Wassily Kandinsky

Born in Russia, Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was one of the most original and influential artists to emerge in the twentieth century. He is known primarily for his daring use of color in startling non-objective works. Vasily Kandinsky: A Colorful Life is the most comprehensive and fully illustrated account to date of his early work, from 1900 to 1914, the period in which he made his radical shift to abstraction - and in so doing altered the very concept of art itself. The works presented here are from the collection of the city museum of Munich, or Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. They were given to the Galerie in 1957 by the artist Gabriele Munter, who was Kandinsky's companion from 1903 to the beginning of World War I. They are being shown at the Galerie in their entirety for the first time in a major exhibition, for which this book serves as the catalogue. In compelling, readable text that draws on the latest research, noted Kandinsky expert Vivian Endicott Barnett illuminates the life and work of the artist. She begins with sketches made during his student years in Munich and considers also his interest in folk art, myths and fairy tales, the small oil studies from nature, medieval scenes, woodcuts, glass paintings and landscapes he made before progressing to the first abstractions. Included as well are the important paintings from the series of Improvisations, Impressions, and Compositions, which are among the highlights of his involvement with the Blue Rider group, and later works from his Bauhaus and Paris years. This sumptuous book includes more than 700 examples of Kandinsky's early genius, most of them brilliantly reproduced in full color. The works are organized chronologically, and paintings are accompanied, when relevant, by preliminary sketches and prints.

The ill-starred love affair between Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Munter is one of the most intriguing episodes in the history of twentieth-century art - a story of happiness and pain, trust and betrayal, idyllic harmony and bitter conflict, set against the backdrop of the revolutionary upheavals that attended the birth of Modernism. Living and working together in Munich and in the Bavarian countryside, Kandinsky and Munter jointly became the moving spirits of the Blue Rider school, which pioneered the epochal turn from figurative painting to abstraction. This book traces the development of the couple's personal and artistic relationship from its beginnings in 1902 to the key moment in 1914 when Kandinsky fled Germany and returned to his native Russia, before finally abandoning Munter in 1917. The fascinating and often moving story of their life together - and of the underlying tensions that eventually drove them apart - is told in letters (some of which are published here for the first time), in diary extracts and memoirs, and in superb reproductions of their finest paintings and sketches.

"Here, available for the first time in paperback are all of Kandinsky's writings on art, newly translated into English. Editors Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo have taken their translations directly from Kandinsky's original texts, and have included selected interviews, lecture notes, and newly discovered items along with his more formal writings"--Page 4 of cover.

A collection os woodcuts, etchings and lithographs by the early 20th century artist.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition "Art of tomorrow : Hilla Rebay and Solomon R. Guggenheim" held May 20-August 10, 2005 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. This exhibition brings to light Rebay's multifaceted career as artist, curator and collector and honours her achievements as the first director of the Guggenheim Museum.