By
1904, he was a contributor to the Paris Autumn Salon and had opened
his own art school. With Jawlensky, he founded the New Artists' Federation
in 1909, and in 1910 he painted his first abstract work and wrote
"Concerning the Spiritual in Art", one of the most important
and influential works on art of this century. With Paul
Klee, August Macke, and
Marc, he helped found the Blaue Reiter, where he exhibited and collaborated
with his friends on the: publication of their almanac.
During this period, Kandinsky's abstracts were characterized by brilliant
color, swirling movement, and the forcefulness of the Expressionism
from which they sprang. Following a stay in Switzerland and Sweden
during World War I, Kandinsky returned to Russia after the 1917 Revolution,
held several posts under the People's Commissariat for Popular Culture,
and reorganized or set up 227 museums. Influenced by the Russian Constructivists
Lissitsky and Malewitsch, his style became more precise and more geometric
using quieter color. Kandinsky returned to Germany in 1921 and became
a professor at the Bauhaus in Weimar, joining Klee, Feininger and
Schlemmer. He followed the bauhaus to Dessau and finally to Berlin.
When the Nazis closed the school, Kandinsky's paintings were considered
so "degenerate" that they were confiscated. The artist fled to Paris,
where he remained until his death in 1944.
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