VASSILY KANDINSKYA second major German Expression-
ist group,Der Blaue Reiter(The Blue Rider), formed in Munich in
- The two founding members, Vassily Kandinsky and Franz
Marc, whimsically selected this name because of their mutual inter-
est in the color blue and horses. Like Die Brücke, this group pro-
duced paintings that captured their feelings in visual form while also
eliciting intense visceral responses from viewers.
Born in Russia,Vassily Kandinsky(1866–1944) moved to
Munich in 1896 and soon developed a spontaneous and aggressively
avant-garde expressive style. Indeed, Kandinsky was one of the first
artists to explore complete abstraction, as in Improvisation 28 (FIG.
35-7), painted in 1912. Kandinsky fueled his elimination of repre-
sentational elements with his interest in theosophy (a religious and
philosophical belief system incorporating a wide range of tenets
from, among other sources, Buddhism and mysticism) and the oc-
cult, as well as with advances in the sciences. A true intellectual,
widely read in philosophy, religion, history, and the other arts, espe-
cially music, Kandinsky was also one of the few early modernists to
read with some comprehension the new scientific theories of the era
(see “Science and Art in the Early 20th Century,” above). Scientists’
exploration of atomic structure, for example, convinced Kandinsky
that material objects had no real substance, thereby shattering his
faith in a world of tangible things. The painter articulated his ideas
in an influential treatise,Concerning the Spiritual in Art,published inEurope, 1900 to 1920 915I
n the early 20th century, societies
worldwide contended with discover-
ies and new ways of thinking in a wide
variety of fields, including science.
These new ideas forced people to revise
radically how they understood their
world. In particular, the values and
ideals that were the legacy of the En-
lightenment (see Chapter 29) began to
yield to innovative views. Thus, in-
tellectuals countered 18th- and 19th-
century assumptions about progress
and reason with ideas challenging tra-
ditional notions about the physical uni-
verse, the structure of society, and hu-
man nature. Artists participated in this
reassessment. Modernist artists, in par-
ticular, often acknowledged these new
discoveries and shifting theoretical
bases in their work. Accordingly, much
of the history of early-20th-century
Western art is a history of the rejection
of traditional limitations and defini-
tions both of art and of the universe.
One of the fundamental Enlight-
enment beliefs was faith in science.
Because of its basis in empirical, or
observable, fact, science provided a
mechanistic conception of the universe, which reassured a populace
that was finding traditional religions less certain. As promoted in the
classic physics of Isaac Newton (1642–1727), the universe was a huge
machine consisting of time, space, and matter. The early 20th century
witnessed an astounding burst of scientific activity challenging this
model of the universe. It amounted to what has been called “the second
scientific and technological revolution.” Particularly noteworthy was
the work of various physicists: Max Planck (1858–1947), Albert Ein-
stein (1879–1955), Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937), and Niels Bohr
(1885–1962). With their discoveries, each of these scientists shattered
the existing faith in the objective reality of matter and, in so doing,
paved the way for a new model of the universe. Planck’s quantum the-
ory (1900) raised questions about the emission of atomic energy. In his
1905 paper, “The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies,” Einstein carried
Planck’s work further by introducing his theory of relativity. He argued
that space and time are not absolute, as postulated in Newtonian
physics. Rather, Einstein explained, time and space are relative to the
observer and linked in what he called a four-dimensional space-time
continuum. He also concluded that matter, rather than a solid, tangible
reality, was actually another form of energy. Einstein’s famous equation
E = mc^2 ,where E stands for energy,m for mass, and c for the speed of
light, provided a formula for understanding atomic energy. Ruther-
ford’s and Bohr’s exploration of atomic structure between 1906 and
1913 contributed to this new perception of matter and energy. To-
gether, all these scientific discoveries constituted a changed view of
physical nature and contributed to the growing interest in abstraction,
as opposed to the mimetic representation of the world, among early-
20th-century artists like Vassily Kandinsky (FIG. 35-7).Science and Art in the Early 20th Century
ART AND SOCIETY35-7Vassily Kandinsky,Improvisation 28 (second version), 1912. Oil on canvas, 3 77 – 8 5 3 –^78 .
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (gift of Solomon R. Guggenheim, 1937).
The scientific theories of Einstein and Rutherford convinced Kandinsky that material objects had no real
substance. He was one of the first painters to explore complete abstraction in his canvases.1 ft.