Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinskywas an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting one of the first purely abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession—he was offered a professorshipat the University of Dorpat—Kandinsky began painting studiesat the age of 30...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth16 December 1866
CityMoscow, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
To create a work of art is to create the world.
Color cannot stand alone.
Those [things] that we encounter for the first time immediately have a spiritual effect upon us. A child, for whom every object is new, experiences the world in this way: it sees light, is attracted by it, wants to grasp it, burns its finger in the process, and thus learns fear and respect for the flame.
Music is the ultimate teacher.
Only just now awakening after years of materialism, our soul is still infected with the despair born of unbelief, of lack of purpose and aim.
The artist is not a 'Sunday child' for whom everything immediately succeeds. He does not have the right to live without duty. The task that is assigned to him is painful, it is a heavy cross for him to bear.
It is essential that the painter should develop not only his eyes, but also his soul, so that it too may be capable of weighing colors in balance...
The spirit, like the body, can be strengthened and developed by frequent exercise. Just as the body, if neglected, grows weaker and finally impotent, so the spirit perishes if untended.
Each color lives by its mysterious life.
Everything shows me its face, its innermost being, its secret soul, which is more often silent than heard.
Orange is red brought nearer to humanity by yellow.
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...
The joy of life consists in the inevitable, continual triumph of new values.
As a picture painted in yellow always radiates spiritual warmth, or as one in blue has apparently a cooling effect, so green is only boring.