Works by the artist Wassily Kandinsky. Famous paintings by Wassily Kandinsky. Masterpiece of Kandinsky V.V. – painting “Detail for Composition IV”

The great Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky was born in 1866 in Moscow. Kandinsky is known all over the world as one of the founders of abstract art. As a child, the painter traveled a lot with his parents around Russia and European countries. In 1871, the family moved permanently to Odessa, where Vasily received an art and musical education.

Wassily Kandinsky studied at the university to become a lawyer, but was forced to temporarily interrupt his studies due to deteriorating health. Kandinsky decided to take up painting relatively late - at that time the aspiring artist was already 30 years old. In 1896, Kandinsky moved to Munich, and until 1914 Germany became his second home. Today, tourists booking tours to Munich have a rare chance to visit the places where they once lived and worked. Great master abstractions.

Works of Wassily Kandinsky

Born into a wealthy family with rich people cultural traditions, Kandinsky received an excellent education - his parents saw their heir as a brilliant lawyer. But at the age of 30, he felt that he had to look for himself in painting and went to Germany, famous for its art schools.

While studying composition and the features of painting and graphics, Kandinsky more than once encountered misunderstandings from teachers who found his color schemes too bright and the layout of the painting too free.

Mountain landscape with church Railway Last Judgment

Active creative activity, the organizing principle has always made Kandinsky the center of gravity for everything intellectual, restless, and searching that was in the art world of that time. So, already in 1901, he founded the Phalanx art association in Munich and organized a school with it, where he himself taught. Over the course of four years, Kandinsky organized twelve exhibitions of painters who were members of the Phalanx. In 1909, he, together with Jawlensky, Kanoldt, Kubin, Münter and others, founded the “New Association of Artists, Munich” and took over the chairmanship. The credo of the society: “Each of the participants not only knows how to say, but also knows what to say.” Since 1900, Kandinsky has participated in exhibitions of the Moscow Association of Artists, and in 1910 and 1912 in exhibitions of the art association “Jack of Diamonds”. He also published art criticism “Letters from Munich” in the magazines “World of Art” and “Apollo” (1902, 1909). In 1911, Kandinsky, together with his friend, artist Franz Marc, organized the Blue Rider group. According to the artist himself, “the emphasis was on identifying the associative properties of color, line and composition, and in this case such diverse sources as the romantic color theory of Goethe and Philipp Runge, Jugendstil and the theosophy of Rudolf Steiner were involved.”

“At no other time did Kandinsky’s painting develop as rapidly as in the Munich years,” wrote M.K. Lacoste.

— Sometimes it’s not easy to understand why the founder abstract painting At first he chose subjects typical of Biedermeier - fans, crinolines, horsemen. Style it early works can not be called either conventional or mannered, but nothing in them yet foreshadowed a radical renewal of painting.

However, as we know, only a few artists are given the ability to simultaneously show originality in form and content. At first it was important for Kandinsky to test his own possibilities of expression. Although “Evening” (1904-1905) cannot be denied its originality, it is difficult to imagine that it was created by the same artist who, five or six years later, would produce the first abstract work in the history of art (1910). What a great creative force must have been at work in Kandinsky! What a rapid evolution from 1908 to 1914 - from landscape paintings, although daring in color and form, but still faithful to observations of nature, like “Houses in Murnau on the Obermarkt” (1908), to a chaotic study called “The Gorge” ( 1914) and restless compositions in the series of panels “The Seasons” at the Guggenheim Museum (“Autumn”). It would be difficult to guess the hand of the same artist in the still quite objective “Crusaders” (1903) and in such an abstract work as “Composition VII”, 1913, despite their common dynamics. Here there is a constrained impulse, there there is a liberated movement.”

“The Blue Rider,” painted by him in 1903, reflects the artist’s borderline state. The painting represents a transition from realism to a new direction in painting and, one might say, opens a cycle of abstract works by Kandinsky. The artist did not paint, but “thought” on canvas: his canvases are a reflection of thoughts. Bright, as is the case with all extraordinary personalities, and seemingly chaotic, as is typical for the work of geniuses.

Painting by Kandinsky recent years Bauhaus is permeated with lightness and strange humor, which will reappear in his later Parisian works. These, for example, include the painting “Bizarre”, 1930, evoking cosmic Egyptian associations and filled with fabulous symbolic images in the spirit of Paul Klee, an artist with whom Kandinsky was friends during these years. Around 1931, a large-scale National Socialist campaign against the Bauhaus unfolds, leading to its closure in 1932. Kandinsky and his wife emigrate to France, where they settle in a new house in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Between 1926 and 1933, Kandinsky painted 159 oil paintings and 300 watercolors. Many of them were unfortunately lost after the Nazis declared the paintings of Kandinsky and many other artists to be “degenerate.”

The Parisian artistic environment reacts with restraint to the appearance of Kandinsky. The reasons for this are its isolation from foreign colleagues and the lack of recognition of abstract painting as such. As a result, the artist lives and works in solitude, limiting his communication only to old friends. At this time, the last transformation of his pictorial system took place. Now Kandinsky does not use combinations of primary colors, but works with soft, refined, subtle color nuances. At the same time, it complements and complicates the repertoire of forms: new, biomorphic elements come to the fore, which feel at ease in the space of the picture, as if floating across the entire surface of the canvas. Kandinsky’s paintings of this period are far from the feeling of “cold romance”; life boils and seethes in them. The artist himself called this period of creativity “a truly picturesque fairy tale.” In the subsequent war years, due to a shortage of materials, the formats of the paintings became smaller and smaller, to the point where the artist was forced to be content with working in gouache on small-sized cardboard. And again he faces rejection by the public and colleagues of his art. And again he develops and improves his theory base:

“Abstract art creates next to the “real” new world, seemingly having nothing in common with “reality.”

Inside he obeys general laws"cosmic world" Thus, next to the “world of nature” a new “world of art” appears - a very real, concrete world. Therefore, I prefer to call so-called “abstract art” concrete art.” Kandinsky did not doubt his “ inner world”, the world of images, where abstraction was not an end in itself, and the language of forms was “stillborn”; they arose from the will to content and vitality.

British scientists have finally found an explanation for why the paintings of the founder of abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky, do not impress all viewers. Neurophysiologists are convinced: Kandinsky wrote his paintings with those in mind for whom contemplation also generates sound associations. Synaesthetes, that is, people who are able to “see sounds” and “hear paintings,” there are today, according to researchers, no more than 250 million people. However, scientists have found that in the first months of life we ​​are all synesthetes.

“We are sure: Kandinsky appealed to auditory perception, although we don’t know whether he was a synesthete himself,” Dr. Jamie Ward said at a recent conference of British neuroscientists.

According to him, only 1-2% of us can consider ourselves synesthetes, but every person subconsciously tends to connect music and painting and perceive them together, rather than separately. According to Gazeta.Ru, to test his theory, Dr. Ward conducted a series of experiments in which six synaesthetes were asked to describe their vision of music performed by the New London Orchestra.

Another control group consisted of six normal people. Animator Sam Moore created dynamic images for them associated with the music being played. These films - like Walt Disney's famous Fantasia - combined music and cartoon images. After the experiment with control groups, the films were shown to visitors at the Science Museum in London, asking them to select from among all the images those that best matched the music. The overwhelming majority chose exactly those images to which the synesthetes turned their favorable gaze.

Bibliography

Albums, catalogues, monographs, collections of articles

• Sarabyanov Dmitry, Avtonomova Natalia. Wassily Kandinsky. - M.: Galart, 1994. - 238 p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-269-00880-7.
• Althaus Karin, Hoberg Annegret, Avtonomova Natalia. Kandinsky and The Blue Rider. - M.: Ministry of Culture Russian Federation, State Museum Publishing House fine arts named after A. S. Pushkin, ScanRus, 2013. - 160 p. - ISBN 978-5-4350-0011-5.

Articles

• Reinhardt L. Abstractionism, in the book: Modernism. Analysis and criticism of the main directions, M., 1969, p. 101-11.
• Grohmann W. Wassily Kandinsky. Life and work, N.Y., 1958.
• Baedecker. Deutschland. Verlag Karl Baedeker. 2002. - ISBN 3-8297-1004-6
• Schulz,Paul Otto.Ostbauern.Köln:DuMont, 1998 - ISBN 3-7701-4159-8
• Azizyan I.A. Moscow V. V. Kandinsky // Architecture in the history of Russian culture. Vol. 2: Capital city. M.: URSS, 1998. - ISBN 5-88417-145-9 pp. 66-71.
• Azizyan I.A. The concept of interaction of arts and the genesis of dialogism of the 20th century (Vyacheslav Ivanov and Wassily Kandinsky) // Avant-garde of the 1910s - 1920s. Interaction of arts. - M., 1998.
• Rappaport A. Kandinsky in London // Rossica. - 2002.- Issue 7/8: Revelations in Color: Dionisy & Kandinsky. Or: Kandinsky in London // Idem.
• Valery Turchin. Kandinsky in Russia. M.: Artist and Book, 2005. - 448 p. - ISBN 5-9900349-1-1
• Azizyan I.A. The theoretical legacy of V. V. Kandinsky in the artistic consciousness of the 20th century // Questions of the theory of architecture: Architectural and theoretical thought of New and Contemporary times / Collection scientific works edited by I. A. Azizyan. - M.: KomKniga, 2006. P. 189-249.
• Kozhev, A. Concrete (objective) painting by Kandinsky (1936) // “Atheism” and other works. - M.: Praxis, 2007. - P. 258-294.

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Russian artist, art theorist and poet, one of the leaders of the avant-garde of the first half of the 20th century; became one of the founders of abstract art.

Born in Moscow on November 22 (December 4), 1866 in the family of a businessman; belonged to a family of Nerchinsk merchants, descendants of Siberian convicts. In 1871–1885 he lived with his parents in Odessa, where he began studying music and painting during his high school years. From 1885 he studied at Moscow University, dreaming of a career as a lawyer, but approx. 1895 decided to devote himself to art. Two factors determined his choice: firstly, the impressions of Russian medieval antiquities and artistic folklore received during an ethnographic expedition to the Vologda province (1889), secondly, a visit to the French exhibition in Moscow (1896), where he was shocked by the painting by K. Monet Haystack. In 1897 he came to Munich, where from 1900 he studied at the local Academy of Arts under the direction of F. von Stuck. Traveled extensively throughout Europe and North Africa(1903–1907), from 1902 he lived mainly in Munich, and in 1908–1909 in the village of Murnau (Bavarian Alps). Having organically entered the environment of German modernist bohemia, he also acted as an active organizer: he founded the groups “Phalanx” (1901), “New Munich Art Association” (1909; together with A.G. Yavlensky and others) and, finally, “Blue Rider” "(1911; together with F. Mark and others) - a society that has become an important connecting link between symbolism and the avant-garde. He published art-critical Letters from Munich in the magazines “World of Art” and “Apollo” (1902, 1909), and participated in exhibitions of the “Jack of Diamonds”.

From the early, already quite bright and rich impressionist sketch paintings, he moved on to bravura, flowery and “folklore” compositions in color, which summed up the characteristic motifs of Russian national modernism with its romance of medieval legends and ancient estate culture (Motley Life, 1907, Lenbachhaus, Munich ; Ladies in crinolines, 1909, Tretyakov Gallery). In 1910 he created the first abstract pictorial improvisations and completed a treatise on the spiritual in art (the book was published in 1911 in German). Considering the main thing in art to be internal, spiritual content, believed that it is best expressed by the direct psychophysical impact of pure colorful harmonies and rhythms. The basis of his subsequent “impressions”, “improvisations” and “compositions” (as Kandinsky himself distinguished the cycles of his works) is the image of a beautiful mountain landscape, as if melting into the clouds, into cosmic oblivion, as the contemplating author-viewer soars mentally. The dramaturgy of oil paintings and watercolors is built through the free play of color spots, dots, lines, individual symbols (such as a horseman, a rook, a palette, a church dome, etc.). The master always paid great attention to graphics, including wood engraving. In his German poetic album of poems Sounds (Klänge, 1913) strived for an ideal relationship of non-objective visual-graphic images with text. The goals of the synthesis of arts were also set in the concept of the play Yellow Sound, designed to combine color, light, movement and music (composer F.A. Hartmann; the performance, the text of which was placed in the anthology The Blue Horseman, 1912, was not realized due to the outbreak of the First World War ).

In 1914 he returned to Russia, where he lived mainly in Moscow. A kind of “apocalypticism”, the aspirations of a universal transformation-in-art, characteristic of his abstractions, became increasingly alarming and dramatic character(Moscow. Red Square, 1916, Tretyakov Gallery; Vague, in the same place; Twilight, Russian Museum; Gray Oval, Art Gallery, Yekaterinburg; all works - 1917). In 1918 he published the autobiographical book Steps. Actively involved in social and humanitarian research activities, was a member of the People's Commissariat for Education, the Institute artistic culture(Inhook) and Russian Academy of artistic sciences (RAKhN), taught at the Higher Art and Technical Workshops (Vkhutemas), however, irritated by ideological squabbles, he left Russia forever after he was sent on a business trip to Berlin (1921).

In Germany he taught at the Bauhaus (from 1922, in Weimar and Dessau), focusing mainly on general theory shaping; outlined his teaching experience in the book Point and Line on a Plane, published in German in 1926. His cosmological fantasies (graphic series Small Worlds, 1922) acquired a more rational-geometric character during this period, moving closer to the principles of Suprematism and constructivism, but maintaining their bright and rhythmic decorativeness (In a black square, 1923; Several circles, 1926; both paintings are in the S. Guggenheim Museum, New York). In 1924, the master formed the Blue Four association together with Jawlensky, L. Feininger and P. Klee, organizing joint exhibitions with them. He acted as an artist for the stage version of M. P. Mussorgsky's suite Pictures from an Exhibition at the Dessau Theater (1928).

After the Nazis closed the Bauhaus (1932), he moved to Berlin, and in 1933 to France, where he lived in Paris and its suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine. Having experienced a significant influence of surrealism, he increasingly introduced into his paintings - along with the previous geometric structures and signs - biomorphic elements, similar to some primordial organisms floating in the interplanetary void (Dominant curve, 1936, ibid.; Blue Sky, 1940, Center J. Pompidou , Paris; Various Actions, 1941, S. Guggenheim Museum, New York). With the beginning of the German occupation (1939), he intended to emigrate to the United States and spent several months in the Pyrenees, but eventually returned to Paris, where he continued to work actively, including on a project for a comedy film-ballet, which he intended to create together with composer Hartmann.

At the beginning of December 2011, new price records were set at Russian auctions in London. Summing up the year, we have compiled a list of the most expensive works by Russian artists based on the results of auction sales.

33 most expensive places. Source: 33 most expensive places.

According to the ratings, the most expensive Russian artist is Mark Rothko. His White Center (1950), sold for 72.8 million dollars, in addition, ranks 12th in the list of the most expensive paintings in the world in general. However, Rothko was Jewish, born in Latvia and left Russia at the age of 10. Is it fair?with such a stretch chase for records? Therefore, we crossed Rothko, like other emigrants who left Russia without yet becoming artists (for example, Tamara de Lempicki and Chaim Soutine), from the list.

No. 1. Kazimir Malevich - $60 million.

The author of “Black Square” is too important a person for his works to be often found on the open market. So this painting got to auction in a very difficult way. In 1927, Malevich, planning to organize an exhibition, brought almost a hundred works from his Leningrad workshop to Berlin. However, he was urgently recalled to his homeland, and he left them in the custody of the architect Hugo Hering. He saved the paintings in difficult years fascist dictatorship, when they could well have been destroyed as “degenerate art,” and in 1958, after Malevich’s death, he sold them to the State Stedelek Museum (Holland).

IN beginning of XXI century, a group of Malevich's heirs, almost forty people, began legal proceedings - because Hering was not the legal owner of the paintings. As a result, the museum gave them this painting, and will give them four more, which will certainly cause a sensation at some auction. After all, Malevich is one of the most forged artists in the world, and the provenance of the paintings from the Stedelek Museum is impeccable. And in January 2012, the heirs received another painting from that Berlin exhibition, taking it away from the Swiss museum.

No. 2. Wassily Kandinsky - $22.9 million.

The auction price of a work is influenced by its reputation. It's not only big name artist, but also “provenance” (origin). An item from a famous private collection or good museum always costs more than work from an anonymous collection. “Fugue” comes from the famous Guggenheim Museum: one day director Thomas Krenz removed Kandinsky, a painting by Chagall and Modigliani from the museum collections, and put them up for sale. For some reason, the museum used the money received to purchase a collection of 200 works by American conceptualists. Krenz was condemned for a very long time for this decision.

This painting by the father of abstract art is curious because it set a record back in 1990, when the auction rooms of London and New York had not yet been filled with reckless Russian buyers. Thanks to this, by the way, it did not disappear into some very private collection in luxurious mansion, but is on permanent display in the private Beyeler Museum in Switzerland, where anyone can see it. A rare opportunity for such a purchase!

No. 3. Alexey Yavlensky - £9.43 million

An unknown buyer paid approximately $18.5 million for a portrait depicting a girl from a village near Munich. Shokko is not a name, but a nickname. Every time the model came to the artist’s studio, she asked for a cup of hot chocolate. So “Shokko” took root after her.

The sold painting is part of his famous cycle “Race”, depicting the domestic peasantry of the first quarter of the twentieth century. And, really, she portrays her with such faces that it’s scary to watch. Here, in the image of a shepherd, the peasant poet Nikolai Klyuev, the forerunner of Yesenin, appears. Among his poems are the following: “In the heat of the day, the scarlet flower has become defoliated and faded - The daring light of a child is far from the sweetheart.”

No. 19. Konstantin Makovsky - £2.03 million

Makovsky is a salon painter, famous for the huge number of hawthorn heads in kokoshniks and sundresses, as well as for the painting “Children Running from a Thunderstorm,” which at one time was constantly published on gift boxes chocolates. Its sweet historical paintings are in stable demand among Russian buyers.

The theme of this painting- Old Russian "kiss ritual" To noble women Ancient Rus' it was not allowed to leave the female half, and only for the sake of the guests of honor could they come out, bring a glass and (the most pleasant part) allow themselves to be kissed. Pay attention to the painting hanging on the wall: this is an image of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, one of the first equestrian portraits to appear in Rus'. Its composition, although it was blatantly copied from a European model, was considered unusually innovative and even shocking for that time.

No. 20. Svyatoslav Roerich - $2.99 ​​million

The son of Nicholas Roerich left Russia as a teenager. Lived in England, USA, India. Like his father, he was interested in Eastern philosophy. Like his father, he painted many paintings on Indian themes. His father generally occupied a huge place in his life - he painted more than thirty portraits of him. This painting was created in India, where the clan settled in the middle of the century. Paintings by Svyatoslav Roerich rarely appear at auctions, and in Moscow works of the famous dynasty can be seen in the halls of the Museum of the East, to which the authors donated them, as well as in the museum of the International Center of the Roerichs, which is located in a luxurious noble estate right behind the Pushkin Museum. Both museums do not really like each other: the Museum of the East lays claim to both the building and the collections of the Roerich Center.

No. 21. Ivan Shishkin - £1.87 million

The main Russian landscape painter spent three summers in a row on Valaam and left many images of this area. This work is a little gloomy and does not look like classic Shishkin. But this is explained by the fact that the picture dates back to his early period, when he had not found his style and was under strong influence Düsseldorf School of Landscape, where he studied.

We already mentioned this Dusseldorf school above, in the recipe for fake “Aivazovsky”. " Shishkins" are made according to the same scheme, for example, in 2004 at Sotheby's exhibited “Landscape with a Stream” from the Düsseldorf period of the painter. It was estimated at $1 million and was confirmed by an examination of the Tretyakov Gallery. An hour before the sale, the lot was withdrawn - it turned out to be a painting by another student of this school, the Dutchman Marinus Adrian Koekkoek, purchased in Sweden for 65 thousand dollars.

No. 22. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin - £1.83m

A portrait of a boy holding an icon of the Virgin Mary was found in a private collection in Chicago. After it was handed over to the auction house, experts began research to try to establish its origins. It turned out that the painting was at exhibitions in 1922 and 1932. In the 1930s, the artist’s works traveled around the States as part of an exhibition of Russian art. Perhaps it was then that the owners acquired this painting.

Notice the empty space on the wall behind the boy. At first the author thought of painting a window with a green landscape there. This would balance the picture both in composition and colors - the grass would echo the green tunic of the Mother of God (by the way, according to the canon it should be blue). Why Petrov-Vodkin painted over the window is unknown.

No. 23. Nicholas Roerich - £1.76 million

Before visiting Shambhala and beginning to correspond with the Dalai Lama, Nicholas Roerich quite successfully specialized in ancient Russian themes and even made ballet sketches for Russian Seasons. The lot sold belongs to this period. The scene depicted is miraculous phenomenon above the water, which is observed by a Russian monk, most likely Sergius of Radonezh. It is curious that the painting was painted in the same year as another vision of Sergius (then the youth Bartholomew), appearing in our list above. The stylistic difference is colossal.

Roerich painted many paintings and the lion's share of them in India. He donated several pieces to the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research. Recently two of them, Himalayas, Kanchenjunga and Sunset, Kashmir ", appeared at auction in London. Only then did the junior researchers of the institute notice that they had been robbed. In January 2011, the Indians applied to a London court for permission to investigate this crime in England. The interest of thieves in Roerich’s heritage is understandable, because there is a demand.

No. 24. Lyubov Popova - £1.7 million

Lyubov Popova died young, so she did not manage to become famous like another Amazon of the avant-garde, Natalya Goncharova. And her legacy is smaller - so it’s difficult to find her work for sale. After her death, a detailed inventory of the paintings was compiled. For many years this still life was known only from a black and white reproduction, until it surfaced in a private collection, turning out to be the artist’s most significant work in private hands. Pay attention to the Zhostovo tray - perhaps this is a hint of Popova’s taste for folk crafts. She came from the family of an Ivanovo merchant who dealt in textiles, and she herself created many sketches of propaganda textiles based on Russian traditions.

No. 25. Aristarkh Lentulov - £1.7 million

Lentulov entered the history of the Russian avant-garde with his memorable image of St. Basil's Cathedral - either cubism or patchwork quilt. In this landscape he tries to split space according to a similar principle, but it doesn’t turn out as exciting. Actually, that's why "St. Basil the Blessed""in the Tretyakov Gallery, and this painting- on the art market. After all, museum workers once had the opportunity to skim the cream.

No. 26. Alexey Bogolyubov - £1.58 million

Selling this little-known artist, albeit the favorite landscape painter of Tsar Alexander III, for such crazy money - a symptom of the market frenzy on the eve of the 2008 crisis. At that time, Russian collectors were ready to buy even minor masters. Moreover, first-class artists are rarely sold.

Perhaps this painting was sent as a gift to some official: it has a suitable subject, because the Cathedral of Christ the Savior has long ceased to be just a church, and has become a symbol. And a flattering origin - the painting was kept in the royal palace. Pay attention to the details: the brick Kremlin tower is covered with white plaster, and the hill inside the Kremlin is completely undeveloped. Well, why bother trying? In the 1870s, the capital was St. Petersburg, not Moscow, and the Kremlin was not a residence.

No. 27. Isaac Levitan - £1.56 million

Completely atypical for Levitan, the work was sold at the same auction as Bogolyubov’s painting, but it turned out to be cheaper. This is connected, of course, with the fact that the picture does not look like Levitan " Its authorship, however, is indisputable; a similar plot is in the Dnepropetrovsk Museum. 40 thousand light bulbs, with which the Kremlin was decorated, were lit in honor of the coronation of Nicholas II. In a few days the Khodynka disaster will happen.

No. 28. Arkhip Kuindzhi - $3 million.

The famous landscape painter painted three similar paintings. The first is in the Tretyakov Gallery, the third is in the State Museum of Belarus. The second, presented at the auction, was intended for Prince Pavel Pavlovich Demidov-San Donato. This representative of the famous Ural dynasty lived in a villa near Florence. In general, the Demidovs, having become Italian princes, had fun as best they could. For example, Pavel's uncle, from whom he inherited princely title, was so rich and noble that he married the niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, and one day, in a bad mood, he whipped her. The poor lady had a hard time getting a divorce. The painting, however, did not reach Demidov; it was acquired by the Ukrainian sugar factory Tereshchenko.

No. 29. Konstantin Korovin - £1.497 million

Impressionists characterized by a very “light”, sweeping writing style. Korovin is the main Russian impressionist. It is very popular among scammers; According to rumors, the number of its fakes at auctions reaches 80%. If a painting from a private collection was exhibited at the artist’s personal exhibition in a famous state museum, then its reputation is strengthened, and at the next auction it costs much more. In 2012, the Tretyakov Gallery plans large-scale exhibition Korovina. Maybe there will be works from private collections. This paragraph is an example of manipulation of the reader’s consciousness by listing facts that do not have a direct logical connection with each other.

• Please note that from March 26 to August 12, 2012, the Tretyakov Gallery promises to organizeKorovin exhibition . Read more about the biography of the most charming of the Silver Age artists in our review opening days of the State Tretyakov Gallery in 2012.

No. 30. Yuri Annenkov - $2.26 million.

Annenkov managed to emigrate in 1924 and made a good career in the West. For example, in 1954 he was nominated for an Oscar as costume designer for the film "Madame de..." His early Soviet portraits are best known- the faces are cubist, faceted, but completely recognizable. For example, he repeatedly drew Leon Trotsky in this way - and even repeated the drawing many years later from memory, when the Times magazine wanted to decorate the cover with it.

The character depicted in the record-breaking portrait is the writer Tikhonov-Serebrov. He entered the history of Russian literature mainly through his close friendship with. So close that, according to dirty rumors, the artist’s wife Varvara Shaikevich even gave birth to a daughter from the great proletarian writer. It’s not very noticeable in the reproduction, but the portrait was made using the collage technique: glass and plaster are placed on top of a layer of oil paint, and even a real doorbell is attached.

No. 31. Lev Lagorio - £1.47 million

Another minor landscape painter, for some reason sold for a record price. One of the indicators of the success of the auction is exceeding the estimate (“estimate”) - the minimum price that the auction house experts have set for the lot. The estimate for this landscape was 300-400 thousand pounds, but it was sold for 4 times more expensive. As one London auctioneer said: “happiness is when two Russian oligarchs compete for the same thing."

No. 32. Viktor Vasnetsov - £1.1 million

Bogatyrs of steel business card back in the 1870s. He returns to his star theme, like other veterans of Russian painting, during the years of the young Soviet republic - both for financial reasons and to feel in demand again. This picture is the author's repetition “Ilya Muromets” (1915), which is kept in the House-Museum of the artist (on Prospekt Mira).

No. 33. Erik Bulatov - £1.084 million

The second living artist on our list (he also said that the best way for an artist to raise prices for his work is to die). , by the way, this is a Soviet Warhol, underground and anti-communist. He worked in the genre of social art, which was created by the Soviet underground, as our version of pop art. “Glory to the CPSU” is one of the most famous works artist. According to his own explanations, the letters here symbolize a lattice blocking the sky, that is, freedom, from us.

Bonus: Zinaida Serebryakova - £1.07 million

Serebryakova loved to paint nude women, self-portraits and her four children. This ideal feminist world is harmonious and calm, which cannot be said about the life of the artist herself, who barely escaped from Russia after the revolution and spent a lot of effort to get her children out of there.

“Nude” is not an oil painting, but a pastel drawing. This is the most expensive Russian drawing. Such a high amount paid for the graphics is comparable to the prices for Impressionist drawings and caused great surprise at Sotheby's, which started the auction with 150 thousand pounds sterling and received a million.

The list is compiled based on prices indicated on the official websites of auction houses. This price is made up of the net price (as stated when the hammer comes down), and« buyer's premium (additional percentage of the auction house). Other sources may indicate "pure» price. The dollar to pound exchange rate often fluctuates, so British and American lots are located relative to each other with approximate accuracy (we are not Forbes).

Additions and corrections to our list are welcome.

Wassily Kandinsky was not born an artist; he came to painting quite late - at the age of 30. However, over the remaining half century, he managed to become famous not only for his paintings, but also for his theoretical treatises, the most famous of which is “On the Spiritual in Art.” Largely thanks to this work, Kandinsky is known throughout the world as the founder of abstract art.

Childhood and youth

Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky was born on December 4 (16), 1866 in Moscow into a noble family. The father, the famous businessman Vasily Silvestrovich, came from the ancient Kyakhta family of the Kandinskys, who were considered descendants of the kings of the Mansi Kondinsky principality. Great-grandmother is a princess from the Tunguska family of the Gantimurovs.

The family spent most of their fortune on travel. During the first 5 years after Vasily's birth, they traveled around Russia and Europe, settling in Odessa in 1871. Here future artist received a classical education, while simultaneously developing creatively. A private teacher taught him to play the piano and cello and draw. At a young age, the boy skillfully handled a brush, combining, it seemed, incongruous bright colors. Later, this feature formed the basis for the painting style he developed - abstractionism.

The parents did not consider their son's talent. By their will, in 1885, Wassily Kandinsky entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Law, Department of Political Economy and Statistics. Having missed two years due to illness, he successfully completed his studies in 1893.

Since 1895, he worked at the Moscow printing house “Partnership of I. N. Kushnever and Co.” as artistic director. In 1896, an invitation was received to take the place of professor of law at the University of Dorpat, but Vasily Vasilyevich refused in favor of realizing himself as an artist.

Painting and creativity

As Wassily Kandinsky wrote in his diaries, two events influenced the decision to become an artist: an exhibition French impressionists 1895, where, among other things, “Haystack” and the opera “Lohengrin” were shown at the Bolshoi Theater. At the moment when the future great artist and the art theorist realized his true purpose, he turned 30 years old.

In 1896 Kandinsky entered the private school Anton Azhbe in Munich. There he received his first tips on building a composition, working with shape and color. The unusual nature of his work became the subject of ridicule from his fellow painters. Realist Igor Grabar recalled:

“He painted small landscape sketches, using not a brush, but a palette knife and applying bright colors separate planks. The resulting sketches were motley and in no way coordinated. We all treated them with restraint and joked among ourselves about these exercises in “purity of colors.” Kandinsky also did not do very well with Azhbe and did not shine with his talents at all.”

The riot of colors was not to the taste of the German painter Franz von Stuck, with whom Vasily Vasilyevich studied at Munich Academy arts Because of this, Kandinsky painted black and white works throughout 1900, focusing on graphics. A year later, the future abstract artist opened the Münchner Malschule Phalanx school, where he met Gabrielle Münter, a young promising artist. She became Kandinsky's muse and lover.

At that time, landscapes saturated with colors emerged from the brush of Vasily Vasilyevich: “Old Town”, “Blue Mountain”, “Street in Murnau with Women”, “ Autumn landscape", etc. There was also a place for portraits, for example, "Two on a Horse."

In 1911, Kandinsky wrote his first book, “On the Spiritual in Art.” In fact, the treatise became the first theoretical justification for the emergence of such a genre as abstract art. Vasily Vasilyevich talked about the means of embodiment of creativity: color, shape, thickness of lines. In 1914, the abstract artist began working on the second theoretical work, which was called “Point and Line on a Plane.” It was published in 1926.

The war of 1914 forced Kandinsky to return to his homeland, Moscow. He taught at the Free Workshops, then at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops. In classes, he promoted a free style of writing, which is why he often came into conflict with fellow realists. Vasily Vasilyevich objected:

“Just because an artist uses abstract means of expression does not mean that he is an abstract artist. That doesn't even mean he's an artist. There is no less dead triangles (be they white or green) than dead chickens, dead horses and dead guitars. You can become a “realistic academic” just as easily as you can become an “abstract academic.”

After the Bauhaus closed in 1933, Kandinsky immigrated to Paris. In France, abstractionism as a genre was absent in principle, so the public did not accept the artist’s innovative creations. Trying to adapt, Vasily Vasilyevich relied on form and composition, softening the bright, catchy colors. He created the paintings “Sky Blue” and “Complex and Simple”, playing on contrasts.

Personal life

There were three women in Wassily Kandinsky's personal life.

Anna Filippovna Chemyakina was the artist’s cousin and was 6 years older. The wedding took place in 1892, more out of loneliness than out of love.

In 1902, Kandinsky met the German artist Gabriele Münter. A year later, the couple got engaged, despite the fact that Chemyakin gave a divorce only in 1911.

Young Munter, who was 11 years younger, wanted to become Vasily Vasilyevich’s wife. But the artist delayed this moment, often traveling without a companion. In the spring of 1916 he left for Moscow, promising to prepare papers for marriage. And he kept his promise - he got married in the winter of 1917. True, not Munter, but Nina Nikolaevna Andreevskaya, whom I met by telephone in 1916.

Then Nina was 17 years old, and Kandinsky was almost 50, and on joint photos they looked more like a daughter and her father. But their love seemed pure and sincere.

“I was surprised by his stunning blue eyes...” Nina wrote about their first meeting.

At the end of 1917, their son Vsevolod was born, who was affectionately named Lodya. Less than three years had passed since the boy died. Since then, the topic of children has become taboo in the Kandinsky family.

Death

Wassily Kandinsky lived long life- death overtook him at the 78th year of his life in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

The tragedy happened on December 13, 1944. The body rests in the New Cemetery of Neuilly, in the communes of Puteaux.

No. 1. In 1926, David Paladin, a future soldier-cartographer, was born in Chinley, Arizona. During the war years he was captured, and the young man ended up in a concentration camp. He endured all possible bullying until one day the prisoners were released. Since Paladin showed no signs of life, he was taken along with hundreds of others to be buried. On the way, the soldier began to stir. IN urgently he was taken to the hospital.

The young man spent two and a half years in a coma, and when he regained consciousness, he introduced himself as Wassily Kandinsky in pure Russian. As proof of the honesty of the spoken words, now former soldier painted a picture that art critics considered suitable for the style of the great abstractionist.

After leaving the hospital, David, nicknamed the New Kandinsky, continued to paint, got a job as a teacher at the Arizona College of Art, and then opened his own school. He painted more than 130 canvases under Kandinsky's signature.

It is said that Paladin was once hypnotized. He talked about “his” biography: he was born in Moscow in the family of a businessman, studied in Odessa, had three wives. And all this - in the voice of Kandinsky. At the end of the session the young man said:

“But why is there no peace for my soul even after death? Why did she possess this man? Maybe in order to complete the unfinished cycle of paintings...”

No. 2. Wassily Kandinsky's cousin, Victor, is a renowned psychiatrist whose only patient was himself. At the age of 30, Victor had his first attack of the disease, which later became known as schizophrenia. The psychiatrist was tormented by auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions, and “open thoughts” syndrome. He, realizing that he was not healthy, began research. On their basis, Victor Kandinsky wrote treatises “On Pseudohallucinations” and “On the Question of Insanity,” which proved that schizophrenia is treatable.

True, in practice, the patient’s biography had a sad ending - during the next attack, the psychiatrist kept the following record:

“I swallowed so many grams of opium. I’m reading Tolstoy’s “Cossacks.” It becomes difficult to read. I can't write anymore, I can't see clearly anymore. Sveta! Sveta!".

Victor died at 40 years old.

No. 3. Wassily Kandinsky wrote prose poetry. In 1913, the collection “Sounds” was published, which included seven works.

Works

• 1901 – “Summer”
• 1903 – “The Blue Rider”
• 1905 – “Gabriel Munter”
• 1908-1909 – “Blue Mountain”
• 1911 – “All Saints”
• 1914 – “Fugue”
• 1923 – “In the Black Square”
• 1924 – “Black accompaniment”
• 1927 – “Peaks on the Arc”
• 1932 – “Right to Left”
• 1936 – “Dominant Curve”
• 1939 – “Complicated and Simple”
• 1941 – “Various Incidents”
• 1944 – “Ribbon with squares”

There are probably no people who, upon first acquaintance with Kandinsky’s work, would recognize his genius. The first glance at his “compositions”, “improvisations” and “impressions” provokes different thoughts: from “a child could paint this” to “what did the artist want to depict in this picture?” And upon deeper acquaintance, it turns out that the artist did not intend to depict anything, he wanted to make you feel.

The great discoverer of abstraction, Wassily Kandinsky, had absolutely no intention of becoming an artist, much less a philosopher of the art world. On the contrary, his father, the famous Moscow businessman of that time Vasily Silvestorovich Kandinsky, saw him as a successful lawyer, which led the future abstract artist to the law faculty of Moscow University, where he studied political economics and statistics. Of course, Kandinsky grew up in intelligent family, which did not deny the importance of art in a person’s life, therefore, as a young man, Vasily received basic knowledge in the world of music and painting. But he returned to them only after he turned 30, which once again confirmed the simple truth - it’s never too late to start. Despite his love for his homeland, in particular for Moscow, which will appear on his canvases more than once, Kandinsky in 1896, for the sake of his passion for painting, moved to Munich - a city famous at that time for its openness to new genres of art and hospitality for aspiring artists . The impetus for leaving the usual way of life and going into the unknown was a reason completely unrelated to art - a very big thing happened in the world of physics. an important event- discovery of the decomposition of the atom. As Kandinsky himself wrote in his letters to his scientific supervisor, this revolution in the world of physics gave him strange feelings: “Thick vaults collapsed. Everything became unfaithful, shaky and soft...".

The fact that the smallest particle is not integral, but consists of many still unexplored elements, led the future artist to a new worldview. Kandinsky realized that everything in this world can be broken down into separate components, and he himself described this feeling as follows:

“It (the discovery) resonated within me like the sudden destruction of the entire world.”.

Another reason for a complete revolution in Kandinsky’s consciousness was the exhibition of French impressionists brought to Moscow. On it he saw Claude Monet’s painting “Haystack”. This work struck Vasily Vasilyevich with its pointlessness, since before that he was familiar exclusively with realistic painting Russian artists. Despite the fact that the plot is difficult to guess in the picture, it touches certain feelings, inspires and remains in the memory. It was precisely such deep and moving works that Kandinsky decided to create.

In Germany, Wassily Kandinsky quickly mastered classical drawing, the techniques of the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Fauves, and soon became a recognized avant-garde artist. In 1901, its first professional painting"Munich. Planegg 1", which combined Van Gogh's bright brushstrokes and gentle sunlight impressionists. Subsequently, Kandinsky in his work began to move away from the detailing of his creations, moving from realism to experiments with color.

"Munich. Planegg 1" (1901) – Private Collection

The first step on the path to abstraction was the writing of the philosophical treatise “On the Spiritual in Art” in 1910. The book was far ahead of its time, so it was very difficult to find a publisher for it. An interesting fact is that the original was written by Kandinsky in German, and the book was published in Russian only in 1967 in New York thanks to the International Literary Commonwealth and the artist’s wife, Nina Kandinskaya. In the original language in Munich, the book was published in 1911 and had incredible success. During the year it was published 3 times, and in Scandinavia, Switzerland and Holland, where it is distributed German, the book was read by everyone who had at least some connection to art. Russian avant-garde artists had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the contents of the treatise at the All-Russian Congress of Artists in December 1911 thanks to the report of N.I. Kulbin "On the spiritual in art." In it, he used some chapters of Kandinsky's book, including a chapter on the different possible geometric forms in abstract art, which greatly influenced the leading Russian artists of the time, including Kazimir Malevich. But Kandinsky’s work is not a textbook. “On the Spiritual in Art” is a philosophical, very subtle and inspiring work, without which it is simply impossible to understand and experience the paintings of the great abstractionist. At the very beginning of the book, Kandinsky divides all artists into 2 types, based on the definitions of Robert Schumann and Leo Tolstoy. The composer believed that “the calling of an artist is to send light into the depths of the human heart,” and the writer called the artist the person “who can draw and write anything.” The second definition is alien to Kandinsky; he himself calls such people “artisans” whose work is not filled with meaning and has no value.

“There is a crack in our soul, and the soul, if it can be touched, sounds like a cracked precious vase found in the depths of the earth.”

Music has always had a great influence on the artist, since it is the only absolutely abstract art that makes our imagination work, avoiding objectivity. Just as notes form a beautiful melody, so Kandinsky’s colors in their combination give birth to amazing paintings. The overture of Richard Wagner's opera inspired the aspiring artist the most. After meeting her, Kandinsky wondered whether he could create a painting with the same strong emotional content as the work of the great composer, “in which the colors would become notes, and the color scheme would become the tonality?”

In his search for an answer to this question, Kandinsky was helped by his acquaintance with the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. In January 1911, in Munich, the artist heard the atonal works of his future friend and ally and was shocked. Thanks to Schoenberg’s concert, the master’s not yet completely abstract, but already almost non-objective painting “Impression III” was born. Concert". The dark triangle in the picture symbolizes the piano; below you can see the crowd attracted by the music, and the color scheme perfectly reflects that vivid impression, which Kandinsky received at a Schoenberg concert.

Kandinsky was confident that Schoenberg would correctly perceive his philosophy of abstract creativity, and he was not mistaken. The composer supported the artist in his endeavors with color experiments and the search for “anti-logical” harmony, in which feelings, rather than plot, would come first. But not all artists shared this point of view, which led to a split among artists and the creation of a community of like-minded abstractionists, the Blue Horseman. Teaming up with artists August Macke, Franz Marc and Robert Delaney and, of course, composer Arnold Schoenberg, Kandinsky finally finds himself in an environment that promotes the transition to complete abstraction in his work, the search for new forms and color combinations.

“In general, color is a means by which one can directly influence the soul. Color is the key; eye - hammer; the soul is a multi-string piano. The artist is the hand that, through this or that key, expediently sets the human soul into vibration.”

It is impossible to argue with Kandinsky in this statement, because many modern studies prove that color influences even our primitive desires and states: everyone knows that red stimulates appetite, green calms us, and yellow adds vigor and energy to us. And by combining different colors and shapes in a painting, you can influence more deep feelings. This is what the great artist wanted to achieve. Kandinsky's experiments influenced many artists of the early 20th century, including Paul Klee, who before meeting the founder of the Blue Rider was a graphic artist who avoided multi-colored paintings, and after that was known for his delicate, in some sense naive watercolors . The Swiss shared the abstract artist's love of music and his idea that art should evoke strong emotions, help a person listen to the inner self and gain an understanding of the processes occurring in the environment.

“Art does not reproduce what is visible, but makes visible what is not always so.” (c) Paul Klee

It was with this message that Kandinsky began to paint his paintings after 1911. For example, in our Tretyakov Gallery you can see one of the artist’s most significant and large-scale works, written in 1913 - “Composition VII”. The artist does not give any clues to the plot: in the painting there is only color and shape, distributed on a huge canvas (the work is considered the largest of all Kandinsky’s works - 2x3m). The scale made it possible to place fragments of different intensity and color in the painting: sharp-angled, thin, mostly dark elements in the center and smoother shapes and delicate colors around the perimeter allow us to experience different sensations when looking at the same picture. The dark tones on the right contrast with the light in this painting, with circles with fuzzy edges cut through by hard, straight lines. Kandinsky's compositions are a combination of the incongruous, a search for harmony in chaos; these are works that are more like music, since they are the most abstract. It is these works that are considered the main conductors of the artist’s philosophy and the culmination of all his work.

Also realizing that most people need hints to understand his art, Kandinsky continues to write his “Improvisations”, in which a subtle (and in individual works and quite obvious) thread connecting abstraction with reality, thanks to concrete elements. For example, in several paintings we can see images of boats and ships: this motif appears when the artist wants to tell us about how a person fights with the world around him, as if sailing ships resist waves and the elements.

In some paintings we can hardly distinguish the masts, as, for example, in the painting “Improvisation 2 8 ( Sea battle)", created on the eve of the First World War, while in other canvases the image of the ship is visible at first glance, as in "Improvisation 209", written in 1917, when the spirit of revolution was felt throughout Russia.

Another frequent element found in the Improvisations are the horsemen, who characterize the aspirations of the people. The image of warriors on horseback was of particular significance for Kandinsky as a man who constantly fought against established norms and canons for the sake of his beliefs. It is no coincidence that the name of the club of creative like-minded abstractionists contains this allegory.

While Kandinsky’s “Compositions” are thought out to the smallest detail, and the arrangement of figures and the use of certain colors are absolutely conscious, when writing “Improvisations” the artist was guided by internal processes, showing his sudden unconscious emotions.

Noticeable changes in creative path Wassily Kandinsky take place during his return to Moscow in 1914. As a citizen of Russia, the artist was forced to leave Germany during the war and continue to make art in his homeland. From 1914 to 1921, he lived in Moscow and promoted his ideas to the masses, collaborated with the government in preparing museum reform, developed artistic pedagogy and was inspired by his hometown.

"Moscow: duality, complexity, highest degree mobility, collision and confusion of individual elements of appearance... I consider this external and internal Moscow the starting point of my quest. Moscow is my picturesque tuning fork"

During his stay in Russia, the artist rushed between different genres and even depicted Moscow in quite detail (relative to all of his work), and at some point he returned to impressionistic sketches.

Throughout the creative path of Wassily Kandinsky, we see many different genres, techniques and subjects. In the same year, an artist could create both a fairly concrete work with a meaning understandable to the general public and a complete abstraction. This fact emphasizes the versatility of his personality, the desire for new knowledge and techniques and, of course, constant development creative genius within yourself. An artist, teacher, music connoisseur, writer and, of course, philosopher of the art world, Wassily Kandinsky leaves no one indifferent, because his main task was to make people feel, experience, and experience emotions. And he achieved this goal thanks to the cultural heritage that he left for future generations.

Where to see Kandinsky's paintings in Russia?

• Astrakhan Art Gallery them. B. M. Kustodieva
• Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts
• Krasnodar regional Art Museum them. F. Kovalenko
• Krasnoyarsk Museum of Fine Arts
• State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val, Moscow
• State Museum of Fine Arts named after. A.S. Pushkin, Moscow
• Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum
• Ryazan State Regional Art Museum named after. I.P. I'm sorry
• State Hermitage Museum, Main Headquarters, Saint Petersburg
• Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
• Museum complex of the Tyumen region