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Wassily Kandinsky: Blue Rider
Kandinsky’s art does not reflect and is not burdened by the fate of other Russian avant-garde masters. He left Russia well before the semi-official Soviet aesthetic turned its back on modernist art. He had been to Paris and Italy, even giving Impressionism its due in his earliest works. However, it was only in Germany that he aspired to study. It is obvious that in his preference for Munich over Paris, Kandinsky had been thinking more about schools than about artistic milieu. The qualities of salon Impressionism, a hint of the dry rhythms of modernism (Jugendstil), a heavy “demiurgic stroke” reminiscent of Cézanne, the occasionally significant echoes of Symbolism and much…
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Paul Klee: Swiss? or German?
Paul Klee was born in 1879, in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and grew up within a family of musicians. Instead of following his musical roots he chose to study art at the Munich Academy. However, his childhood love of music always remained important in his life and work. In 1911, Klee met Alexej Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, August Macke , Franz Marc , and other avant-garde figures and participated in important shows of avant-garde art, including the second Blaue Reiter exhibition at Galerie Hans Goltz, Munich, in 1912. Primitive art, Surrealism and Cubism, all seem blended into his small-scale, delicate paintings of fantasy and satire. Klee’s art was also distinguished by an extraordinary diversity…
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[Part 2/6] Expressionism: The Battle of Emotions
The era of German Expressionism was finally extinguished by the Nazi dictatorship in 1933. But its most incandescent phase of 1910-1920 left a legacy that has caused reverberations ever since. It was a period of intellectual adventure, passionate idealism, and deep yearnings for spiritual renewal. Increasingly, as some artists recognized the political danger of Expressionism’s characteristic inwardness, they became more committed to exploring its potential for political engagement or wider social reform. But utopian aspirations and the high stakes involved in ascribing a redemptive function to art meant that Expressionism also bore an immense potential for despair, disillusionment and atrophy. Along with works of profound poignancy, it also produced a…
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Flucht in die Abstraktion – Die Fantasielandschaften van Goghs und Kandinskys
„Je schreckensvoller diese Welt, desto abstrakter die Kunst“, notierte Paul Klee (1879-1940) ein Jahr nach dem Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs (1914-1918) in seinem Tagebuch. „Man verlässt die diesseitige Gegend und baut dafür hinüber in eine Jenseitige, die ganz ja sein darf“. Zur Entstehungszeit des Bildes Sternennachtbefand sich van Gogh in einer Nervenheilanstalt, das Gemälde ist nicht durch eine tatsächliche Nachtszene inspiriert. Die Farben widersprechen einer wirklichkeitsgetreuen Darstellung, die kreisförmigen und wellenartigen Formen, die flammenähnlich in den Himmel ragenden Baumkronen, die kleine Ortschaft mit den krummen Häusern und die dahinterliegende unregelmäßige Berglandschaft erzeugen eine chaotische, beunruhigende Dynamik. Ein romantischer, sternenbehangener Nachthimmel? Weit gefehlt! Sowohl Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) als auch andere…
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