Page 58 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Vasily Kandinsky was born on December 16, 1866, in
Moscow. From 1886 through 1892 he studied law and
economics at the University of Moscow, and in 1889 he
undertook an ethnographic expedition in the Vologda
province in northern Russia. He later declined a teaching
position in order to study art in Munich with Anton Ažbe
from 1897 to 1899 and at the Kunstakademie with Franz von
Stuck in 1900. Kandinsky taught in 1901–03 at the art school
of the Phalanx, a group he cofounded in Munich. One of his
students, the German artist Gabriele Münter, would be his
companion until 1914. In 1902 Kandinsky exhibited for the
first time with the Berlin Secession and produced his first Irene Guggenheim, Kandinsky, Hilla Rebay, and Solomon R. Guggenheim,
Dessau, Germany, 1930. Photo: Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre
woodcuts. In 1903 and 1904 he began his travels in Italy,
Pompidou, Paris.
the Netherlands, and Tunisia and made visits to Russia. He
showed at the Salon d’Automne in Paris from 1904.
first show took place at Heinrich Thannhauser’s Moderne
In 1909 Kandinsky was elected president of the newly
Galerie in Munich later that year. In 1911 Kandinsky and
founded Neue Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM), whose
Franz Marc formed Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a
loose confederation of artists, writers, and musicians, and
Vasily Kandinsky, began to make plans for Der Blaue Reiter Almanac, although
Composition 8 (Komposition 8), July 1923. Oil on canvas, 55 1/4 x 79 the publication would not appear until the following year.
inches (140.3 x 200.7 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By gift 37.262

58 WORLD of ART