Kandinsky's Untitled Improvisation III

Wassily Kandinsky's Untitled Improvisation III (1914), a work owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, was done in oil paint on cardboard. The painting measures approximately 25 by 20 inches. This work is one of a series Kandinsky painted in the first years of his experiments with purely non-objective art. Kandinsky theorized about abstract painting and Untitled Improvisation III can be studied with reference to his theories about color and spirituality in art.

Kandinsky was born in Russia in 1866. He became a lawyer and it was not until he was thirty years old that he gave up a career as a legal scholar to become a painter. In 1896 he moved to Munich to take up his new career and, with trips to Paris, became familiar with the current trends in painting. In 1907 he exhibited with the early German expressionist group Die Brucke (The Bridge). Sometime between 1910 and 1912 he painted his first non-objective work--a watercolor. This work was long considered to be the first non-objective painting, but scholars have found other examples by other artists. But whether or not he was the inventor of totally abstract art, "he was certainly its outstanding pioneer" (Hughes 299).

In 1911 Kandinsky, with the German painters August Macke and Franz Marc, formed the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) group. They were later joined by Paul Klee. These expressionist artists painted, promoted, and theorized about abstract art. In 1912, Kandinsky published his book, Concerning the

Related Essays

Vasily Kandinsky There is some controversy over who made the first non-objective painting and Vasily Kandinsky is sometimes given credit for the accomplishment. .... (2947 12 )

Expressionism as an Artistic Movement .... The Blue Rider was formed in Munich and major artists of that group included Franz Marc and the Russian Vasily Kandinsky. Swiss-born .... (791 3 )

Proto-Abstract Expressionism .... pays special attention to the transformation of early influences as in the relationships between Pollock and Benton, Rothko and Avery, and Gorky and Kandinsky. .... (2695 11 )

Sexuality in the Arts .... One male artist openly confided his views on art in terms of sexual connotation: "Kandinsky evokes the practice of painting as a rape scene--the violation of .... (2835 11 )

German Expressionism Ger .... Heibel, Yule F. "They Danced on Volcanoes: Kandinsky's Breakthrough to Abstraction, the German Avant-Garde and the Eve of the First World War." Art History 12(3 .... (2935 12 )

s", would stop as "all political and social power would be subsumed in spiritual contemplation, and universal enlightenment would reign" (Hughes 299). The millennial fantasy has had many versions. Hughes mentions, Marxist, Christian, and Nazi ideas related to the notion. But Blavatsky's version guided Kandinsky in his belief that "a special art was obviously needed for these special times to come" (Hughes 299). While art would not be necessary after the Millennium, it was a primary means of preparing people to "think and see in terms of immaterial forms, rather than perceived objects like apples or nudes" (Hughes 299). Kandinsky was also very interested in the Symbolist idea of synaesthesia in which the various senses could transfer among sensations as, for example, color that could be 'heard.' His interest in color was of great importance and he believed, like many Romantic artists before him, that "color could directly influence the human soul" (Selz 318). In his system, for example, blue was a "heavenly" color and, in paintings, it retreated from the viewer, beckoning to "the infinite" and "arousing a longing for purity" (Selz 318). Yellow was an earth color with no particular meaning, white symbolized beginnings in

Category: Arts - K