Quotes by Wassily Kandinsky

About Wassily Kandinsky:

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky is credited with painting one of the first purely abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat—Kandinsky began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.

Wassily Kandinsky

Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrations in the soul.

Wassily Kandinsky

With cold eyes and indifferent mind the spectators regard the work. Connoissers admire the "skill" (as one admires a tightrope walker), enjoy the "quality of painting" (as one enjoys a pasty). But hungry souls go hungry away. The vulgar herd stroll t...

Wassily Kandinsky

Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated.

Wassily Kandinsky

There is no must in art because art is free.

Wassily Kandinsky

To create a work of art is to create the world.

Wassily Kandinsky

With few exceptions, music has been for some centuries the art which has devoted itself not to the reproduction of natural phenomena, but rather to the expression of the artist's soul, in musical sound.

Wassily Kandinsky

A painter, who finds no satisfaction in mere representation, however artistic, in his longing to express his inner life, cannot but envy the ease with which music, the most non-material of the arts today, achieves this end. He naturally seeks to appl...

Wassily Kandinsky

The nightmare of materialism, which has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past; it holds the awakening soul still in its grip.

Wassily Kandinsky

Each color lives by its mysterious life.

Wassily Kandinsky

Our epoch is a time of tragic collision between matter and spirit and of the downfall of the purely material world view.

Wassily Kandinsky

Color is a power which directly influences the soul.

Wassily Kandinsky

How can German music not be represented by an article?

Wassily Kandinsky

Lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and... stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to 'walk about' into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?

Wassily Kandinsky

The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.

Wassily Kandinsky

Everything starts from a dot.

Wassily Kandinsky

An empty canvas is a living wonder... far lovelier than certain pictures.

Wassily Kandinsky

The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural... The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness ...

Wassily Kandinsky

Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.

Wassily Kandinsky

The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with base notes, or dark lake with the treble.

Wassily Kandinsky

Author Bio

  • NameWassily Kandinsky
  • DescriptionRussian painter
  • AliasesKandinsky; Vassily Kandinsky; Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky; Vasily Kandinsky
  • BornDecember 16, 1866
  • DiedDecember 13, 1944
  • CountryFrance; Russian Empire; Germany
  • ProfessionPainter; Artist
  • WorksThe Lyrical; Church At Murnau; Composition VII