Kandinsky Circles at Norton Simon

On Friday I revisited the Vasily Kandinsky paintings at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.  I took more time to explore these paintings from the period 1922 to 1934 when he returned to Germany to head the Bauhaus art and design schools painting workshop.  Born in Russia in 1866 Kandinsky changed his career from law to painting when he turned 30.  He moved to Munich to study art and lived in the area until 1914 when WW I began and he went back to Russia.

Before he war, Kandinsky was a part of the Blue Rider Group of painters that included August Macke, Franz Marc and others.  They explored the use of vivid colors and moved toward abstract painting.  Macke and Marc were killed during the war.  The communist revolution in Russia brought restrictions to artists so Kandinsky moved back to Germany where he remained until the Nazis took over and restricted art.  They viewed Kandinsky's art and others and degenerate.  He therefore moved to Paris where he died in 1944.

Kandinsky is called the founder of abstract art.  In addition to exploring the creative use of colors, he explored the use of geometric forms and shapes like circles and triangles.

Here are three paintings at the Norton Simon that show the artists emphasis on colors and shapes:

"Open Green," 1923, oil on canvas.
Kandinsky taught about the character of color saying that "absolute green is the most peaceful color there is:  it does not move in any direction, has no overtones o joy or sorrow or passion, demands nothing, calls out to no one."

"Unequal," April 1932, oil and gouache on canvas.
The description next to the painting states that there is a spiritual quality that always rested at the core of his abstract paintings.  "The floating rectangles and glowing orb of Unequal gives a sense of objects hovering in space."

"Heavy Circles," 1927, oil on canvas.  The description states that Kandinsky wrote in 1930"
"Why does the circle fascinate me?  It is:  1. the most modest form, but asserts itself unconditionally, 2.  a precise, but inexhaustible variable, 3. simultaneously stable and unstable, 4. simultaneously loud and soft, 5. a single tension that carries countless tensions within in."

Next to the Kandinsky paintings is a painting by his fellow Blue Rider Group member, Franz Marc.

"Bathing Girls," 1910 by Franz Marc, German, 1880-1916, oil on canvas.
The description of the painting states that Franz Marc was inspired by Paul Cezanne's painting "Bathers" when he painted this.  He was inspired to create his own image of primitive paradise.  This painting was classified as "degenerate" by the Nazis and confiscated  from a museum in Dusseldorf in 1937.