Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wir überlegten uns unendlich lange: wohin? Schweiz? Italien? Amerika? Paris? Da die Lage des Kunsthandels heute überall wenig günstig ist, entschlossen wir uns für Paris, da es doch das Kunstzentrum der Welt ist und am meisten Möglichkeiten bietet, durch Bilderabsatz zu seinem Stückbrot zu kommen.
[We spent hours thinking where to go. Switzerland? Italy? America? Paris? Because the art market is so unfavourable everywhere today, we decided on Paris as it is still the centre of the art world and offers the best opportunities for earning a bite to eat from selling pictures. (ed. trans.)]
Wassily Kandinsky to Will Grohmann, 4 December 1933
| Born | on 4 December 1866 in Moscow |
|---|---|
| Died | on 13 December 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris |
| Exile | France |
| Profession | Painter |
On 16 December 1933, Wassily Kandinsky, a native Russian, emigrated from his new homeland of Germany. Here he had been part of The Blue Rider ("Der Blaue Reiter") group of artists and had found his way to abstract painting. Alarmed by the anti-modernist understanding of art propagated dictatorially by the Nazis, and having been unemployed since the closure of the Bauhaus, he and his wife Nina Kandinsky moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris.
His hopes of an early return diminished from year to year. From then on the painter of abstract works had to carve out a niche for himself in the multifaceted Parisian art scene, which at the time was strongly influenced by Cubism and Surrealism. He took up the challenge by creating art works, but also texts. Kandinsky received considerably more recognition at that time in the United States. Yet despite several offers he decided not to move there. He applied for French citizenship in 1939 following the expiry of his German passport. In the years of German occupation which followed he lived and worked almost reclusively.
From 1942 he could only paint on wood and cardboard due to the lack of canvas. By then, his artistic techniques had already developed a number of special characteristics while in French exile. Researchers have noted above all the change in his use of colour and the appearance of biological microorganisms as motifs in his work. However, Kandinsky's own guidelines, which he had formulated decades earlier - of resisting mimetic painting and supporting the abstract and the spiritual - remained unaffected by these modifications during his emigration.
Selection of important works:
Montée gracieuse (1934)
Composition IX (1936)
Composition X (1939)
Tensions délicate (1942)
Further reading:
Barnett, Vivian Endicott / Derouet, Christian / Messer, Thomas M. (Hrsg.): Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944, New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1985.
Illetschko, Georgia: Kandinsky und Paris. Die Geschichte einer Beziehung, München: Prestel 1997.
Friedel, Helmut (Hrsg.): Kandinsky. Absolut, abstrakt, München: Prestel 2008.
Gallery
