Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky 
Russia
1866–1944
Practice: Painting, Graphic art
Movement/Style: Expressionism, Abstract art, The Bauhaus

Russian painter, printmaker and graphic artist Wassily Kandinsky is credited for creating the first purely abstract works, and as the forefather or pioneer of Abstract art. Considered to be one of the great Modernists, Kandinsky was also a teacher at the Bauhaus school. Kandinsky’s use of colour is the opposite of my use of black and white, while at the same time having notable similarities.

I use monotone/black and white to encourage in the viewing a very personal interpretation and free emotional connection with the work – I believe that by applying colour is to imply a pre-determined emotional state. Kandinsky, on the other hand, uses abstract form, applying many colours to the work, my personal interpretation of this is that there is such an abundance of shape, texture and colour that it removes any given, or predetermined, emotional state thus, as in my own work, enabling the viewer freedom of interpretation and emotional connection.

As a live music photographer, my primary goal is to photograph energy, sound and emotion over and above any given subject. 

Discovering that Kandinsky referred to colour as sound and music as art was an added bonus.

The Kandinsky website quotes the Modernist master: “With few exceptions, music has been for some centuries the art which has devoted itself not to the reproduction of natural phenomena, but rather to the expression of the artist's soul, in musical sound.” (Kandinsky n.d.)

Wassily Kandinsky, Moderation, 1940

Keywords

Wassily Kandinsky, Bauhaus, Painting, Graphic art, Abstract, Expressionism, Colour, Form, Music, Sound, Community of practice, Abstraction, Emotive, Sound, Energy, Music, Tone, Energy, Kinetics, Obscurity, 2-dimensional, Organised chaos, Structure

References

Kandinsky, W n.d., Quotes, viewed 14 April 2020, <https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/quotes.php>

Kandinsky, W 1940, Moderation, painting, viewed 14 April 2020, <https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/vasily-kandinsky>

Manhattan Arts International n.d., Wassily Kandinsky, viewed 14 April 2020, <https://manhattanarts.com/wassily-kandinsky/>

Tate n.d., Wassily Kandinsky, viewed 14 April 2020, < https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/wassily-kandinsky-1382>