musical composition.Kandinsky the RussianBorn in Moscow in 1866, Wassily Kandinsky would spend the majority of