How did Wassily Kandinsky influence colour theory and influence abstract artists during the first half of the twentieth century?
Russia's Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) is widely considered to have been one of the first major abstract painters, and the development of his style from music-based colour theory to compositional abstraction serves to illustrate the way in which European art progressed in the first half of the twentieth century from Impressionism to Expressionism. As the use of figurative representation faded from his work over the years, Kandinsky became more and more interested in the use of overlapping colours and forms to create a synthesis of various different artistic styles, and he backed this experimentation up with a substantial body of theoretical writing, much of which was published during his lifetime. In particular, Kandinsky can be seen as a central figure in the 1940's synthesis of Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism that ultimately led to the formalisation of abstract work across Europe.
At the heart of Kandinsky's work was a process he called 'inner necessity' - the deep contemplation of intense theoretical and spiritual matters he felt were essential to his art. In part, 'inner necessity' was Kandinsky's way of probing his attraction to colour, and much of his early theoretical work can now be broadly aligned with the philosophy of colour symbolism, a key element of early twentieth century art that inspired many painters at the time and can be seen in, for example, Kandinsky's 'Munich-Schwabing with the Church of St. Ursula' (1908). Although Kandinsky's work in this period did not stretch to pure abstraction, he nevertheless recognised the possibility of separating colour from representation, a concept he felt had already been utilised by many of the Impressionists.
Kandinsky was also developing a theory of painting based on music, noting that "colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano... and the artist is the hand that plays, causing many vibrations in the soul" (Bowlt & Long, 1984, p. 35). Such a theory was not only part of Kandinsky's wider study of inner beauty in art; it was also reflective of a growing trend in European art at the time, which was the search for a way of unifying all the arts under a single, distinct philosophy. Countless experiments in this concept were taking place all over the continent at the time, and although no unified theory ever developed, this experimentation has to be taken into account when considering the development of painting and other forms of art during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Music, in particular, influenced Kandinsky's increasgingly abstract work between 1896 and 1910. Recognising that music, by its nature, is abstract, Kandinsky sought to develop a music-based method of painting, culminating in his masterpiece 'Der Blaue Reiter' (The Blue Rider) (1903), which uses an abstract pointilist style to emphasise the colour composition and suggest, rather than strictly delineate, the composition of the painting's subject. Forms and lines overlap, and there are numerous points of debate within the painting: for example, is the rider holding a baby, or is it merely a shadow? In many ways, 'Der Blaue Reiter' can be seen as a crucial juncture between Kandinsky's earlier representational pieces and his later, more abstract and synthetic works.
By the time of his arrival at the German Bauhaus art school in the 1920's, Kandinsky's work had become even more abstract and compositional. Starting with 'Composition VII' (1913), he had begun to experiment with using primary colours and bold, overlapping shapes, and his work now tended to feature allusions to physical forms rather than actual representations. At the Bauhaus, he explored simple geometrical shape such as the circle, half-circle and diagonal line, combining them with the strong use of colour to form images that are simultaneously discordant and harmonious. By the time he moved to Paris in 1934, he was using biomorphic forms in his work and creating colour compositions that reflected his theories regarding music and colour. This put him somewhat at odds with the dominant cubist and Impressionist movements that were popular in Paris at the time, but he persisted and work such as 'Composition X' (1939) show a high degree of synthesis between his various styles he had earlier developed separately.
Kandinsky died in France in 1944, and was by this time recognised as a pioneer of expressionistic and abstract art. In fact, most modern art historians now consider him to have been the first major abstract painter in European history, and his work on colour theory influenced the next generation of Expressionists. However, while Kandinsky was undoubtedly a great and important theoretician, this should not overshadow his prowess as a painter, and many of his pieces still have great compositional and abstract power. The narrative development of his style can be seen as a summation of the development of abstract painting during the first half of the twentieth century, and he influenced a number of other key abstract painters during this period, including Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee and Jean Miro. In particular, Kandinsky can be seen as one of the most important proponents of colour theory, which came to increasingly dominate twentieth century art.
You might also be interested in this essay on Piet Mondrian.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bowlt, John E. & Rose-Carol Washton Long (1984). 'The Life of Wassily Kandinsky in Russian Art'. Newtonville: Oriental Research Partners
Messer, Thomas M. (1997). 'Wassily Kandinsky'. New York: Harry N. Abrams
Webber, Julian Lloyd (2006). 'Seeing Red, Looking Blue, Feeling Green', in 'The Daily Telegraph', 6th July 2006
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