Together they developed a variety of Expressionism notable for its rich colors. Kandinsky, however, wanted to go further, and continued to push his work to the edge of abstraction, and then beyond it, becoming one of the founders of twentieth-century abstract art.

In the years before World War I, the Russian-born painter Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944), then living in Germany, formed with the artist Franz Marc and others the group known as the Blue Rider. Together they developed a variety of Expressionism notable for its rich colors. Kandinsky, however, wanted to go further, and continued to push his work to the edge of abstraction, and then beyond it, becoming one of the founders of twentieth-century abstract art. No longer limited to the natural appearances of things, Kandinsky exploited the expressive power of color and of complex, intertwined lines to create his own visual world.

In the 1920s and early 1930s, Kandinsky taught at the renowned German school of art and design known as the Bauhaus. After the closing of the Bauhaus by the Nazis in 1933, he left Germany for Paris. In the years between the wars, Kandinsky's work became more geometric, as he sought to make his art more rigorous and disciplined. Yet his essentially otherworldly temperament can still be felt in these later works, giving his geometric compositions--with their towering, triangular peaks and floating orbs--a sense of being an orderly, self-contained universe. Rotating spheres revolve in space like the planets of an imaginary solar system.

KANDINSKY AND ABSTRACTION

VASILY KANDINSKY, 1866-1944

SELECTED BIOGRAPHY

FORMATIVE INFLUENCES

DEVELOPMENTS IN MUNICH

ABANDONING REPRESENTATION

NON-OBJECTIVE PAINTING

THE FOLKLORIC IMAGINATION

A MORE RIGOROUS STYLE

POINT AND LINE TO PLANE

A NEW FREEDOM

LIST OF WORKS