Russian (later German and French citizen)1866–1944
Wassily Kandinsky
A Russian painter who moved to Munich, founded Der Blaue Reiter with Franz Marc and became one of the first painters to make fully abstract pictures. He later taught at the Bauhaus.
A life in paintings
- 1866Born
- 1906
- 1909
Worked with Alexej von JawlenskyMunich and MurnauJawlensky, Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Werefkin founded the Neue Künstlervereinigung München in early 1909 and painted together at Münter's house in Murnau. The group split in 1911 when Kandinsky's Composition V was rejected, and Kandinsky and Marc left to form Der Blaue Reiter.
Source: Tate - 1911The first Blaue Reiter exhibition
Kandinsky and Marc open their exhibition in Munich, arguing that colour can express the spiritual.
Worked with Franz MarcMunichKandinsky and Marc founded Der Blaue Reiter together and were sole editors of its 1912 almanac.
Source: Wikipedia - 1914The First World War begins
War breaks out. As a Russian citizen Kandinsky has to leave Germany and returns to Moscow.
- 1917The Russian Revolution
The Bolsheviks take power, and for a few years avant-garde artists help run Russia’s art schools and museums.
Source: Wikipedia - 1919The Bauhaus opens
Walter Gropius founds a school in Weimar joining art, craft and design. Klee and Kandinsky join its teachers in the early 1920s.
- 1922Worked with Paul KleeBauhaus, Weimar and Dessau
Colleagues on the Bauhaus faculty from 1922, when Kandinsky joined Klee; earlier linked through Der Blaue Reiter.
Source: Wikipedia - 1923
- 1933The Nazis close the Bauhaus
Modern art is attacked in Germany as ‘degenerate’. Klee returns to Switzerland and Kandinsky moves to Paris.
- 1944Died
Circles
School · Weimar, Dessau, Berlin · 1919
Bauhaus
German art school 1919-1933. Klee taught there from 1921, joined by Kandinsky in 1922.
Group · Munich · 1911
Der Blaue Reiter
Named after the almanac Kandinsky and Marc edited. First exhibition Dec 1911 at Thannhauser, Munich: 43 works by 14 artists, including Delaunay and Henri Rousseau. Ended with the war (Macke killed 1914, Marc 1916).
Society · Munich · 1909
Neue Künstlervereinigung München
Founded early 1909 by Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Münter, Werefkin and others; annual shows at Thannhauser 1909-1911. Marc joined in 1911; the Kandinsky-Marc split that December produced Der Blaue Reiter.