Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky, who was born in Russia, is recognized as a leader in avant-garde art and as one of the founders of pure abstraction in painting in the early 20th century.

Kandinsky approached colour with a musician's feeling and a fascination with Monet led him to explore his own creative theories of colour on canvas, although sometimes with his colleagues and critics, in the early 20th century, Kandinsky developed as a respected leader of the abstract art movement.

Lake Starnberg

1908

kandinsky was one of the pioneers of abstract painting, and believed he was capable of expressing a higher spiritual and emotional reality. It was in 1908, he made this painting, using areas of vibrant colour instead to inspire emotion in the viewer. During this time, the natural landscape and folk arts of southern Bavaria provided inspiration as well as his everyday subject-matter. Lake Starnberg is close to Munich, where Kandinsky lived since 1896, slowly establishing himself as an artist. 

Cossacks 

1910-1911

He believed that abstract paintings could give a spiritual and emotional values simply through the arrangement of colours and lines. Cossacks was made during a temporary era. When he had taken some realistic elements such as the two Russian cavalyrmen in tall orange hats in the foreground of the painting. Kandinsky considered these as points at which the images could be registered, rather than the true content of the painting.

Swinging 

1925

The title of swinging takes the painting's sense of vibrant movement, reminding us about the rhythms of modernity. Kandinsky perfected a mystical approach to art. His piece is about the spiritual in Art, published in 1911, argued for art that had nothing to do with the material world. He felt that what unrestricted art from reality was the use of colour.

Tate . 2014. Cossacks. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/kandinsky-cossacks-n04948. [Accessed 21 May 14].

Bio. 2014. Wassily Kandinsky . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/wassily-kandinsky-9359941#awesm=~oEVKxjTGVnBcmh. [Accessed 21 May 14].