In Concerning the Spiritual in ArtWassily Kandinsky, one of the most famous abstract painters of all time, urges the reader to free themselves from art's traditional bonds to material reality. In this radical theoretical work, he calls for a spiritual revolution in painting, arguing that artists, much like musicians, should be allowed to express their own inner lives in abstract, non-material terms. Investigating form and colour, spirituality and tradition, Kandinsky explores art's resonance with the soul, its purpose and nature, and its power to inspire us, to stir our emotions and to help us see beyond the limits of our world. A significant contribution to the understanding of non-objectivism in art, this book serves as an important landmark in modern art history and is necessary reading for every artist and art-lover.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Arts & Photography

KANDINSKY, WASSILY

History & Criticism

Penguin Classics

Poems and woodcuts by the Russian painter portray in child-like images the constant transformations that shape our world

Sounds

Graphic Design

Yale University Press

Wassily Kandisnsky’s Sounds (Klänge), a volume of poems written and illustrated by the Russian artist and pioneer of abstract painting, was originally published in a limited edition in Munich in 1912. Although it was highly regarded by such artists as Hugo Ball and Jean Arp and acclaimed by the Zurich Dadaists, it remains one of the least known of Kandinsky’s major writings. This is the first complete English translation of Kandinsky’s text. Sounds is one of the earliest, most beautiful examples of a twentieth-century livre d’artiste and a rare instance of a book in which text and illustrations are the work of a single artist. The poems, alternately narrative and expressive in quality, are witty, simple in structure and vocabulary, and often startling in content. They repeatedly treat questions of space, color, physical design, and the act of seeing in a world that offers multiple and often contradictory possibilities to the viewer. The woodcuts range from early Jugendstil-inspired, representational designs to vignettes that are purely abstract in form. Published in the same year as his Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Sounds sheds a different but equally significant light on Kandinsky’s movement toward abstraction―a movement that was to exercise a profound influence on future directions in art. In addition to the 38 poems and 56 woodcuts, which are arranged as in the original edition, the volume includes an introduction, the German text of the poems, and the artist’s chronology.

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Crafts & Hobbies

A dazzling yet little-known artist’s book that distills the painter’s seminal interests in abstraction and the unity of the arts Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) was a Russian pioneer of abstract painting whose work has influenced generations of artists. His Sounds (Klänge) of 1912 is one of the earliest, most beautiful examples of a 20th-century artist’s book. Its “sound poems” are alternately narrative and expressive, witty and simple in form. They treat questions of space, color, physical design, and the act of seeing in a world that offers multiple and often contradictory possibilities. The woodcut illustrations that accompany the poems range from representational designs to abstract vignettes. In its fusion of image and word, Sounds epitomizes the artist’s move toward abstraction and his aspiration to a synthesis of the arts. This updated edition of Sounds includes all of the book’s poems in English and German and its woodcuts, twelve of which appear in color for greater fidelity to the original. The translator’s introduction offers close formal examination of the poems and situates Sounds in the context of Kandinsky’s oeuvre. Although it was prized by prominent 20th-century artists, Sounds is one of the least known of Kandinsky’s major writings, and this remains the most authoritative English version.

Individual Artists

The Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider)--art movement was founded in 1911 by the young painters Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and was active in Europe until 1914. Originally published in Munich in 1912 and edited by Kandinsky and Marc-- the movements's almanac presented their synthesis of international culture to the European avant-garde at large. In both the selection of essays and its innovative interplay of word and image, The Blaue Reiter Almanac remains one of our most critically important works of literature on the art theory and culture of the 20th century. This edition, long unavailable in English and indispensable to any student of modernism, simulates the original German format, and includes documents, and musical notations, as well as seminal essays by Kandinsky, Schoenberg, Marc, and others. Nearly 150 illustrations, from ancient and contemporary sources, capture the wide-ranging interests and passions that inspired Kandinsky's and Marc's programmatic attempt to make modernism accessible across national and chronological boundaries. Also included is Klaus Lankheit's extensive critical introduction, which places the Blaue Reiter in context for contemporary readers."The almanac remains unique among European writings on art; no other country produced a comparable work capturing the excitement and tension of the years before World War I." (Will Grohmann)

The blaue Reiter Almanac

Marc, Franz

Da Capo Press

It is no common thing to find an artist who, even if he be willing to try, is capable of expressing his aims and ideals with any clearness and moderation. Some people will say that any such capacity is a flaw in the perfect artist, who should find his expression in line and colour, and leave the multitude to grope its way unaided towards comprehension. This attitude is a relic of the days when "l'art pour l'art" was the latest battle cry; when eccentricity of manner and irregularity of life were more important than any talent to the would-be artist; when every one except oneself was bourgeois. The last few years have in some measure removed this absurdity, by destroying the old convention that it was middle-class to be sane, and that between the artist and the outer-world yawned a gulf which few could cross. Modern artists are beginning to realize their social duties. They are the spiritual teachers of the world, and for their teaching to have weight, it must be comprehensible. Any attempt, therefore, to bring artist and public into sympathy, to enable the latter to understand the ideals of the former, should be thoroughly welcome; and such an attempt is this book of Kandinsky's.

Blurb

"I had the impression that here painting itself comes to the foreground; I wondered if it would not be possible to go further in this direction." Thus did the young Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) react to his first viewing of Monet's Haystack, included in an 1895 Moscow exhibit of French Impressionists. It was his first perception of the dematerialization of an object and presaged the later development of his influential theories of non-objective art. During study and travel in Europe, the young artist breathed the heady atmosphere of artistic experimentation. Fauvism, Cubism, Symbolism, and other movements played an important role in the development of his own revolutionary approach to painting. Decrying literal representation, Kandinsky emphasized instead the importance of form, color, rhythm, and the artist's inner need in expressing reality. In Point and Line to Plane, one of the most influential books in 20th-century art, Kandinsky presents a detailed exposition of the inner dynamics of non-objective painting. Relying on his own unique terminology, he develops the idea of point as the "proto-element" of painting, the role of point in nature, music, and other art, and the combination of point and line that results in a unique visual language. He then turns to an absorbing discussion of line — the influence of force on line, lyric and dramatic qualities, and the translation of various phenomena into forms of linear expression. With profound artistic insight, Kandinsky points out the organic relationship of the elements of painting, touching on the role of texture, the element of time, and the relationship of all these elements to the basic material plane called upon to receive the content of a work of art. Originally published in 1926, this essay represents the mature flowering of ideas first expressed in Kandinsky's earlier seminal book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. As an influential member of the Bauhaus school and a leading theoretician of abstract expressionism, Kandinsky helped formulate the modern artistic temperament. This book amply demonstrates the importance of his contribution and its profound effect on 20th-century art.

Point and Line to Plane (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

Dover Publications

One of the major abstract artists of the 20th century, Russian-born Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) created canvases vibrant with movement, brilliant color and geometric form. Six of his most arresting paintings, including Composition VIII (1923), Multicolored Circle (1921), Checkered (1925) and Central Line (1924), are reproduced here as full-color postcards in a convenient mini-book format. Just detach and mail to delight any art lover or admirer of early modern abstractionism.

Six Kandinsky Cards (Dover Postcards)

After his formative experimentation with Art Nouveau and Fauvism, Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) developed a highly original style of his own. His widely exhibited works exercised a profound influence on other artists of the early 20th century, expanding the Russian-born painter's renown as a pioneer of abstract art. This colorful collection of sticker art reproduces 16 of Kandinsky's most striking images, among them Horizontals, Between the Two of Us, Bright Lucidity, Multicolored Circle, Red Oval, Subdued Glow, Checkered, and Painting within a Painting. An eye-catching way to enhance stationery and other flat surfaces, these impressive reproductions will delight admirers of Kandinsky and lovers of modern art.

Kandinsky: 16 Art Stickers (Dover Art Stickers)

Artists and thinkers alike will treasure this special hardcover edition of one of the most important documents in the history of modern art. A pioneering work in spiritual revolution and the movement to free art from its traditional bonds to material reality, and written by the famous nonobjective painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), it helps readers understand art by explaining Kandinsky's own theory of painting and crystallizes the ideas that were influencing many other modern artists of the period. Along with his own groundbreaking abstract paintings, this book had a tremendous impact on the development of modern art.

Religion & Spirituality

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Books by KANDINSKY, WASSILY

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by KANDINSKY, WASSILY. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Sounds

Sounds

Sounds

The blaue Reiter Almanac

Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Point and Line to Plane (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

Six Kandinsky Cards (Dover Postcards)

Kandinsky: 16 Art Stickers (Dover Art Stickers)

Concerning the Spiritual in Art