Wesleyan College Division of Fine Arts Out of the Blue The Biomorphic Abstraction of Wassily Kandinsky By Jamie Hicks Tiernan A senior project in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 2013 The Department of Art Division of Fine Art Wesleyan College Wesleyan College Division of Fine Arts Out of the Blue The Biomorphic Abstraction of Wassily Kandinsky By Jamie Hicks Tiernan A senior project approved by the Department of Art By senior project committee: ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ Table of Contents Acknowledgements 3 Preface 4 The Cycle Begins 5 The Evolution of an Artist 6 Epiphanous Convergence 7 Collective Intelligence 8 Gestalt 13 Biomorphic Bliss 14 Each for Himself 1934 16 Dominant Violet 1934 19 Ordered Arrangement / Many-Colored Ensemble 1938 21 Conclusion 23 Notes 25 Figures 29 Annotated Bibliography 50  Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Libby Bailey for her encouragement, her patience, and her beautiful enthusiasm for art. You inspire me to reach beyond my perceived limitations and that is a gift I will always cherish. I also want to thank my family for giving me up this semester. I know this was really hard on two little girls, but someday they will understand how important this was for their mommy. The dishes are on me for at least the next month! And to Amy Williams…… How can I thank you enough. You have been a patron, a partner and a best friend. You made sure I was fed, propped me up when I thought I was dead, and you were always there while I read! Thank you for all the fact checking and editing. You always make things easier for me.  Preface Art evolves. Art moves and flows as cultures change through conflict, innovation, desperation, and even stagnation. Art and culture are linked together like dance partners, telling the intimate story of their life, high points and low points, as they leap and glide from one plateau to the next. Art and culture are the notes and symphony that create, extend, and constrict to explain and uplift the human condition. Artists evolve. Artists challenge their skills and the view of their existence as life encounters them and molds them. Artists interpret beauty, horror, and change with unique expressive ways that may bring viewers to a new understanding or take them on journeys that leave them restless and confused. Art and artists evolve, but as they grow and change they incorporate the skills and ideas of others, whether contemporaries or masters. As ideas and inspiration are assimilated, there may be an epiphany that leads the artists to see with new eyes and renewed spirit. The Gestalt cycle activates and the art and artist move through, eventually coming full circle to reach a reality within the art. The abstract journey taken by Wassily Kandinsky was an epiphany built upon the expressive beauty he found in the world. He sought to create paintings that would free and elevate the mind by releasing the viewer from a figurative perspective. This release brought viewers to a new world in which they were set free to explore and to be moved. Kandinsky merged the elements of art that he refined over a lifetime with the spirit of scientific inspiration and curiosity to form a Great Synthesis during his Paris years. In the end, the gestalt of Kandinsky’s paintings is found in the generative results of life, forms that sing to our souls in a way that we recognize them as part of “self”. The Cycle Begins Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was born in Moscow in December of 1866. Kandinsky’s father, Vasili Silverstrovich Kandinsky came from a line of Mongolian aristocrats who had been exiled to the Siberian town of Kyakhta during the Decembrist Revolt of 1825.1 Kandinsky senior made a good living as a tea merchant and is remembered fondly by his son in an article written for “Der Sturm” in October of 1913.2 He describes his father as a man who showed great interest in art and strove to unravel the complexities of it. His father was supportive and acted as a mentor to his only son. Kandinsky’s father was very fond of Moscow and passed on to his son a sense of pride for the city. Kandinsky’s father met his mother, Lidia Ivanovna Tikheeva, in Moscow. Tikheeva was a beautiful woman of Baltic descent. Tikheeva’s mother spent a lot of time with her grandson and taught Kandinsky to speak German and nurtured his love of German fairytales.3 Kandinsky spent his earliest years in Moscow. In 1871, when he was five, his family relocated to the city of Odessa in the Ukraine. Shortly after this move his parents divorced and Kandinsky continued to live with his father. Kandinsky’s mother later remarried and had more children. For many people that would have been the catalyst that negatively warps and molds the psyche. This was not the case for Kandinsky who was, as he revealed in a letter to Gabriele Münter (1877-1962), “idolized by his family.”4 Kandinsky’s family life was full of happiness and affection. He was close to his stepsiblings and was very fond of his mother’s eldest sister, Elizaveta Tikheeva, who cared for him and inspired him through music, Russian folklore, and Russian culture. Kandinsky dedicated his book On the Spiritual in Art to his Aunt Elizaveta. At the age of three, Kandinsky recalls the effect of color and his perception of beauty around him. In his essay “Rückblicke”, Kandinsky writes, “The first colors to make a powerful impression on me were light juicy green, white, carmine red, black, and yellow ochre.” 5 He goes on to describe horses that would be made for him by a coachman out of strips of bark. Each layer of bark held such a rich smell and vivid color memory for him and he felt such emotion about which colors he liked and disliked. He mentions the reds and white of a clock dial, the ominous black of a gondola, and the yellow ochre of a favorite toy horse. Colors envelope his memories and connect him with a sense of joy. Music also provided a similar experience for him that he later translated on canvas. In Kandinsky’s writings, he describes a sense of a magical melding of color and sound. This ultimately reveals him to have been a synesthete.6 The Evolution of an Artist The connection of color and sound was very strong for Kandinsky. It permeated his life and led him to observe and analyze details. Kandinsky’s ability to scrutinize led him to attend the University of Moscow in 1885 where he studied law with Professor Alexander Nikitich Filippov and economics with Professor Alexander Ivanovich Chuprov. While at the University of Moscow, Kandinsky also studied ethnography and anthropology. In 1889 he traveled to the Vologda Province where he participated in a research project under the instruction of the Imperial Society for Natural Sciences, Ethnography and Anthropology. 7 The purpose of this study was to provide information on peasant law. While in Vologda Province, he researched the Zyrians, a Finno-Hungarian tribe, and their religious use of pagan relics.8 The time he spent in Vologda opened his eyes to the beauty of folk art and forever impacted his psyche. The interiors of the farmhouses captured Kandinsky in a way he described as having walked into a painting.9 In the same year, he visited the Hermitage and viewed for the first time the work of Rembrandt (Fig. 1). Kandinsky recalls in “Rückblicke” that the essence of Rembrandt’s color and the treatment of contrasts deeply moved him and provided him with a new way of thinking with regard to juxtapositioned elements within a painting.10 In 1892 Kandinsky earned his law degree and, in the following year, he took a position at the University Moscow and began writing his doctoral thesis. After completing his thesis, he took a job as an attaché at the law school. Kandinsky left this position to work as a manager at a large printing firm so he could experience, first hand, what he had studied for so long with regard to wages.11 In 1896, Kandinsky turned 30 and realized with clarity that he should pursue his love of art. He also had two major encounters that year that cemented his decision to change the course of his life. Epiphanous Convergence Kandinsky attended an exhibition of French Impressionist during the summer of 1896 in Moscow that included the work of Claude Monet.12 His reaction to viewing Monet’s Haystacks (Fig. 2) was profound and left Kandinsky with a distinct drive to pursue art. In “Rückblicke”, Kandinsky states that “Previously I had known only realistic art……. And suddenly, for the first time, I saw a picture. That it was a haystack, the catalogue informed me. I didn’t recognize it. I found this nonrecognition painful, and thought that the object was lacking in this picture. And I noticed with surprise and confusion that the picture not only gripped me, but impressed itself ineradicably upon my memory, always hovering quite unexpectedly before my eyes, down to the last detail. It was all unclear to me, and I was not able to draw the simple conclusions from this experience. What was, however, quite clear to me was the unsuspected power of the palette.13 When Kandinsky attended a performance of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1896, he was given a gift of insight, a connection to the city of Moscow. The passage in “Rückblicke”, in which Kandinsky describes his feelings about the music and the connection he made to the city of Moscow, reveals a pure synesthetic experience. He talks about colors and lines appearing in reaction to the music he was hearing.14 This brought him to an understanding that art and music had a greatness he had to explore. In 1897, Joseph John Thomson from Cambridge University discovered the electron. The idea that something as small as an atom could be reduced further and possess subatomic particles was another epiphany for Kandinsky. He described a sensation of precariousness and feeling insubstantial.15 This sense of smaller and smaller realities primed Kandinsky to explore biomorphism. Collective Intelligence Kandinsky went to Munich in 1897 to study art with Anton Ažbe (1862-1905). For the two years that he worked with Ažbe he mainly worked on drawings. Ažbe felt anatomy study was a necessity for any artist, so he provided endless classes in figure drawing. Kandinsky felt the anatomy classes were unpleasant and at times even repulsive.16 Kandinsky often chose to miss class and work on his own ideas. The earliest example of one of Kandinsky’s paintings is Odessa Port (Fig. 3) from 1898. This first painting has an overall golden color and provides a warm impressionistic embrace to tall ships at dockside. Romantic and well rendered, Odessa Port at first glance bares no similarity to Kandinsky’s later abstractions. But, if the strong diagonals created on the dock and the lines formed by the gaffs and rigging about the masts are considered, then a sense of foreshadowing reveals later abstract line work. Color was always important to Kandinsky and he innately expressed his ideas through color use. Ažbe was a strong believer in divisionist color theory so Kandinsky was trained in the use of Post-Impressionist color, although not as liberally as he might have been in France. While studying with Ažbe, he also became friends with Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941) and Marianne von Werefkin (1860-1938). Kandinsky learned about Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cézanne from Jawlensky, who had a broader knowledge of art. Kandinsky applied to the Munich Academy in 1901 so he could study with Franz Stuck (1863-1928). Through Stuck, Kandinsky was exposed to the arts and crafts movement in Munich. Kandinsky wanted to work only on refining his drawing skills with Stuck since he found that “[Stuck] possessed little sensitivity to color.”17 Dissatisfied with the artistic stimulation he was receiving, he sought to form his own group of artists who would move away from antiquated notions of what art could and should be. In 1901 he formed the group Phalanx and opened the Phalanx School of Painting. During the time that the Phalanx was together (1901-1904) Kandinsky traveled extensively, making contacts and arranging exhibitions. 18 In 1902, Gabriele Münter became a student of Kandinsky’s. Münter was a German Expressionist with ties to the Jugendstil movement and she was also keenly aware of the Fauves. The input of ideas and the mutual interest in color and line with a fresh cognizance to the avant-garde made for a great pairing between Kandinsky and Münter. Even though Kandinsky was married, he and Münter had an intimate relationship that lasted well over a decade.19 From 1906 to 1907, Kandinsky, Münter, and Jawlensky lived in Paris. Kandinsky had become familiar with the avant-garde in Paris, including the Fauves and it was at this time that he really started working in bold outlined colors. 20 In Kandinsky’s fauvist painting from 1908-1909 titled Blue Mountain (Fig. 4), the bold horses leap against a vivid blue mountain while the picture plane is framed by intense yellow and red trees. The movement is quick and lively with strong diagonals providing lift. The deep dark dots of paint provide strong outlines that reign in the rising horses.21 The painting is just shy of becoming an abstract. After moving back to Munich in 1908, Kandinsky describes in “Rückblicke” a startling moment of clarity that led him to see painting in a very different way. Upon returning to his studio, he discovered a wonderful effect created by one of his own paintings turned on its side. Kandinsky, in this aleatory moment, was unable to recognize any subject in the painting and the pure form was dazzling. He realized then that “objects harmed” his paintings.22 Without objects, Kandinsky felt, art could be elevated to a higher and more spiritual realm of understanding, interpretation, and connection. In 1910 Kandinsky wrote Concerning the Spiritual in Art, in which he expounded on the spiritual connection to color. Kandinsky felt strongly that each color had a distinct effect on the psyche. Colors affect not only the eye, but also the harmony of the being by creating a conduit to the soul. It is the role of the artist to bring about this conduit through the creation of art.23 Kandinsky’s book was published in 1911 and debuted, along with his foundational painting Composition V (1911) (Fig. 5), at the first exhibition presented by Der Blaue Reiter in December of 1911.24 Der Blaue Reiter group was created by Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Werefkin, Münter, August Macke (1887-1914), and Franz Marc (1880-1916) in 1911 in response to the rejection of Kandinsky’s painting The Last Judgment from the exhibition by Neue Künstlervereinigung. The group included artists, poets, and musicians with the goal in mind to create art that possessed spiritual truths. Der Blaue Riter disbanded after the outbreak of World War I and the combat related deaths of August Macke and Franz Marc. Kandinsky returned to Russia after the deaths of his friends and a break up with Gabrielle Münter. The stress was so great that he stopped painting for an entire year. In February of 1917, Kandinsky married Nina Andreevsky. In 1918 he became a member of the Fine Arts Department of the People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment and a professor at the Higher State Artistic and Technical Workshops. In 1919, he created the Moscow Institute of Artistic Culture25 While Kandinsky was in Russia he stayed in contact with Walter Gropius (1883-1969), who had founded the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1919. Kandinsky was asked to join the faculty of the Bauhaus and returned to Germany in 1922. During Kandinsky’s time at the Bauhaus his friendship with Paul Klee (1879-1940) deepened. Kandinsky was responsible for teaching classes in basic design, drawing, painting, and color theory. It was Kandinsky’s thoughts and theories on color in Concerning the Spiritual in Art that initially attracted Walter Gropius. Kandinsky’s painting style during the Bauhaus years exploded into a strongly geometric style of abstraction. Two of his most extraordinary paintings from 1923 reflect the zenith of Kandinsky’s geometric style. Composition VIII (Fig. 6) and Through-going Line (Fig. 7) both show strong diagonal treatments with heavily weighted circular structures. The soft cream backgrounds produce a mist-enveloped world in which lines and circles move about in a frenzy of Euclidean activity. Grid lines and open triangles take the viewer on a raucous spin in Composition VIII while a small black gondola sails away down a canal. The eclipsed sun and moon anchor and then push a small red circle. Building like structures topple toward the center of the painting but are stopped by a black and blue peak. Through-going Line arcs in response to an upward thrust that pulls lines into a tornadic upheaval. Trapazoidal planes slide away from the disorder that is caught behind a transverse line. A large parachute shape catches flight in an attempt to cross the line and move away from the fray. Both paintings deal with the idea of shape and special relationships. The viewer is free to play within the space or become trapped by its complexity. While Kandinsky was at the Bauhaus he began collecting magazine and newspaper articles that contained biological imagery. Found among his books on biology and botany are exhibition cards and invitations that date from the early 1930’s. Other artists associated with the Bauhaus, like Kandinsky’s friend Paul Klee, were influenced by the biological images found in Kandinsky’s copy of Die Kultur Der Gegenwart. 26 Gestalt In 1930, Gropius turned over control of the Bauhaus to Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969). The Nazis in Dessau approached Van der Rohe in 1932. They requested an exhibit of the work done at the Bauhaus to determine if it met with the ideals of the Nazi political machine. As van der Rohe pulled together examples, Kandinsky was insistent that some of his very modern and analytic construction examples remain in the exhibit. This was a concern to van der Rohe, who realized that the Nazi aesthetic was more in line with traditional German design. When the Nazis viewed the exhibit, van der Rohe attempted to keep the emphasis away from the modern examples of Kandinsky’s work. The Nazis deemed that the work done by the Bauhaus was not cohesive with the Nazi aesthetic and forced the closure of the Bauhaus in Dessau. The school opened again the following year in a Berlin warehouse, but harassment by the Gestapo (some directed at Kandinsky) compelled the faculty to decide to close the school for good in 1933.27 With the closing of the Bauhaus and the growing tension with the Nazi party in Germany, Nina and Kandinsky made the decision to move to France. Kandinsky thought that France would be the best choice because he had experienced some success with Paris exhibitions. He also thought that the art community was more diverse and responsive to change. What Kandinsky discovered rather quickly was that the transition to life in France would be fraught with challenges. The response to his arrival was decidedly frigid since Paris had become a place of artistic rivalry with no desire to take in another political refugee. 28 Biomorphic Bliss 1934 was a year of metamorphosis for Kandinsky. He and Nina had moved to Neuilly, France at the end of 1933 and, after a five month painting hiatus, Kandinsky was refreshed and enthusiastically ready to start anew. In 1934, Kandinsky emerged with new motifs, colors, textures, harmonies, and fully evolved biomorphs.29 He also revisited the larger format he once favored. These changes truly set apart this period at the end of his life. For Kandinsky, this was the naissance of the gestation of his work. The conception of the motifs used by Kandinsky to create biomorphs was propagated by his fascination with the natural world. There is clear evidence that he used numerous scientific sources to form his biomorphs and create new and fascinating ways to reflect and emphasize the origin of life and its spiritual connotation. In Vivian Endicott Barnett’s essay “Kandinsky and Science” she poses the question of how we might interpret Kandinsky’s work from this period.30 Is his work at this time based on innovation, or is it a culmination of his earlier body of work? There is no doubt that there is innovation at work, but alongside this innovation is a great deal of foundational reoccurrence. Kandinsky possessed his own copy of the encyclopedia Die Kultur der Gegenwart and used illustrations from it in his book Point and Line to Plane.31 Kandinsky’s personal copy of Die Kultur der Gegenwart is now a part of the Kandinsky Archive, which is located at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Within the volumes of his encyclopedia, Kandinsky left coffee stains, made notes, left dated bits of paper to mark images and information he found of importance, and clearly referenced the images in drawings and paintings. References may also be found in the text Zoologischer Teil from 1913 and in the 1929 book by photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932), Urformen der Kunst.32 Among the many clippings saved by Kandinsky, there are articles on topics ranging from new technology to deep-sea creatures. Among the most significant sources used by Kandinsky was the work by the biologist, geneticist, and illustrator Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (1834-1919). Haeckel’s seminal work Kunstformen der Natur, originally published in 1904, contained beautiful lithographs of a myriad of creatures.33 Haeckel’s inspiration may be found within many of Kandinsky’s paintings and drawings. Haeckel also appealed to Kandinsky through the concept that phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny.34 This is the notion that all organisms, as they develop embryologically, will progress through stages in which they will resemble their evolutionary antecedents. Kandinsky felt this idea connected with his interest in the spiritual ideas set down in theosophy and anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian philosopher who developed the ideas of anthroposophy. Kandinsky had attended a lecture given by Steiner while in Berlin in 1907.35 Steiner’s links with theosophy and anthroposophy opened a new perspective for Kandinsky. The ideas of theosophy are esoteric and attempt to connect the human mind with an understanding of the origination of divinity and humanity.36 Anthroposophy teaches that perception may be cultivated to lead to a way of thinking that does not depend on sensorial input.37 Steiner was known to lecture about the nature of evolution as Haeckel proposed and how it relates to theosophy. Kandinsky connected with the ideas of science and spirituality. For him there was a level of spirituality that was to be explored through the genesis of life. Utilizing the images he studied and collected throughout his Bauhaus years, Kandinsky had a body of reference material primed for the eventual and natural progression to biomorphism. Kandinsky also utilized and was influenced by artistic ideas from his coevals. Paul Klee (1879-1940), Jean Arp (1886-1966), Joan Miro (1893-1983), Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Julio González (1876-1942), and Victor Brauner (1903-1966) all had exhibitions, publications, or close associations with Kandinsky that granted him the opportunity to be inspired by their work. Each for Himself 1934 The earliest paintings in Paris introduce the distinct amoeba motif. In the very first painting Kandinsky did in Paris, Start (1934), he juxtaposed amoeboid forms with strong geometric shapes. He further developed the amoeboid motif in the beautiful painting he created in April of 1934 titled Each for Himself (Chacun pour soi) (Fig. 8). He also utilized a new compositional format by placing individual figures within in a three by three grid. Kandinsky used rigid white line segments to form a flow line that marks out the columns and rows of the grid. Within each module, there are soft amoeboid and uterine shapes that encapsulate the figures. A sage background and a shallow depth of field hold the womb shapes in place like a glass slipcover on a microscope slide. Each womb is ringed in a deeper shade of green. The internal biomorphs of each womb are suspended in soft tints of French Ochre, Smalt, French Ultramarine, Vermillion, and the newly developed Cadmium Red. The middle register contains forms floating in sacs of Zinc White and Carbon Black. Floating within each module and adjacent to each womb, Kandinsky used hieroglyphic symbols. Among the symbols he used is the troika, which can be found in the upper left module and is represented by three arrows. 38 The troika was a primary symbol Kandinsky used in earlier works like Painting with Troika (1911), Improvisation 23 (1911), and Painting with a White Border (1913) (Fig. 9). The number three is repeated in several of the modules using the form of three speared crescents or three circles. Triangles, circles, rectangles, and worm like sinuous lines also move about the grid. The biomorphs contained within the upper and lower rows use soft tints of colors similar to, but not corresponding to, any particular womb on the grid. The middle row of biomorphs is monochromatic and acts as a color break in the composition. The drawing (Fig. 10) Kandinsky created before beginning this painting shows a preliminary composition of five biomorphs over four. The biomorphs are not enclosed within womb-like shapes and the flow lines are absent. Only three of the nine biomorphs bear a real resemblance to amoeboid shapes, but the obvious pseudopod structures are evident. The biomorph in the upper right hand position in the drawing is reversed and shifted in sequence when it arrives in its final right hand bottom position in the final painting. The upper left hand biomorph in the drawing also shifts in sequence to become the middle bottom figure in the painting. The troika and geometric shapes are also missing in the drawing. Kandinsky had a great deal of inspiration for creating Each for Himself. Amoebas found in the Allgermeine Biologie volume of his encyclopedia (Fig. 11) show variations of amoeboid movement and gives a wonderful example of pseudopod extension as well as the structures within the amoeba such as the nucleus and vacuoles.39 Another example of Kandinsky’s use of amoebas is the painting Black Forms on White (Fig. 12), which he also completed in 1934. The embryonic shapes, as seen in the upper right module of Each for Himself, can be correlated to the image of embryos (Fig. 13) found in Barrows.40 The nature of scientific drawing in a grid-like format also links the biological reference material to this new innovation in Kandinsky’s composition. The embryonic drawing also relates to the idea of ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Other influences can be seen in the work of the Surrealist Victor Brauner, who painted Petite morphologie in 1934. (Fig. 14) In Brauner’s painting a similar grid pattern is used to distinguish the figures within. Kandinsky would have been aware of Brauner’s paintings since both had artwork in the Surrealist exhibition of 1933 and Brauner had been a resident of Paris since 1930.41 The biomorph Kandinsky placed in the upper row center has been linked to the sculpture Maternity (1934) (Fig. 15) by Julio González. Suggestions have also been made that Pablo Picasso’s drawing Une Anatomie, (Fig. 16) which was published in the magazine “Minotaure” in 1933, may have been a source as well. 42 Strong embryologic forms are also found in two other paintings from 1934, Between Two (Entre deux) (Fig. 17) and Blue World (Monde bleu) (Fig. 18). Between Two balances twin embryonic forms as they float above a madder lake horizon. The embryo on the left has a vivid green eye and a patterned ridge of warm gray, sepia, and earth tones. The titan buff colored embryo on the right has a prominent notochord and envelops a yolk sac of deep umber hues. Both embryos reference Kandinsky’s encyclopedia. The planate composition Kandinsky created for Blue World depicts biomorphs pressed into the shallow rectangular layers beneath them. The base of pale sea-foam green provides a backdrop for the softly hued rectangles of salmon, gold, violet, rose, and turquoise. Rising to the top are embryonic biomorphs consisting of blitheful patterns. A long flexuous nematode worm creates a strong diagonal as it playfully topples the rectangles on the right creating an ordered and disordered juxtaposition in the composition. Kandinsky referenced sections of his encyclopedia for this painting. Correlations may be found between Barrows (Fig. 13) and the embryo that provides weight to the tipping gold rectangle at the right. A fish embryo from Zoologischer Teil (Fig. 19) corresponds to the biomorph at the upper left of the painting. The pendulous bellied embryonic biomorph that rests on the coral rectangle on the lower right also corresponds to the salamander embryo (Fig. 20) in Zoologischer Teil. Dominant Violet 1934 Kandinsky was inspired by the fluid elegance embodied by jellyfish and other undulating sea creatures. In Dominant Violet (Fig. 21), this new biomorphic motif is cast in a major role. The sand infused texture of the paint provides a sea floor effect that flattens out the creatures swimming in the picture plane. Kandinsky used soft pastel colors to seductively enhance the soft biomorphic shapes that lay upon a sand and cream matrix. The translucent and gelatinous nature of the rich amaranthine jellyfish that gracefully glides across the top of the canvas is enhanced by the stripes of blushed velvet, alabaster, and soft willow green. A writhing whip-like mate embraces a bold sienna nematode and an inky medusa swims in to watch. Lively whipworms gently touch in the upper left, while a convivial nudibranch dances in the center. Beneath the biomorphs, Kandinsky has placed geometric constructs in soft tones. Triangles and rectangles become a dance floor for the biomorphs to move upon. Crescents punctuate the action and provide a sense of reverberation. A periwinkle deep-sea snail is enrobed in pale rose in the upper right. In Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur, the image of jellyfish found in Plate 8 (Fig. 22) serves as an inspiration for the dynamic and bodacious medusa at the top. A cross section of a jellyfish provides the reference for the inky little medusa on the right. Barnett suggests that Kandinsky’s interest in curvilinear shapes would have made the forms of sea life all the more interesting to him.43 Kandinsky’s biomorphs from Dominant Violet echo the soft organic sculptures created by Hans Arp, a longtime friend of Kandinsky. Arp’s sculpture Two Heads (1929) (Fig. 23) shows a distinctly similar medusa shape and was obviously influential. In Kandinsky’s painting Striped (1934) (Fig 24), he repeated some of the color patterning from Blue World and combined it with elements from his grid motif in Each for Himself. Black and white stripes break the compositions background to allow the biomorphs to float on top. Flow lines reappear as floating bars. The jovial whip-worm lines writhe among hieroglyphic squares, triangles, circles, exclamation points, and two small birds on the upper left. A large sea fan biomorph gazes across to the seahorse-like figure on the right. The predominant biomorph is the sea polyp with fanciful colored arms that hovers above the central black stripe flanked by large nematodes. The clear reference for the sea polyp is found in Kandinsky’s copy of Allgermeine Biologie (Fig. 25). Other references for Striped reveal the influence of Kandinsky’s contemporary, Joan Miró. Kandinsky and Miró met early in 1934 and Miró’s paintings were published that same year in the first issue of Cahiers d’Art.44 The painting Carnival of Harlequin (1924-25) (Fig. 26) provides an example of Kandinsky being influenced by another artist. Barnett links Kandinsky’s sea polyp biomorph to Miró’s spider forms in Carnival of Harlequin. She also connects the ladder shape on the left of Miró’s painting to the small ladder near the birds of Kandinsky’s painting.45 Compositionally Kandinsky does allude to Miró, but the treatment of the biomorphs in Striped shows a maturity within the playful scene that rises above the cartoonish figures in Carnival of Harlequin. Ordered Arrangement / Many-Colored Ensemble 1938 In Kandinsky’s painting Ordered Arrangement / Many-colored Ensemble (1938) (Fig. 27), a distinct organic asymmetry is at play between the buff colored outer negative space and the sea foam blue-green cytoplasm in which the central cell is bound. The asymmetry stretches and pulls as the cellular biomorphic shape attempts to breach its amoeboid membrane. Areas of the cell touch the membrane as if they are ready to extend a pseudopod and grow. Bubble-like vacuoles dance within a matrix of fanciful organelles. Kandinsky treated the canvas to a symphony of carnival colors that create a festive incalzando with confetti like circles, a harp with a pink bird, salamanders, and whip-like sperm. With all of the activity and movement within the subject, Kandinsky provided a ritenuto in the form of a calming sea foam border. The musicality of Ordered Arrangement / Many-colored Ensemble is beautifully paired with the vibrating harmony of life as Kandinsky depicted. The painting is celebratory and yet retains all the mysteries that are a part of life. The author Ramon Tio Bellido suggested in his book on Kandinsky that Ordered Arrangement could not possibly be a biological representation of a cell under a microscope because of Kandinsky’s choice of title and because of the color choices he made. Bellido felt the colors were wrong because they have “little or nothing to do with the natural world.”46 Kandinsky clearly used microscopic images as references. These connections are obvious when his paintings Variegated Black (Fig. 28) from 1935 and Environment (Fig. 29) from 1936 are considered alongside the images of cells of a worm egg (Fig. 30) from Zoologischer Teil, and salamander cells (Fig. 31) from Allgermeine Biologie. Leading up to Kandinsky’s creation of Many-colored Ensemble in 1938, his paintings showed a transition that reflected the tensions of the world in which he lived. Between 1936 and 1938 several changes within Kandinsky’s world occurred. In 1936 Kandinsky found little support from the conservative Russian émigrés because they found it difficult to understand abstraction.47 In 1937 anxiety grew as the Nazis expanded their influence and in Germany, modernist art was labeled degenerate. In Paris, the writings of Der Blaue Reiter were ignored and the movement brushed aside. France, the ever-patriotic country, had treated Kandinsky as a no more than refugee since his arrival. Kandinsky also worked to stay free of association with the Cubist movement, the favorite of the Parisian art scene. Kandinsky thought, “Cubism was, at most an interesting moment of transition, a way-station.”48 The most profound change in Kandinsky’s life at this time was the death of his longtime friend Paul Klee. In the painting Grouping (1937) (Fig. 32), anguish and frustration can be seen in line work that appears to have organisms attacking and devouring one another. This painting is one of the most aggressive paintings Kandinsky did. The bright blue background pushes forward the jagged and piercing biomorphs. The upper right figure consists of a spider-like mandible hovering above yellow grimacing teeth surrounded by elongated crimson lips. Legs and antennae are strewn about the picture plane as if just plucked from between the teeth. The references used by Kandinsky for this painting are found among the many magazine clippings he saved. In particular, the lower right hand side of the painting shows a mantis-like insect. Among his clippings is a photograph of a praying mantis with an egg case that is practically identical. (Fig. 33) Kandinsky looked ahead. He moved forward and away from the negatives of 1937 with a celebratory cacophonic representation of life. Kandinsky represented life in Many-colored Ensemble as a cell, the most basic and the most complex components of life bound together. Conclusion As Kandinsky worked into the last years of his life, he became more and more interested in the ideas of renewal. The style changes and the new forms that emerged from his work after moving to Paris all reflect this idea. (Fig. 34) His fascination with the intimate, diminutive forms around him and the generative spark within all life led him to rebirth abstract art. He looked at the world and the horror of war that surrounded him, and yet his thoughts remained positive, his outlook remained hopeful. His art reflects this positive attitude and firmly places in the eye of the viewer the idea that life is ever changing, ever evolving, and ever abstract. The years in Paris gave Kandinsky the opportunity to reflect and reevaluate. From his early impressionistic figurative paintings to the emancipated pure geometric abstraction of the Bauhaus period, Kandinsky comes full circle and returns the subject to his art. Kandinsky painted subjects out of context, which allowed the subject to remain disguised. The latent nature of the subject becomes an abstract concept to the viewer, thus both are set free. In Point and Line to Plane, Kandinsky expressed his idea that abstract art evolves much the way life does. He believed that abstract art was not a static art, but one that would change and grow with time and experience. He states: “Let me observe here that those who doubt the future of abstract art are, to choose an example, as if reckoning with the stage of development reached by amphibians, which are far removed from fully developed vertebrates and represent not the final result of creation, but rather the ‘beginning’.”49 Kandinsky elevated and enlightened art. He allowed art to undulate and celebrate. He freed art to be pure, pure movement, pure color, and pure form. Kandinsky knew that when he looked at the world he saw things in a way that others did not. Kandinsky was driven to free art of its realistic bindings so the transcendence of color and form could find a new beginning, and along with it, the viewer could find a new perspective.  Notes De Custine, Marquis. Empire of the Czar: A Journey through Eternal Russia. (New York: Anchor, 1989), 191-194. The Decembrist Revolt took place in December of 1825 and was the result of Nicholas I assuming the throne after his eldest brother Constantine withdrew from the line of succession. Those participating in the revolt were exiled to Siberia and not welcomed back to Moscow until after Alexander II took the throne in 1855. Kandinsky, Wassily, “Rückblicke; Kandinsky 1901-1913,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 355-382. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 359. Kandinsky, 359. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 23 Kandinsky, Wassily, “Rückblicke; Kandinsky 1901-1913,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 355-382. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 357. Ione, Amy, and Christopher Tyler. “Was Kandinsky a Synesthete?,” Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 12, no. 2 (2003): 223. Synesthesia is a condition in which the stimulation of one sense triggers a response in another. In Kandinsky’s case he associated sounds very strongly with color. Ione and Tyler make reference to Kandinsky’s essay, “Rückblicke”, as evidence of his synesthesia. His descriptions of seeing Monet’s Haystack and Hearing Lohengrin by Wagner provide classic examples of multimodal synesthesia. Kandinsky, Wassily, “Rückblicke; Kandinsky 1901-1913,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 355-382. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 365. McKay, Carol. “Kandinsky’s Ethnography: Scientific Field Work and Aesthetic Reflection,” Art History 17, no. 2 (1994): 182. Kandinsky, Wassily, “Rückblicke”; Kandinsky 1901-1913,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 355-382. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 368. Kandinsky, 366. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 51. Kandinsky, Wassily, “Rückblicke; Kandinsky 1901-1913,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 355-382. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 888 note 21. There are discrepancies as to when the exhibit actually occurred with many sources noting that it occurred in 1895. The evidence points to an exhibit that toured St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1896 and which lists Claude Monet’s Haystacks / Haystack in Sunlight in the catalog. It is uncertain as to which Haystack painting was displayed because the catalogs of both exhibits list the title differently and supply differing catalog numbers with no images. Kandinsky, 363. Kandinsky, 364. Kandinsky, 364. Kandinsky, 374. Kandinsky, 376. Kandinsky, 17. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 82. Kandinsky reveals that he was an open-minded feminist by admitting women to the Phalanx. In fact, more women than men were in attendance! Willet, John. Expressionism. (New York: World University Library, 1970), 69. Willet, 69. Kandinsky, Wassily, “Rückblicke; Kandinsky 1901-1913,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 355-382. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 369. Kandinsky, Wassily, “On the Spiritual in Art,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 114-118. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994). Dickerman, Leah. Inventing Abstraction 1910-1925: How a Radical Idea Changed Modern Art. (New York: MoMA, 2012), 50. Becks-Malorny, Ulrike. Kandinsky: The Journey to Abstraction. (New York: Barnes and Noble, 2003), 118. Barnett, Vivian Endicott. “Kandinsky and Science: The Introduction of Biological Images in the Paris Period.” Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985), 80. Weber, Nicholas Fox. The Bauhaus Group 6 Masters of Modernism. (New Haven: Yale, 2009), 459-461. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 321. Barnett, Vivian Endicott. “Kandinsky and Science: The Introduction of Biological Images in the Paris Period.” Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985), 61. Barnett, 61. Barnett, 67. Hertwig, Oscar, and Eduard Strasburger. Zellen- Und Gewebelehre Morphologie Und Entwicklungsgeschichte II: Zoologischer Teil. Vol. 2, Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg. (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1914). See pages: 28, 49, 56, 74, 197, 217, 232, 234, 346, and 358 for images connected to Kandinsky’s paintings from this period. Haeckel, Ernst. Art Forms in Nature. (New York: Dover, 1974) See plates: 4, 8, 18, 30, 47, 84, and 94 for images connected to Kandinsky’s paintings from this period. Breidbach, Olaf. Visions of Nature: The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. (Munich: Prestel, 2006.) This is a great reference about Ernst Haeckel and provides a tremendous background for his thoughts and ideas. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 177. Blavatsky, H. P. The Secret Doctrine The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. (London: The Theosophical Publishing Company Limited, 2006), 496. Steiner, Rudolf. Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos. Translated by Catherine E. Creeger. (New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1994), 120. Smithgall, Elsa. Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting With White Border. (New Haven: Yale, 2011), 24-25. Troikas are a reoccurring image in Kandinsky’s iconography. The troika is a sled drawn by three horses harnessed side by side. Three parallel lines represent this symbol tied to Russian culture. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985) 63. This references General Biology by Henry R. Barrows, 1935, p. 98 after Max Verworn. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985) 64. This references General Biology by Henry R. Barrows, 1935, p. 499 after Charles Darwin. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985) 64. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985) 65. Comparisons are also made with Julio González’s sculptures Woman Combing Her Hair and Woman with a Mirror. Both of these sculptures were executed in 1936. The comparison with Pablo Picasso’s Une Anatomie (Minotaure no. I February 1933) does have some relevance because of the time line and the source material but I feel it is a stretch to connect the figure in the module center row right with any of the images from Une Anatomie as is suggested in the Kandinsky in Paris text. Kandinsky, 69. Kandinsky, 71. Kandinsky, 71. Bellido, Ramon Tio. Kandinsky the Masterworks. (New York: Portland House, 1988), 130. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985) 17. Kandinsky, 45. Kandinsky, Wassily, “Point and Line to Plane,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 628. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 628. Figures Van Rijn, Rembrandt Harmenszoon. Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, 1637. Oil on panel, 31x42 cm. Collection of The State Hermitage Museum, Moscow. http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgi-bin/db2www/fullSize.mac/fullSize?selLang=English&dlViewId=GE8YCMESQB2GAC18&size=big&selCateg=picture&dlCategId=H%2B23VS8B5ML8EVP%2B40HI&comeFrom=browse. Accessed February 1, 2013. Monet, Claude. Grain Stack Under The Sun, 1891. Oil on canvas, 60x100. Collection of Kunsthaus, Zurich. http://www.monetpainting.net/paintings/grainstack_b.php?search_by=1890. Accessed February 1, 2013. Kandinsky, Wassily, Odessa Port - I, 1898. Oil on canvas, 65x45 cm. Collection of State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. p. 41. Kandinsky, Wassily, Blue Mountain (Der blaue Berg), 1909. Oil on canvas, 106x96.6 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Barnett, Vivian Endicott, Christian Derouet, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky. New York: Guggenheim, 2009. p. 145. Kandinsky, Wassily, Composition V (Komposition V) 1911. Oil on canvas, 190x275 cm. Private Collection. Dickerman, Leah. Inventing Abstraction 1910-1925: How a Radical Idea Changed Modern Art. New York: MoMA, 2012. p. 58. Kandinsky, Wassily, Composition VIII (Komposition VIII) 1923. Oil on canvas, 140x201 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. p. 281. Kandinsky, Wassily, Through-going Line (Durchgehender Strich) 1923. Oil on canvas, 115x200 cm. Collection of Nordrheim-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. p. 280. Kandinsky, Wassily, Each for Himself (Chacun pour soi), April 1934. Oil and tempera on canvas, 60x71 cm. Private Collection. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.107. Kandinsky, Wassily, Figure with a White Border (Bild mit weißem Rand), 1913. Oil on canvas, 140.3×200.3 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Barnett, Vivian Endicott, Christian Derouet, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky. New York: Guggenheim, 2009. p.187. Kandinsky, Wassily, Each for Himself (Chacun pour soi), April 1934. Drawing Formerly Galerie Karl Flinker, Paris. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.64. Chun, Karl, Erwin Baur, and Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen. Allgemeine Biologie. Leipzig: Teubner, 1915. p.98. Reprinted in: Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.63. Kandinsky, Wassily, Black Forms on White (Formes noires sur blanc), 1934. Oil on canvas, 70.17x68.6 cm. Collection of Y. Zervos, Paris. Whitford, Frank. Kandinsky. London: Hamlyn, 1967. Plate 35. Barrows, Henry R. General Biology: A Textbook for College Students. “Progressive states in the development of vertebrate embryos after Darwin”, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935, p.499. Reprinted in: Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.64. Brauner, Victor, Petite morphologie, 1934. Menil Foundation. http://plogger.itsanet.us/index.php?level=picture&id=683. Accessed February 1, 2013. González, Julio, Maternity (Maternité), 1934. Steel and stone, 1305 x 406 x 235 mm. Collection of the Tate, London. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gonzalez-maternity-t01242. Accessed February 1, 2013. Picasso, Pablo, Une Anatomie, 1933. Drawing. Published in the 1st issue of Minotaure in 1933. Collection of Museu Picasso, Barcelona. http://www.flickr.com/photos/50929645@N00/5877684160/in/photostream. Accessed February 1, 2013. Kandinsky, Wassily, Between Two (Entre deux), 1934. Mixed media on canvas, 130x97 cm. Private Collection. http://www.artnet.de/magazine/editorial/images/2/. Accessed February 1, 2013. Kandinsky, Wassily, Blue World (Monde Bleu), 1934. Oil with sand on canvas, 110.6x120.2cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Barnett, Vivian Endicott, Christian Derouet, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky. New York: Guggenheim, 2009. p. 253. “Fish embryo” Hertwig, Oscar, and Eduard Strasburger. Zoologischer Teil. Vol. 2, Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg.  Leipzig:  B. G. Teubner, 1914.p. 358. Reprinted in: Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.67. “Salamander embryo” Hertwig, Oscar, and Eduard Strasburger.  Zoologischer Teil. Vol. 2, Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg.  Leipzig:  B. G. Teubner, 1914. p. 346. Reprinted in: Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.67. Kandinsky, Wassily, Dominant Violet (Violet dominant), June 1934. Oil and sand on canvas, 130x162 cm. Collection of Mark Goodson, New York. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. p. 338. Haeckel, Ernst. Medusas, Plate 8 Art Forms in Nature. New York: Dover, 1974. Arp, Hans (1886-1966), Two Heads, 1929. Painted wood, 120x99.7 cm. Collection of MoMA, New York. http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80919. Accessed February 1, 2013. Wassily Kandinsky Striped (Rayé), 1934. Oil and sand on Canvas, 81x100 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Barnett, Vivian Endicott, Christian Derouet, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky. New York: Guggenheim, 2009. p. 255. “Sea Polyps”, Chun, Karl, Erwin Baur, and Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen. Allgemeine Biologie. Leipzig: Teubner, 1915. p. 411. Reprinted in: Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.71. Joan Miró, Carnival of Harlequin, 1924-25. Oil and sand on Canvas 66x93 cm. Collection of Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. http://www.students.sbc.edu/evans06/presentation.htm. Accessed on February 1, 2013. Kandinsky, Wassily, Ordered Arrangement / Many-colored Ensemble (Entassement reglé / Ensemble multicolre), 1938. Mixed media on Canvas, 116x89.2 cm. Collection of Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. p. 344. Kandinsky, Wassily, Varigated Black (Noir vaigarré), 1935. Mixed media on Canvas, 116x89.2 cm. Collection of Adrien Maeght, Paris. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. p. 345. Kandinsky, Wassily, Environment (Environnement), 1936. Mixed media on Canvas, 100x81 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Grohman, Will. Kandinsky Life and Work. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1958. p. 233. “Worm Egg”, Hertwig, Oscar, and Eduard Strasburger.  Zoologischer Teil. Vol. 2, Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg.  Leipzig:  B. G. Teubner, 1914. p. 49. Reprinted in: Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.76. “Salamander Cells”, Chun, Karl, Erwin Baur, and Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen. Allgemeine Biologie. Leipzig: Teubner, 1915. p. 231. Reprinted in: Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p.79. Kandinsky, Wassily, Grouping (Groupement), 1937. Oil on Canvas, 146x88 cm. Collection of Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Barnett, Vivian Endicott, Christian Derouet, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky. New York: Guggenheim, 2009. p. 270. “Praying Mantis with Egg” Unknown Magazine. Kandinsky Archives, Collection of Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. p. 78. Viollet, H. Roger. Kandinsky Painting Dominant Curve, 1936. Collection of Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. p. 323.  Fig. 1 Van Rijn, Rembrandt Harmenszoon. Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, 1637. Oil on panel, 31x42 cm. Collection of The State Hermitage Museum, Moscow.  Fig. 2 Monet, Claude. Grain Stack Under The Sun, 1891. Oil on canvas, 60x100. Collection of Kunsthaus, Zurich.  Fig. 3 Kandinsky, Wassily, Odessa Port - I, 1898. Oil on canvas, 65x45 cm. Collection of State Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow Fig. 4 Kandinsky, Wassily, Blue Mountain (Der blaue Berg), 1909. Oil on canvas, 106x96.6 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.  Fig. 5 Kandinsky, Wassily, Composition V (Komposition V) 1911. Oil on canvas, 190x275 cm. Private Collection. Fig. 6 Kandinsky, Wassily, Composition VIII (Komposition VIII) 1923. Oil on canvas, 140x201 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.  Fig. 7 Kandinsky, Wassily, Through-going Line (Durchgehender Strich) 1923. Oil on canvas, 115x20 cm. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, DGermany Fig. 8 Kandinsky, Wassily, Each for Himself (Chacun pour soi), April 1934. Oil and tempera on canvas, 60x71 cm. Private Collection.  Fig. 9 Kandinsky, Wassily, Figure with a White Border (Bild mit weißem Rand), 1913. Oil on canvas, 140x200 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.  Fig. 10 Kandinsky, Wassily, Study for: Each for Himself (Chacun pour soi), April 1934. 65 x 45 cm Drawing Formerly Galerie Karl Flinker Paris, France  Fig. 11 “Amoeba cells” Chun, Karl, Erwin Baur, and Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen. Allgemeine Biologie. Leipzig: Teubner, 1915. p. 92. Fig. 12 Kandinsky, Wassily, Black Forms on White (Formes noires sur blanc), 1934. Oil on canvas, 70.17x68.6 cm. Collection of Y. Zervos, Paris.   Fig. 13 “Progressive states in the development of vertebrate embryos after Darwin” Barrows, Henry R. General Biology: A Textbook for College Students. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1935, p.499. Fig. 14 Brauner, Victor, Petite morphologie, 1934. Menil Foundation. Fig. 15 González, Julio (1876‑1942) Maternity (Maternité), 1934. Steel and stone, 1305 x 406 x 235 mm Collection of the Tate, London. Fig. 16 Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973) Une anatomie 1933. Drawing Collection of Museu Picasso, Barcelona.  Fig. 17 Kandinsky, Wassily, Between Two (Entre deux), 1934. Mixed media on canvas, 130x97 cm. Private Collection Fig. 18 Kandinsky, Wassily, Blue World (Monde Bleu), 1934. Oil with sand on canvas, 110.6x120.2cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.   Fig. 19 “Fish embryo” Hertwig, Oscar, and Eduard Strasburger.  Zoologischer Teil. Vol. 2,  Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg.   Leipzig:  B. G. Teubner, 1914. p. 358. Fig. 20 “Salamander embryo” Hertwig, Oscar, and Eduard Strasburger.  Zoologischer Teil. Vol. 2,  Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg.   Leipzig:  B. G. Teubner, 1914. p. 346.   Fig. 21 Kandinsky, Wassily,  Dominant Violet (Violet dominant), 1934. Oil with sand on canvas, 130x162 cm. Collection of Adrien Maeght, Paris.  Fig. 22 Haeckel, Ernst (1834-1919) Medusas, Plate 8 Art Forms in Nature. New York: Dover, 1974. Fig. 23 Arp, Hans (1886-1966), Two Heads, 1929 Painted wood, 120x99.7 cm. Collection of MoMA, New York  Fig. 24 Wassily Kandinsky Striped (Rayé),1934 Oil and sand on Canvas, 81x100 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.  Fig. 25 “Sea Polyps” Chun, Karl, Erwin Baur, and Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen. Allgemeine Biologie. Leipzig: Teubner, 1915. p. 411.  Fig. 26 Joan Miró (1893-1983) Carnival of Harlequin 1924-25 Oil and sand on Canvas 66x93 cm. Collection of Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Fig. 27 Kandinsky, Wassily Ordered Arrangement / Many-colored Ensemble (Entassement reglé / Ensemble multicolre) 1938 Mixed media on Canvas 116x89.2 cm. Collection of Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.  Fig. 28 Kandinsky, Wassily Varigated Black (Noir vaigarré) 1935 Mixed media on Canvas 116x89.2 cm. Collection of Adrien Maeght, Paris Fig. 29 Kandinsky, Wassily Environment (Environnement) 1936 Mixed media on Canvas 100x81 cm. Collection of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.  Fig. 30 “Worm Egg” Hertwig, Oscar, and Eduard Strasburger.  Zoologischer Teil. Vol. 2,  Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg.   Leipzig:  B. G. Teubner, 1914. p. 49. Fig. 31 “Salamander Cells” Chun, Karl, Erwin Baur, and Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen. Allgemeine Biologie. Leipzig: Teubner, 1915. p. 231.  Fig. 32 Kandinsky, Wassily Grouping (Groupement) 1937 Oil on Canvas 146x88 cm. Collection of Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Fig. 33 “Praying Mantis with Egg” Unknown Magazine Kandinsky Archives Collection of Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.  Fig. 34 Viollet, H. Roger. Kandinsky Painting Dominant Curve, 1936. Collection of Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Annotated Bibliography Ashmore, Jerome. “Sound in Kandinsky’s Paintings,” Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 35, no. 3 (1977): 329. Ashmore analyzes Kandinsky’s ideas surrounding the spiritual connection of sound and color and the ways in which it manifests. Jerome Ashmore is a philosophy professor at Case Western Reserve University. Ashton, Dore. 20th Century Artists on Art. New York: Pantheon, 1985. This collection of artist thoughts and statements provides insight on Kandinsky from Oskar Schlemmer who worked with him at the Bauhaus, Willem De Kooning who talks about Kandinsky’s understanding of form, and Hans Hofmann who discusses the language of color. Dore Ashton is an important force in the world of modern and contemporary criticism. She serves as a professor of Art History at Cooper Union in New York City. Barnett, Vivian Endicott, Christian Derouet, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky. New York: Guggenheim, 2009. This is a stunning exhibition catalog for the Kandinsky exhibition at the Guggenheim in 2009. The resources are numerous and can provide amazing amounts of information. Vivian Endicott Barnett is a Kandinsky scholar, former curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and a member of the Societé Kandinsky. Barnett, Vivian Endicott. “Picture Under Pressure An Artist Plumbs the Ocean Depths for Inspiration,” Sciences 26, no. 4 (1986): 57. Barnett’s article discusses the “new iconography” of Kandinsky’s paintings upon moving to France in 1934. Specifically discussed is Kandinsky’s Domiant Violet (1934). The article also discusses Kandinsky’s interest in images from natural history sources. The main source is Die Kultur der Gegenwart (Contemporary Culture by Hinneberg 1905-1926), which Kandinsky owned and is now kept in the archives of the National Museum of Modern Art, in Paris. The pages of Kandinsky’s volume show his notes and reveal this may be the source of his images. Kandinsky also clipped articles that had images of organisms taken from microscopes. Barnett states “For Kandinsky, all these creatures were more than straightforward sources of inspiration. Long before they found direct expression in his work, they served as a metaphor for the evolution of abstract art.” Barron, Stephanie and Sabine Eckmann. Exiles + Emigrés: The Flight of European Artists from Hitler. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997. In Barron’s book, the events in Germany, starting with the Reichstag Fire in 1933, that led Kandinsky to move to France are discussed. The conditions in Paris provided Kandinsky with the freedom to challenge himself in new ways but it also limited him with supply shortages and the lack of fellowship with other like-minded artists. The subject of exile, or any personal experiences, do not become a part of his work. Kandinsky’s use of biomorphic figures and his interest in the surrealist artists that were using biomorphic aspects are discussed. Kandinsky’s disillusionment with the French attitude toward art created tension and he broke his ties with Christian Zervos, an early supporter who felt cubism is what was important. He found groups of abstract artists but was disappointed by the strong geometric attitude. In 1937 the Origines et développement de l’art international indépendant exhibit opened. Kandinsky was a big part of the process but found that André Dézarrois, the curator, shifted emphasis and presented cubism as primary. He continued his work and “continued to assert the necessity and victory of abstraction in a world rent by crisis.” Stephanie Barron is the senior curator of modern art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Sabine Eckmann is the director and chief curator of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Becks-Malorny, Ulrike. Kandinsky: The Journey to Abstraction. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2003. This book by Becks-Malorny, chronicles Kandinsky’s struggles to fit in after moving to Paris. The connections he made were at a distance. The essay he wrote in Cahiers d’Art on “Reflections on Abstract Art” is defensive. In other essays over the Paris years he continues to defend Abstraction against the Cubists. Becks-Malorny discusses the types and sizes of paintings Kandinsky did in Paris. The information on Composition IX (1936) reveals that it has many elements of a transitional painting with both linear and biomorphic composition. This text also talks about the surreal pictorial elements of Sky Blue where the background is atmospheric and not geometric. The Entartete Kunst exhibition is explained as well as Kandinsky’s first show in Paris at the Jeu de Paume. Becks-Malorny talks about Kandinsky’s life during the war years and the hardships he endured but points out that his paintings do not reflect these events. The final quote in the book in which Kandinsky sums up his career and its affect is wonderful. The quote was originally from an article Kandinsky wrote for a Swedish publication in 1937. Ulrike Becks-Malorny is a German author. She has written books on Kandinsky, Cezanne, and Ensor. Bellido, Ramon Tio. Kandinsky the Masterworks. New York: Portland House, 1988. The Masterworks by Bellido is full of wonderful images of Kandinsky’s major paintings. The text is clear and succinct and provides insight into the atmosphere Kandinsky worked in. Ramon Tio Bellido earned a doctorate in Art History. He is an art critic and professor in France. Benecke, Wilhelm and Eduard Strasburger. Zellen- Und Gewebelehre Morphologie Und Entwicklungsgeschichte I: Botanischer Teil. Vol. 1, Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1914. This is one of the volumes of the Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Encyclopedia that Kandinsky used for resource material and inspiration. The Botanical volume contains images (page 74) that Kandinsky used as reference for Succession 1935. A full copy is available on line through the Biodiversity Library. The DOI is: http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.1376. Blavatsky, H. P. The Secret Doctrine The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. London: The Theosophical Publishing Company Limited, 2006. This work is simultaneously interesting, head scratching and amusing. The ideas are interesting but the logic behind them escapes me. To understand the basic ideas of Theosophy you must wade through a wide river of ideas juxtaposed in ways that make little linear sense. Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a Russian-German occultist Bornstein, Robert F. “Heisenberg, Kandinsky, and the Heteromethod Convergence Problem: Lessons From Within and Beyond Psychology,” Journal of Personality Assessment 91, no. 1 (2009): 1 Did Rorschach look to Kandinsky for inspiration? This journal article is a very interesting look at how humans interpret non-representational imagery and how it may be an indicator of intelligence. Robert Bornstein is with the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University in New York. Breidbach, Olaf. Visions of Nature: The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. Munich: Prestel, 2006. Breidbach’s book deals in depth with the work of Ernst Haeckel. It offers Haeckel’s perspective on a vast number of microorganisms and provides a catalog of images that would have been available to Kandinsky. Dr. Olaf Breidbach is a biologist and a science historian in Germany. Butler, Christopher. Early Modernism Literature, Music and Painting in Europe 1900-1916. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. This text was not as accessible as I had hoped. It presents the subject in a way that makes a convoluted subject almost impossible. Christopher Butler is a professor at Oxford University. Chun, Karl, Erwin Baur, and Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen. Allgemeine Biologie. Leipzig: Teubner, 1915. This is one of the volumes of the Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Encyclopedia that Kandinsky used for resource material and inspiration. This volume on Mathematics, Natural History and Medicine contains numerous images that Kandinsky used in connection with the paintings he made between 1934 and 1944. A full copy is available on line through the Biodiversity Library. The DOI is: http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.1519. Cohen, Ronny. “Kandinsky the Last Decade,” Artnews 84, no. 5 (1985): 99. In Cohen’s article she states statistics regarding the amount of work Kandinsky produced during the last ten years of his life. He also discusses the work of Vivian Endicott Barnett’s catalogue essay in which she talks about Kandinsky’s influences. The transition of Kandinsky’s style to biomorphic images is mentioned and connected to his Munich period. Ronny Cohen is an Art Critic, Art Historian, and professor of sculpture and painting at the Grant Wood Art Colony, University of Iowa. De Custine, Marquis. Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia. New York: Anchor, 1989. This narrative travel log of Russia before it modernized is helpful to get a feel for the people and the control the Czar wielded. It gives a personalized account of Russian life at the time of Kandinsky’s grandparents and parents and the ideas that formed his upbringing. Marquis de Custine was a travel writer and aristocrat from France who visited Russia in 1839. De la Croix, Horst and Richard G. Tansey. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Gardner’s gives a wonderfully clear and concise review of the movements Kandinsky was associated with, his colleges and those who inspired him. This is my go to book for a fast bit of knowledge to kick off deeper research. Dr. Richard G. Tansey and Dr. Horst De la Croix professors of Art History at San Jose State. Dickerman, Leah. Inventing Abstraction 1910-1925: How a Radical Idea Changed Modern Art. New York: MoMA, 2012. Inventing Abstraction is a fantastic exhibition catalogue covering the growth of allegthrust of this book is to dissect the first 15 years of abstraction and to really look at the roots and its growth. Leah Dickerman is the Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art. Düchting, Hajo. Kandinsky 1866-1944 A Revolution in Painting. Hong Kong: Taschen, 1999. Düchting’s text gives a very concise overview of the major changes in style throughout Kandinsky’s career. Hajo Düchting is an artist and art historian. He received his PhD in art history in 1984 from Munich University. Elderfield, John. Modern Painting and Sculpture. New York: MOMA, 2004. Elderfield’s book gives wonderful descriptions of the works housed at MOMA. These include the Edwin R. Campbell panels from 1914. Elderfield was the chief curator of painting and sculpture at MOMA. Erben, Walter, and Harjo Düchting. Miró 1893-1983 The Man and His Work. Hong Kong: Taschen, 200. Miró is an excellent book covering the life and work of Joan Miró. Faherty, Michael. “Kandinsky at the Klavier: Stevens and the Musical Theory of Wassily Kandinsky,” Wallace Stevens Journal 16, no. 2 (1992): 151. Faherty looks at the Kandinsky exhibition at the Knoedler in 1952 and how Kandinsky’s ideas of connecting art and spirit along with music are relevant to music theory. Figura, Starr. German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse – Masterworks from the Museum of Modern Art. New York: MOMA, 2011. In this exhibition catalog, the expressionist ideas and aesthetics are dissected. The exhibit was one that I was able to attend. The majority of Kandinsky’s work in this exhibit is associated with Der Blaue Reiter. Gage, John. Color and Meaning – Art, Science & Symbolism. Berkeley: University of California, 1999. Gage has written a monumental work on the connection between color and the way we perceive it. He utilizes Kandinsky’s own writing to explain how Kandinsky related color form in his own work. He also discusses the symbolist ideas of Franz von Stuck and how that affected Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Josef Albers. A great degree of information also covers the ideas of Theosophy which had an influence on Kandinsky’s development of painting ideas. John Gage was the Department Head of Art History at Cambridge University. Green, Lilias. “There’s A Protozoan In That Painting,” BioScience 37, no. 3 (1987): 181. Green’s article is about the 42nd International Venice Biennale of Art which took place June – September 1986. The curator of the exhibit, Giorgi Celli, discusses why he believes that Kandinsky, Redon, Ernst, and Miro used microscopic forms as subjects creating a form of realism. Celli feels that abstract artists who use this type of subject matter are, in a true sense, realists who become “naturalists of the invisible.” Kandinsky’s use of embryos and amoebas is highlighted. The work of Ernst Haeckel is discussed and Haeckel is quoted as saying “The modern fine arts and the now blooming craft industries will find that these artistic forms of nature are rich in new and elegant motifs.” Lilias Green is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Florence Italy. Grohman, Will. Kandinsky Life and Work. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1958. Grohman was a longtime friend of Kandinsky. This monograph is an often used source for more modern Kandinsky interpretation. The book covers at length Kandinsky’s career as an artist but it does tend to skip over a lot of his Paris period. Haeckel, Ernst. Art Forms in Nature. New York: Dover, 1974. This book is full of wonderful illustrations from the original publication. Unfortunately there is no text accompanying it. Hahl-Koch, Jelena. Kandinsky. New York: Rizzoli, 1993. This monumental book covers every aspect of Kandinsky’s life and work. It is among the most valuable sources of Kandinsky information. The text is beautifully illustrated and well documented. The information on Kandinsky’s early life was particularly useful. Jelena Hahl-Koch is a German Art Historian and served as the curator at Lenbachhaus, Munich. Heibel, Yule F. “They Danced on Volcanoes: Kandinsky’s Breakthrough to Abstraction, The German Avant-Garde and the Eve of the First World War,” Art History 12, no.3 (1989): 342. Heibel addresses the movement of Kandinsky’s ideas from Expressionism to Abstraction and how one led into the other in the development of a new and innovative art form. Heller, Reinhold. “Kandinsky and Traditions Apocalyptic,” Art Journal 43, no. 1 (1983): 19. This article looks at some very narrowly focused ideologies Kandinsky espoused between 1910 and 1913. Hertwig, Oscar, and Eduard Strasburger. Zellen- Und Gewebelehre Morphologie Und Entwicklungsgeschichte II: Zoologischer Teil. Vol. 2, Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1914. This is one of the volumes of the Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Encyclopedia that Kandinsky used for resource material and inspiration. The Zoology volume contains numerous images that Kandinsky used in connection with the paintings he made between 1934 and 1944. A full copy is available on line through the Biodiversity Library. The DOI is: http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.1444. Hertwig, Richard and Richard Wettstein. Abstammungslehre, Systematik, Paläontologie, Biogeographie Wettstein. Vol. 3, Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Herausgegeben Von Paul Hinneberg. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1914. This is one of the volumes of the Die Kultur Der Gegenwart Encyclopedia that Kandinsky used for resource material and inspiration. This is the volume on evolution and contains embryo images that Kandinsky used in connection with the paintings he made between 1934 and 1944. A full copy is available on line through the Biodiversity Library. The DOI is: http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.1377. Hobbs, Jack A. Art in Context. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1980. Hobbs gives a brief overview of Kandinsky’s time with the expressionists and discusses the early abstraction. This book is good as an overview of art movements. Jack A. Hobbs was an Art History professor at Illinois State University. Hunter, Sam, and John Jacobus. Modern Art: From Post-Impressionism to the Present: Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1985. Hunter covers the rise of modernism and elaborates on the defining elements of each new ‘ism. Ione, Amy, and Christopher Tyler. “Was Kandinsky a Synesthete?,” Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 12, no. 2 (2003): 223. Ione and Tyler discuss the characteristics of synesthesia and use Kandinsky’s essay “Rückblicke” as evidence to show Kandinsky was affected by the condition. Amy Ione is the director of the Diatrope Institute. Dr. Christopher Tyler is the Senior Scientist of the Diatrope Institute. Izenberg, Gerald N. “Intellectual-Cultural History and Psychobiography: The Case of Kandinsky,” Annual of Psychoanalysis 31, (2003): 21. Izenberg looks at the connection to the development of Kandinsky’s art and how it relates to maternal loss and synesthesia. Jaffee, Barbara. “Before the New Bauhaus: From Industrial Drawing to Art and Design Education in Chicago,” Design Issues 21, no. 1 (2005): 41. Jaffee looks at art education and how it relates to the instruction guidelines of the Bauhaus. Kandinsky, Nina, “Untitled,” in Kandinsky Parisian Period 1934-1944, 23-25. New York: M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., 1969. Madam Kandinsky reviews the years she spent with her husband in Paris. She talks about the periods within his career as an artist. She felt that the time in Paris was a renewal for Kandinsky and a synthesis of the work he did before. She described this period of time as being the “pinnacle of his creativity.” She has a beautifully lyrical way of describing his work from this time. Nina Kandinsky was Kandinsky’s third wife. They were married from 1917 until his death in 1944. Kandinsky, Wassily, Franz Marc, and Klaus Lankheit. The Blaue Reiter Almanac. Boston: MFA Publications, 1974. This is an amazing resource to understand the changes that Kandinsky and the others of the group were attempting to implement. The essays are diverse and full of young ideas. Kandinsky, Wassily, “On the Spiritual in Art and Painting in Particular” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 114-219. New York: Da Capo Press, 1994. This is Kandinsky’s explanation of the connected nature of art and the soul. He discussed a hierarchy that allows art to bring the viewer to a new awareness. He also expressed the connection between color and the psyche. Kandinsky, Wassily. Farben Und Klange Erste Folge. Germany: Silver Source, 1955. Kandinsky, Wassily. Farben Und Klange Zweiter Folge. Germany: Silver Source, 1956. Kandinsky, Wassily. Kandinsky in Paris 1934-1944. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1985. This is an incredibly important exhibit catalog and covers the biomorphic period of Kandinsky’s paintings in great detail. The information gathered by Vivian Endicott Barnett in her essay; “Kandinsky and Science: The Introduction of Biological Images in the Paris Period” is clear and concise. She connects the important works by Kandinsky during this period directly to the scientific sources he used as reference. Barnett discusses the important changes in Kandinsky’s motifs, color, and the scientific influence that predominate his work. The essay by Christian Derouet covers the social, political, and geographical aspects of this time of Kandinsky’s life. Derouet uses the vast resources of the Kandinsky archives to link events and elaborate ideas. Christian Derouet is the Chief Curator of the Musee National d'Art Moderne Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France. Kandinsky, Wassily. Point and Line to Plane. New York: Dover, 1979. Kandinsky delves into the deeper meaning of points, lines, planes and how they relate to each other but how they can expand and collapse with sound and color. He looks at angles and the way color relates to them; angles that are warm or cold based on the main line that forms them. From this he develops the color association of yellow for a triangle, red for a square and blue for a circle. Curves and zig zags and the elements of line that make them are given a voice. He refers to signs becoming symbols in order for art to be created. Kandinsky explains how points, lines, and planes are key elements and how nature uses these elements. The artist uses these elements in juxtaposition with nature to discover the “higher synthetic order – External + Internal.” This External + Internal is the notion of what we view and what we experience. Kandinsky states “’objective’ art subordinates this outer shell [of natural appearances] to inner purposes – it is impossible to transform utterly the inner element of one realm into the outer of another.” He explains in depth how the geometric construction found in plants and animals may be found in abstract painting but that the laws of art and of nature should not be confused because the primary element in nature is the living cell and in painting it is the point which is motionless. Throughout Kandinsky’s book he addresses the hierarchy which exists in the creation or process of art. As Kandinsky explains his hierarchy of points, lines, and planes and the way they all relate he effectively creates a dictionary of symbols that act as an interpreter to his artistic language. Kandinsky, Wassily, “Rückblicke; Kandinsky 1901-1913,” in Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art, ed. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo, 355-382. New York: Da Capo Press, 1994. This is a translated and reproduced article originally published by the Verlag “Der Sturm” in October of 1913. Kandinsky translated the original article into Russian from the original German in 1918. In this collection, the editors have been very careful to include wonderful notes to compare the translations and have supplied Kandinsky’s foot notes on the page to fully convey the ideas of the original article. In this essay, Kandinsky recalls important ideas, thoughts, and events that helped shape his ideas about art. He discusses the way he experienced color and sound, the early influences from his Aunt Elizabeth Tikheev and fairytales, seeing Monet’s Haystacks and hearing Wagner’s Lohengrin. He also reveals a great deal about his parents and his feelings about Russia. This particular essay really helps reveal something of a man who was very private and could be considered an enigma by many. Editor Kenneth C. Lindsay, PhD. was an expert on Kandinsky and served as a professor of Art History at Binghamton University. Peter Vergo is a professor of Art History at Essex. Klee, Felix. Paul Klee: His Life and Work in Documents, Selected From Posthumous Writings and Unpublished Letters. New York: George Braziller, 1962. This is a moving book that looks at the life of Paul Klee. Kroll, Jack. “Kandinsky: Last of the Heresiarchs,” Artnews 61, no. 10 (1963): 38. This article from Artnews looks at the ideas and art of Kandinsky in relation to exhibitions at the Pasadena and Guggenheim museums in 1963. Lassaigne, Jacques. Kandinsky Biography and Critical Study. Geneva: Skira, 1964. This is an interesting little overview of Kandinsky’s life and career. Lindsay, Kenneth C. “Kandinsky and the Compositional Factor,” Art Journal 43, no. 1 (1983): 14. Lindsay looks at the weight of composition in abstract art. In other words, it is not just flinging paint at a canvas. Lindsay, Kenneth C. and Peter Vergo. Kandinsky Complete Writings on Art. Boston: Da Capo Press, 1994. This is the collection of all of Kandinsky’s writings with wonderful editorial comments provided by the authors. Having access to Kandinsky’s thoughts through the essays and other writings Lindsay and Vergo were able to amass was amazing. Long, Rose-Carol Washton. “Kandinsky’s Vision of Utopia as a Garden of Love,” Art Journal 43, no. 1 (1983): 50. This article looks at the ideas and energetic essence of Der Blaue Reiter group and the way Kandinsky’s theosophical utopian ideas played a role in the group dynamic. Long, Rose-Carol Washton. “Occultism, Anarchism, and Abstraction: Kandinsky’s Art of the Future,” Art Journal 46, no. 1 (1987): 38. Rose-Carol Long looks at the theosophical ideas behind Kandinsky’s ideologies and how he thought that his ideas would better humankind. Lucie-Smith, Edward. Late Modern – The Visual Arts Since 1945. New York: Oxford, 1975. Lucie-Smith provides a good overview of post 1945 art and looks at the roots within each group. Lucie-Smith, Edward. Lives of the Great Modern Artists. London: Thames & Hudson, 2009. This book gives short and concise biographies of the major modern artists. Marquis, Alice Goldfarb. Alfred H. Barr Jr.: Missionary for the Modern. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1989. This book was helpful in understanding the importance of Barr in the art scene and how his opinions shaped so many others. McKay, Carol. “Kandinsky’s Ethnography: Scientific Field Work and Aesthetic Reflection,” Art History 17, no. 2 (1994): 182. This article by McKay covers in detail the research Kandinsky did while in Vologda. Carol McKay earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1991. Moeller-Sally, Betsy F. “Inner Simmering: Unveiling the Erotic in Kandinsky,” Russian Review 61, no. 1 (2002): 52. Betsy Moeller-Sally looks at the way Kandinsky was able to create a sexual tension through art by creating a work that elevates the mind to understand a communicative spiritual essence. Naves, Mario. “Kandinsky’s Hocus-Pocus,” New Criterion 28, no. 4 (2009): 22. This article is a review of the Kandinsky retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2009. Ocvirk, Otto G., Robert O. Bone, Robert E. Stinson, and Philip R. Wigg. Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice. Dubuque: WM. C. Brown Company, 1968. This is yet another general book covering art. This goes into more information about design and color however. Picon, Gaëtan, “Symbols and Masks,” in Kandinsky Parisian Period 1934-1944, translated by Barbara Coeyman Hults, 7-14. New York: M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., 1969. Picon’s essay was a quintessential art historian run on sentence cum allegory. Distilling the essence of his thoughts was taxing but fruitful. Picon states that in Kandinsky’s paintings “the object is replaced by a world without seams, by the meeting of the internal and the external, the spiritual and the tangible, by the ‘laws of Nature,’ the Cosmos.” He talks of Kandinsky’s symbolic language becoming more like natural organic beings that can be said to be “concrete.” Gaëtan Picon was an essayist and art critic for Le Mercure de France. Ponente, Nello. Klee Biography and Critical Study. Geneva: Skira, 1960. This is a nifty little book on Klee that hits the highlights. Read, Herbert. A Concise History of Modern Painting. London: Thames & Hudson, 1968. This is a good source for general background information. Schmidgen, Henning. “1900-The Spectatorium: On Biology’s Audiovisual Archive,” Grey Room 43, (2011): 42. This is a lengthy journal article on the use of biological imagery in the early part of the twentieth century. Smithgall, Elsa. Kandinsky and the Harmony of Silence: Painting With White Border. New Haven: Yale, 2011. Smithgall’s book concentrates on the body of information surrounding Kandinsky’s Painting with a White Border. Kandinsky wrote about this painting in his essay “Picture with the White Edge” which was part of the larger collection of essays he wrote in 1913 for “Der Sturm”. Smithgall uses Lindsay and Vergo as a source for this essay. Smithgall does a wonderful job of breaking down the components of this painting and discusses the materials Kandinsky used in great detail. The detailed close-ups of Kandinsky’s painting and the numerous sketches truly help to get perspective on his technique. Elsa Smithgall is a curator at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. Stangos, Nikos. Concepts of Modern Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 1990. This is another good general information book on Modern Art. Steiner, Rudolf. Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos. Translated by Catherine E. Creeger. New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1994. This is long, drawn out, and not a pleasant read. Venzmer, Wolfgang. “Holzel and Kandinsky as Teachers: An Interview with Vincent Weber,” Art Journal 43, no.1 (1983): 27. This is an interview with one of Kandinsky’s students from the Bauhaus. Washton, Rose-Carol, “Untitled,” in Kandinsky Parisian Period 1934-1944, 15-20. New York: M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., 1969. Washton’s essay was beautifully written and expresses sensitivity to Kandinsky’s final years. She states that Kandinsky would have referred to the Paris years as a “synthesis” of all the earlier evolutions of abstraction. She brings to light the ideas of Rudolf Steiner’s Theosophical theories and Kandinsky’s views on the spiritual connection between the apocalypse and art. She quotes Kandinsky from “Abstrakt oder Konkret” in Kandinsky: Essays über Kunst und Künstler, pp. 223-225. First published in 1938. She says that Kandinsky stated “the study of works of art would lead to knowledge of a world more real and more concrete than man’s physical environment, a world which he called ‘cosmic.’ She also breaks down the specific evolutionary steps that Kandinsky’s style went through. She illustrates these steps with numerous references to his paintings. She talks in depth about the use of biomorphic shapes and how Kandinsky felt that viewers of his work would feel a connection to them. Washton explains how Kandinsky treated the picture plane to create a sense of cosmic space and how he would use compositional positioning and color to provide tension in the painting.. She wraps up her essay with a wonderful quote by Kandinsky from his “Reminiscenes”. Rose-Carol Washton – Long, PhD. is on the faculty of the Graduate Center at CUNY. Weber, Nicholas Fox. The Bauhaus Group 6 Masters of Modernism. New Haven: Yale, 2009. Weber’s book provides biographical context to the artists who taught at the Bauhaus. Some of aspects of the book are more inclined to telling a good tale but the information is interesting and helpful in understanding the dynamics of the time and place. Nicholas Fox Weber was the head of the Albers Foundation. Weiss, Peg. “Editor’s Statement: Are We Ready to Memorialize Kandinsky?” Art Journal 43, no. 1 (1983): 9. Weiss reveals in this article why she pulled together the articles for the Kandinsky themed volume of Art Journal. Wheeler, Daniel. Art Since Mid-Century 1945 To Present. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1991. This text looks at the origins of Modern art and the influence it had on art since mid-century. Whitford, Frank. Bauhaus. London: Thames & Hudson, 1984. Whitford has accumulated wonderful accounts of students who took some of Kandinsky’s art classes. The history of the Bauhaus is covered and the role that Kandinsky played is important to understanding the strong geometric abstraction he created at this time. Frank Whitford is a professor at Cambridge and writes about German art in the 19th and 20th centuries. Whitford, Frank. Kandinsky. London: Hamlyn, 1967. This book is part of the Colour Library of Art. It is not extensive in its information but it has beautiful plates and fairly decent notes associated with each plate. Frank Whitford authored Thames & Hudson’s Bauhaus. Willet, John. Expressionism. New York: World University Library, 1970. Willet ties Kandinsky to the strong expressionist atmosphere of Germany in the early part of the 20th Century. He discusses Kandinsky’s education with Ažbe and his close ties with Jawlensky and Münter. John Willet (1917-2002), was a writer and translator who studied in depth Bertold Brecht. Willet had a strong interest in Theatre Design. Wolf, Norbert. Expressionism. Hong Kong: Taschen, 2006. Wolf provides a good overview of the Expressionist art style. This book is broken down into a general history of Expressionism followed by information on individual pieces and the artists who created them. Norbert Wolf received his PhD. in Art History in 1983 at the University of Munich. He is an authority on Casper David Friedrich. Vernadsky, George. A History of Russia. Princeton: Yale University Press, 1948. This is a great text for a quick overview of the history of Russia. George Vernadsky (1887-1973) was a professor at the University of St. Petersberg. 63