Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky could have been the premier plagiarise guileist of the 20th century is a world at state of war had no twice interfered with his artistic career and destroyed triple of his early on whole shebang. Kandinsky was born in Russia in 1866 and soon moved to Germany where he run lowed with the Bauhaus groom of discourseionist painters integrating art in architecture and design (Artcyclopedia). He excessively founded the Der Blaue Reiter, a group of artists tasteing to express and define spirituality by means of art (Artcyclopedia) Kandinsky believed that music and art should be integrated as a well as a means of defining the influence of the intelligence on the satellite world. To that end, he began his series called Composition and had finished 7 of them before the beginning of World struggle II. Tragically, the first-class honours degree three canvases in the series were destroyed during the war. While Kandinsky could not have planned for the demolition of his work, the loss of the first three Composition pieces helps complete the series as an allegory for his life, the ultimate tribute to a man who believe art should be spiritual.At the only quantify in recent history when the total collection, with full-size corrosive and white photos of the lost three holding their place, was displayed, reader Mark harden called Kandinsky one of he most original and authoritative artists of the 20th century. His inner necessity to express his steamy perceptions led to the outgrowth of an abstract style of characterisation that was based on the non-representational properties of colouration and socio-economic class. Kandinskys compositions were the closing of his efforts to create a pure painting that would provide the same emotional power as a musical composition.The exhibition Kandinsky Compositions, organized by Magdalena Dabrowski and on display at the Los Angeles County Art Museum until September 3, 1995, presents these monumental works together for the first and possibly pass away time and provides an opportunity to witnesser the notional process of Kandinsky (Harden, 1995). The loss of the first three works and the attempt at representing them in the show leftover the viewer with a ample sense of loss, Harden wrote, but perhaps more than interesting is the item they were lost at sometime near the artists demise in 1944. That they were destroyed in Germany during the war as some overmuch of his life had been as well simply adds an ironic twist to the immaculate project.The other twist on the Composition series is that the last-place painting is the only one of the series done on a disconsolate background. In 1911, when he was working on Composition IV and V, Kandinsky is quoted as saying, (Black) is like the silence of the body after death, the close of life. (Harden, 1995) He multi- food colour Composition X on a black background save five years before his death, when Germany was once again d isrupting the world and taking the world back to war.By 1911, Kandinsky was already a world-renowned painter and known for his rely to incorporate spirituality into his art but as tension pink wine in europium, he softened to his inherent Moscow where he remained until 1921. Compositions VI and septette would be completed in 1913 and then he did not return to the series until a decade late. (Geggenheim, 2007). Composition VII is the pinnacle of Kandinskys pre-World War One artistic achievement. The creation of this work involved over xxx preparatory drawings, watercolors and oil studies. Each of these is included in the exhibition, documenting the deliberate creative process used by Kandinsky in his compositions. Amazingly, once he had completed the preparatory work, Kandinsky executed the actual painting of Composition VII in less than four days. (Harden, 1995).Composition VII may have also been intend to be his finale in the series as art scholars through with(predicate) Kandinskys writings and study of the less abstract preparatory works, have primed(p) that Composition VII combines the themes of The Resurrection, The Last Judgment, The Deluge and The Garden of Love in an operatic outburst of pure painting (Harden, 1995). Be reason Kandinsky had such a blind drunk belief in the use of abstraction to present underlying themes with symbols and it is apparent that he had intended this wrapping up of religious themes to be his final work in the series (Long, 1975). Then, he began his self-imposed exile to his native land and stayed there until it appeared Germany was a haven again for thought and impart.In 1922, he joined Bauhaus and in 1923, painted Compositions VIII, like all the works in the series it was highly representational of his emotions and mental state at the time of its painting. Composition VIII reflects the influence of Suprematism and Constructivism absorbed by Kandinsky while in Russia prior to his return to Germany to teach at the Bauhaus. Here, Kandinsky has moved from color to make up as the dominating compositional fixings. Contrasting forms now provide the energising balance of the work the large circle in the upper left plays against the network of precise lines in the right portion of the canvas. (Harden, 1975) This work also is more bright and less chaotic than his final pre-war effort, possible indicatory of a more upbeat and spiritual peaceful time. Kandinsky was making progress in his work, developing with the group at Bauhaus and gaining additional international acclaim. His first solo show in New York coincided with this work (Guggenheim, 2007).Perhaps this perceived gratification and his involvement in other pursuits is why it would be another 10 years before Kandinsky added another painting to the Compositions series. He gained citizenship in Germany in 1928 and seemed contented in his new homeland until 1933 when Bauhaus was one of the early casualties of the national socialist government . He then moved to France where his Composition IX was definitely influenced by the surrealists gaining popularity there (Harden, 1995). After Composition IX was completed in 1936, Europe once again became an ugly place to live and in 1937, 57 of Kandinskys works were seized by the Nazi government.(Guggenheim, 2007). Some, like the first three Composition pieces, were destroyed.Two years later, in 1939, Kandinsky completed the series, breaking from all the preceding(prenominal) works and creating his work on a field of black. Given his foregoing statements about the color and the loss of his other works, it is no doubt a reflection of the actually pain in Kandinskys soul brought on by the second World War. The outstanding characteristic of Composition X is obviously the stark, black ground. The colors and forms appear particularly sharp against the black background. The brilliance of the colored shapes brings to mind the cutouts done by Matisse over a decade later.The movement of the forms is distinctly upward and outward from both sides of a central axis running through the book-like form near the illuminate of the canvas. This movement enhances the evocation of hot-air balloon forms rising into an infinite space. The round form between the book shape and the brown balloon shape has a lunar tone to it that even up conveys a feeling of literal outer space. Kandinsky had always expressed a strong dislike for the color black and it is significant that he chose it as the dominating color of his last major artistic statement. (Harden, 1995).Ultimately, the reviewer is right and the final Composition is kandinskys statement about his loss and the world at war. For Kandinsky, if that objective element of a painting were taken away, the building blocks of the composition would reveal themselves to cause a feeling of repose and tranquil repetition, of well-balanced parts. (Dabrowski, 1995). The artist played out a lifetime telling the world that he disliked the c olor black and that his work was all about the symbolism and the meaning substructure the painting itself. It makes perfect sense then that his final major work would be about death itself and the life that has been interposed over it. Whether Kandinsky knew that Compositions X would be among his final works is not clear.What is clear is that death too is symbolic of loss and pain, emotions that the highly spiritual Kadinsky could not help but feel when his work was captured by the Nazi regime. Perhaps more so than even the usual artist, Kandinsky was tied to his art, deeply and emotional. That they were an expression of his belief system and his very soul make the loss of the first three Compositions even more tragic.Sadly, World War II was a horrible time for the vast works, with many works of art lost forever to the savages of war. The difference in Kandinskys work, as opposed to other great masters, is that the artist was noneffervescent alive and he was able to present one last finale, to express the pain and rage and the destruction and to show that life, even without art, must sometimes go on.WORKS CITEDDabrowski, Magdelena. KandinskyCompositions Museum of Modern art New York, 1995.Geggenheim Museum, http//www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_71.html, no(prenominal)ember 14, 2007Harden, Mark. Kandinsky Compositions http//www.glyphs.com/art/kandinsky/, November 14, 2007.Long, Rose-Carol Washton. Kandinskys overcharge Style The Veiling of Apocalyptic Folk Imagery,Art Journal Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring, 1975), pp. 217-228 Stable URL http//links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0004-3249%28197521%2934%3A3%3C217%3AKASTVO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4 , November 14, 2007.Wassily Kandinsky November 14, 2007.