Wassily Kandinsky 1866-1944 Squares with Concentric Circles, 1913

"I applied streaks and blobs of colours onto the canvas with a palette knife and I made them sing with all the intensity I could..." Wassily Kandinsky "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." ~Wassily Kandinsky "There is no must in art because art is free." ~
Photo image from www.anthroposophie.net/ bibliothek/kunst/malerei/ kandinsky/bib_kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky

About the Artist: Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter who is considered to be the founder of abstract art. ! He was born in Moscow in 1866. His parents played the piano and the zither and he also played the piano and cello at an early age. He was very influenced by music. Many of his famous paintings have names that relate to music such as "Improvisations", "Impressions", and "Compositions." ! In 1886, he enrolled at the University of Moscow to study law and economics. In 1895 Kandinsky attended a French Impressionist exhibition where he saw Monet's "Haystacks at Giverny." This inspired him, at the age of thirty, to leave Moscow to go to Munich, Germany to study art. ! He worked under Anton Azb and Franz von Stuck to studying impressionist color. Between 1900 and 1910 Kandinsky traveled to places like Paris to see art from other famous painters like Paul Gauguin, the neoimpressionists, and styles, like fauvism (a style with aggressive use of brilliant colors). ! Kandinsky developed his own ideas. He painted his first abstract watercolor in 1910 and published a paper in 1912 that explored the psychological effects of color and made comparisons between painting and music. He became known as the founder of abstract art and his work was often controversial among art critics and even his friends. Kandinsky worked with the German painter Franz

Marc to organize exhibitions that were major events in the development of German expressionism. ! When World War I started, Kandinsky left Germany to return to Russia. He went back to Germany in 1921 to teach until the school was closed by the Nazi regime in 1933. Kandinsky moved near Paris, where he stayed until his death on Dec. 13, 1944. About the Painting (Questions to ask the students):

! How does this painting make you feel? ! What colors do you see? ! What shapes do you see? ! Was this painting easy or difficult for the artist to paint? ! Why is this painting called Color Study of Squares with Concentric Circles? ! If you were creating this painting what would you do differently?Are the shapes perfect? I applied streaks and blobs of colors onto the canvas with a palette knife and I made them sing with all the intensity I could... " -Kandinsky

Our emotions can color the way we actually see things in real life. When you're sad, sometimes it seems as though the whole world is gloomy. When you're feeling happy, the day can seem brighter and the colors of everything around you are more vivid. Here's something else to think about: if you were an artist, would you prefer sharing your feelings with others by painting a picture of something that they recognize (like a beach at sunset, a laughing child, a circus) or by using colors, shapes, and lines that don't "represent" anything specificthey are more like painted music. It's not an easy decision. Which would you choose?
Hands on Art Activity:

1. Start with a 9" x 12" paper, and have the students fold it in half; and then in thirds so that you have 2 rows of 3 squares. 2. Using oil pastels, have the students make a circle in the middle of each square and fill it. They then continue making circles around this dot until they reach the edge of the square. Encourage them to use different colors and widths for each circle. 3. After they are done with the pastels they can use watercolors to fill in each square.
Other paintings by Kandinsky:

Yellow, Red, Blue, 1925. Oil on canvas, 127x200cm

Contrasting Sounds, 1924. Oil on cardboard, 70x49.5cm

References: Websites: Http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kan dinsky/ Http://www.glyphs.com/art/kandinsky/ Http://www.sloth.ca/ kandinsky/artist.html NGA Adventures with Art: Wassily Kandinsky is an online activity looking at the shape and color in Wassily Kandinsky's "Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle)." http://www.nga.gov/kids/kandinsky/ kandinsky1.html