Page 24 - Studio International - January 1967
P. 24

Above  Gabriele Münter in Kochel 1902
                                                                      Oil on canvas paper 12 7/8 x 9 3/8 in.
                                                                      Left Ripped 1928
                                                                      Gouache and ink on paper 19 x 121 in.



                               He spoke Russian whenever he could, went to the  on the 'spirit', on 'soul' and 'life' have their parallels in
                               Orthodox church, read the great Russian authors,  oriental philosophy.
                               listened to Russian music and always kept a group of   The Russianness of Kandinsky cannot be overempha-
                               Russian icons hanging in his apartment. His first mar-  sized. According to his autobiography it was a series of
                               riage, to a Russian, had ended in divorce, but after a long  experiences in Russia, most of which could have happened
                               and fruitful relationship with Gabriele Münter, he  nowhere else, which helped him towards the idea of non-
                               decided for the second time to marry a Russian. He  figurative art. An ethnological expedition to the Volgoda
                               remained in constant touch with developments at home,  district brought him into contact with natural and very
                               corresponding with artists and publishing letters and  basic folk art.10   Travelling by train, boat and cart through
                               articles in Russian journals—in 1909 and 1910 he contri-  deserts, rocky landscapes and forests, Kandinsky, who
                               buted a series of pieces to the art magazine Apollon,  for  was still a student at the time, felt that he was on a
                               example.? Interestingly enough it was the new interest in  distant planet. The peasants wore their gay costumes as a
                               revolutionary Russia in the revised principles of art  matter of course, and their houses and furniture  were
                               education which first put Kandinsky into contact with  covered with brilliant decorations and carvings to such
                               the Bauhaus, where he later taught.8  As Lindsay points  an extent that the objects themselves seemed to disappear
                               out,9  Kandinsky's attitude toward his homeland  was  beneath them. He said that he had the impression of
                               extreme; there is even evidence to suppose that he courted  walking around inside a work of art and stresses in his
                               the extreme position of Eurasianism, the belief that  writings that this experience was important to his
                               Russia's true origins are to be found in Mongol Asia.  formulation of non-figurative painting. Two other
                               Without placing too great an emphasis on racialist  Russian artists, Gabo and David Burliuk, have said that
                               theories of art it can be said that Kandinsky's emphasis   they  were  affected deeply by their experience of folk
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