Kandinsky

by Frank Whitford

"Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) is one of the most important and influential painters of the twentieth century, and was one of the first Western artists to create pictures without figurative motifs, consisting exclusively of colours and forms selected and arranged for their own sake. He was also the first 'abstract' painter (although he generally avoided the term) to explain and justify what he was doing. His theoretical writings, including Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912) and Point and Line to Plane (1926), both classics of their kind, are among the most significant texts written by any artist this century." "In this catalogue of the first major showing of Kandinsky's work for some years, over 130 works on paper are reproduced in full colour and shown in the context of Kandinsky's oeuvre as a whole. In his introductory essay, Frank Whitford traces Kandinsky's entire artistic career, placing it in the context of his life in Russia, Germany and France and highlighting the importance