Product Description
Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) pioneered abstract art and is a key figure in the history of modernism. This groundbreaking, fully illustrated study of Kandinsky’s formative years follows his move from figurative painting to abstraction.

Inspired in his early years by folklore scenes from Russia and the heightened colors of the landscape of southern Germany, he want on to co-found the Expressionist Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) group of painters with Gabriele Münter, Alexej Jawlensky, and Franz Marc. Gradually he stripped away the descriptive detail in his painting, hiding visual imagery behind fields of bright color encompassed by strong lines. He felt that what he had discovered was a path to a new spiritual reality, more akin to music than the physical world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fairly good catalogue
Not the most complete book on Kandinsky, this catalogue for a recent exhibition held at the Tate Gallery in London is however a good study that enables the reader to see some works which are not often exhibited outside Russia. There are not that many publications in English on Kandinsky, therefore this one is a good option. ... Read more

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Landscape paintings are as diverse as the landscapes painters live in. Northern Europe gave rise to both the wide, atmospheric spaces of Brueghel's morality tales and to the moody, dramatic depictions of nature found in Jacob Ruisdael's canvases. The 18th century produced idyllic landscapes like Lorrain's that were heavily influenced by courtly ideals, as well as heroic typographies from the New World by Heade and Church. Constable's and Courbet's scenes revealed a conscious, realistic return to nature, while Monet painted her in all her light-infused, impressionistic glory. Thick swirls of emotional isolation and individualism wind around the fields and night skies of Van Gogh's canvases while colorful patterns delineate the Tahitian waters and beaches where Gauguin searched for purity. Outstanding works by Watteau, Canaletto, Picasso, Nolde, and Kirchner cover even more ground. More than 500 years of landscape paintings create the territories that wind their way through this lushly illustrated book, reflecting changes in the way landscapes have been depicted but also understood, as places we not only live in and colonize but also dream about, abandon, transform, and return to--and as places that exist without us as well.Baron Hans Heinrich of Thyssen-Bornemisza has always been passionate about collecting landscape paintings. These extraordinary works from the Thyssen and Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection appear here for the first time in one volume.Five hundred years of landscapes as seen through the eyes of Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent van Gogh, Frederick Edwin Church, Pablo Picasso, Claude Lorrain, John Constable, Pieter Brueghel, and many others.
Essays by Wenzel Jacob, Thomas Llorens, Simon Schama. Artists include:Pieter Brueghel, Frederic Edwin Church, John Constable, Wassily Kandinsky, Claude Lorrain, Claude Monet, Jacob Ruisdael, Vincent van Gogh.

9.75 x 11 in.
100 color, 20 b/w illustrations ... Read more

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Through his writing and his art, Vassily Kandinsky crossed boundaries of style, approach and geography to have a tremendous impact on many of America's finest 20th-century artists. This book looks at this influence in the works of 37 American artists, from Marsden to Hartley and Georgia O'Keffe to abstract expressionists such as Hans Hofmann and Jackson Pollack. Six essays examine Kandinsky's debut in America, the importance to American artists of his theories and his spiritualism and the interest shown in him by artists from all regions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Happy Customer
This was a birthday gift.It arrived on time as promised and the recipient was thrilled with it. ... Read more

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The early decades of the 20th century saw unprecedented cooperation between the performing and visual arts. Painters and other visual artists working in a variety of avant-garde styles, such as Cubism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Constructivism, and Futurism, worked in the world of theater and dance throughout Europe, creating masterpieces inspired by the explosion of creativity in the performing arts, from the ballets of Diaghilev and Balanchine to the plays of the Russian Meierkhol'd and Futurists such as Marinetti, and operas by the likes of Wagner and Offenbach. It was this burst of integration that led to the formulation of the idea of the "Total Art Creation," (a term coined by Wagner), and enriched both the theater and the visual arts. This handsome volume, published on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid, examines these avant-garde experiments in fusion between the arts with extensive color illustrations by virtually every major painter of the period:artists like Picasso, Kandinsky, Leger, and others, as well as in-depth essays on several of the performing art forms and the ways they involved visual artists in their production.

Featuring Works by: Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Leger, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Francis Picabia, Andre Derain, Juan Gris, Georgio De Chirico, Kasimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, George Grosz, El Lissitzky and others.

Essays by John Bowlt, Linn Garafola,Eric Michaud, Maria Teresa Ocana and Marga Paz.

230 color and 20 duotones.
9.5 x 6.75 in. ... Read more

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This work provides a unique, philosophical interpretation of a significant twentieth-century painter - Wassily Kandinsky. Michel Henry was one of the leading French philosophers of the twentieth century. His numerous works of philosophy are all organized around the theme of life. In contrast to the scientific understanding of life as a biological process, Henry's philosophy develops a conception of life as an immediate feeling of one's own living. "Seeing the Invisible" marks Henry's most sustained engagement in the field of aesthetics. Through an analysis of the life and works of Wassily Kandinsky, Henry uncovers the philosophical significance of Kandinsky's revolution in painting: that abstract art reveals the invisible essence of life.Henry shows that Kandinsky separates colour and line from the constraints of visible form and, in so doing, conveys the invisible intensity of life - a force rooted in the corporeity and pathos of all living beings. More than just a study of art history, this book presents Kandinsky as an artist who is engaged in the project of painting the invisible and thus offers invaluable methodological clues for Henry's own phenomenology of the invisible. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Path to Kandinsky's Mind
Seeing the Invisible is improved by a fine translation from the excessively long dependent clauses of the author's French.I was pleased at how clearly this serious philosophical art study explained the ways that pure and vibrant abstract art came entirely from Kandinsky's imagination.What he meant by "the spiritual in art" was not primarily about religion, but about the purely internal source of abstract art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Exceptional and illuminating collection
This book is a must-read for Kandinsky enthusiasts.It's also a must-read for anyone who's confused by some of Kandinsky's unstructured, semi-representational works.

I was one of the latter.I love Kandinsky's early, representational work.His eye for color and balance almost sing in his later structured, geometric works.But, the in-between works baffled me until I studied this book.

I'm delighted with the chapter by Armin Zweite, "Free the Line for the Inner Sound."It explains a tremendous amount in the illustrations and discussion related to Small Pleasures and its forerunner, the glass painting called With Sun.

Once I started comparing their composition and design elements to many of Kandinsky's later works, I realized that he used these same themes over & over again.He was exhausting the form of his expression, rather than constantly looking for new subjects.

When I understood that, far more of Kandinsky's work made sense to me.And, it opened doors for my own artwork.

Although it's important to study Kandinsky's entire body of work, including his oil paintings, this book is a vital resource for anyone interested in Kandinsky's art and philosophies.

Wonderful!!
The definitive collection! A must for any fan ... Read more

Product Description
Arranged chronologically, this volume spans from 1916 to the artist's death in 1944. It includes over 575 entries, 536 of which were entered by Kandinsky in his own Handlists. An illustration is included in this volume for every entry (with one exception).
... Read more