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What is Kandinsky famous for?
1 Answer
Kandinsky is famous for his work as an artist. The Russian-born painter and theorist dedicated his life to using abstract compositions of form and color to express deep emotion as well as to depict the language of music through visuals. Wassily Kandinsky was part of a crucial moment in 20th-century art history. He embraced styles such as Surrealism and Fauvism and was a leading figure in bringing together Der Blaue Reiter in 1911. This group of avant-garde artists in Munich included Paul Klee and Franz Marc and explored spiritual concepts through art as a response to the materialism of the time. Some of Kandinsky’s most famous works include Composition VIII, Composition VII, Several Circles, The Blue Rider and Circles in a Circle. Shop a collection of Wassily Kandinsky art on 1stDibs.
1stDibs ExpertMay 14, 2024
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Shop for Wassily Kandinsky Art on 1stDibs
"Stars" original lithograph
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. Printed in 1938 and published in Paris by Teriade for the art revue Verve (volume 1, number 2). Kandinsky was invited to contribute an original compositi...
Category
1930s Expressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Wassily Kandinsky, Komposition, from XXe siecle, 1939
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite woodcut by Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), titled Komposition (Composition), from the album XXe siecle, Chroniques du jour, 13 rue Valette (5e), Directeur G. di San Laz...
Category
1930s Modern Abstract Prints
Materials
Woodcut
$7,196 Sale Price
20% Off
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Wassily Kandinsky, Two Riders Against Red, from XXe siecle, 1938
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite woodcut by Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), titled Zwei Reiter vor Rot (Two Riders Against Red), from the album XXe siecle, Chroniques du jour, 13 rue Valette (5e), Dire...
Category
1930s Modern Abstract Prints
Materials
Woodcut
$5,596 Sale Price
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Wassily Kandinsky, Oriental, from XXe siecle, 1938
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Southampton, NY
This exquisite woodcut by Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), titled Orientalisches (Oriental), from the album XXe siecle, Chroniques du jour, 13 rue Valette (5e), Directeur G. di San Laz...
Category
1930s Modern Abstract Prints
Materials
Woodcut
$5,596 Sale Price
20% Off
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Bunt im Dreieck
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in London, GB
Wassily Kandinsky
Bunt im Dreieck, 1965
Lithograph in colours on Arches paper
Signed in the plate
50 x 37.5 cm
Sheet: 64 x 45.7 cm
Framed: 69.2 x 56 cm
Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Prints and Multiples
Materials
Lithograph
'Improvisation 7' original first ed. woodcut from 'Klänge' by Wassily Kandinsky
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present woodcut print comes from 'Klänge (Sounds),' a book of original graphics and poetry by Wassily Kandinsky. This first edition was released in an edition of 300, each book signed and numbered by the artist. The title of the album and this particular print, 'Improvisation,' demonstrated Kandinsky's interest in music and how abstract musical forms could be translated into images on a two-dimensional surface. This particular composition is difficult to read, but through the abstraction, one can make out various figures and a landscape beyond.
7.5 x 5 inches, image
22 x 19.5 inches, frame
Woodcut in black ink on laid paper (watermark Van Gelder Zonen)
Signed with encircled 'K' in the block, lower right
Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent acid free archival materials including silk-lined matting with 1/4 inch bevel, museum glass, and a gold-gilded moulding
Ref. Roethel 124
The Museum of Modern Art described 'Klänge (Sounds)' as follows:
Vasily Kandinsky's self-described "musical album," Klänge (Sounds), consists of thirty-eight prose-poems he wrote between 1909 and 1911 and fifty-six woodcuts he began in 1907. In the woodcuts Kandinsky veiled his subject matter, creating increasingly indecipherable images (though the horse and rider, his symbol for overcoming objective representation, runs through as a leitmotif). This process proved crucial for the development of abstraction in his art. Kandinsky said his choice of media sprang from an "inner necessity" for expression: the woodcuts were not merely illustrative, nor were the poems purely verbal descriptions. Kandinsky sought a synthesis of the arts, in which meaning was created through the interaction of, and space between, text and image, sound and meaning, mark and blank space. The experimental typography shows his interest in the physical aspects of the book.
Klänge is one of three major publications by Kandinsky that appeared shortly before World War I, alongside Über die Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) and the Blaue Reiter almanac...
Category
1910s Blue Rider Abstract Prints
Materials
Woodcut


