LLEI D'ART 14

WassilyKandinsky Improvisación III/ Improvisation III, 1909 S.D.B.DR.. Kandinsky 1909 DonacióndeNinaKandinsky NinaKandisnkyBequest, 1976 amarvellous treatisewhich summarises his spiritual thinking regarding the creationof art. Thework, published in1912, was theproduct of a sensitive visionarymind, capable of influencing the feelings of the reader to confront the idea of abstraction, andquickly became the first serious and rigorous reference on abstract art. That fruitful period, which encompassed the so-calledBlueRidermovement ( Der BlaueReiter , together withFranzMarc), underlined the tenacity of the artist indissociating the reality of the image, somethingwhichKandinsky learned from theworks of one of the artistswhomost strongly influenced his career, ClaudeMonet. Returning toMoscow in 1914, hisworkwas imbued withgeometry and it was branded as disformed and individualist by themost radical proponents of the official art of the time: so-called socialist realism. During this time, hededicatedmore time to teaching than to his artisticwork until, weary anddrivenby an understandabledisappointment, he returned toGermany in 1921, invitedbyWalter Gropius, founder of theBauhaus inWeimar. There theRussian painter couldpropagate his thoughts and achieve international renown. His palette changed, takingon colder colours andopting for geometric elements, amongwhich the circlewas supreme: The circle I use so frequently couldbe called ‘the romantic circle’, and that romanticism is considerably deeper,more lovely,more interesting andwholesome. It is apiece of ice withinburning flames. If people feel only the ice andnot the fire, somuch theworse for them. Vasili Kandinsky After its dismantlement in1932by thePrussian authorities, theBauhausSchool fell into the hands of the fascists, whodared tobrand themajor exponents of the artistic avant-garde of the time as degenerate anddisgusting. This includedMonet, Pissarro, Gauguin, VanGogh, Cezanne, Picasso,Modigliani, Chagall,Matisse, Klee, andKandinsky himself. The artist went into exile inPariswith hiswifeNina where, given the rejectionwhichFrench abstract artists of the timewere experiencing, heworked wrapped in loneliness and lack of understanding. It was inFrancewhere his paintingwas givennew life, incorporating zoomorphic elementswith touches of surrealism: curious corpuscleswhich recall the shape of an embryo, larva, or some other invertebrate. This was aperiodof synthesis and enrichment, during whichmany of hisworkswere acquiredbySolomon Guggenheim, an enthusiastic follower of his career andwork, who had created a foundation intended essentially to support andpropagatemodern art in 1937. It was also in that very sameVille Lumière, secluded in his little apartment inNeuilly-sur-Seine, that hepassed away inDecember 1944. Guggenheim died five years later. 61