The Blue Rider (Kandinsky)

Wassily Kandinsky studied law and political economy at the Moscow State University (MSU) in 1886. At the MSU, Kandinsky befriended , an ethnography student, who prompted Kandinsky's interested in the field, soon becoming involved in the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography (OLEAE). In 1889, he went on an ethnographic excursion, sponsored by the OLEAE, to study the Komi people in the Vologda Oblast. There he encountered brightly painted traditional houses, an experience he later called a “miracle” that influenced his art. At the age of 30, Kandinsky decided to dedicate himself to art. This choice was effected by his struggle to recognize the subject in one of Claude Monet's Haystacks. Kandinsky wrote about this experience: 's Haystacks played a significant role in Kandinsky's move away from realistic art toward abstraction. Kandinsky was also influenced by Helena Blavatsky and Rudolf Steiner, important figures in theosophy and anthroposophy, respectively. Their ideas would strongly shape Kandinsky's artistic concepts, such as "inner necessity" and "vibration" and his move towards abstract. There he studied under Anton Ažbe and later Franz von Stuck. Ažbe emphasized the importance of color, pushing his students to learn and apply color theory, a focus that remained evident in Kandinsky's art. Stuck, Kandinsky's second teacher, prioritized form, which shaped Kandinsky's early work, particularly in his woodcuts. After leaving Stuck's studio, Kandinsky co-founded the Phalanx in 1901, an association of artists that opposed conservative views in art. The group held a total of 12 exhibitions and opened an art school in which Kandinsky was a teacher, having taught to students such as Gabriele Münter. ==Description==

The Blue Rider depicts a small figure in a cloak galloping through a meadow on a horse. The rider cloak is medium blue and the white horse has a red bridle. The rider, while prominent, is not clearly defined and is more a series of colors. The cloak casts a darker blue shadow in the hill, and in the foreground there are more amorphous blue shadows, alongside green grass. The background is composed by a blackening sky, white clouds and a vast forest stretching through the distance; the trees have golden leafs and white trunks, suggesting birches and that it's autumn. Themes The motif of the rider and horse symbolizes, for Kandinsky, the move beyond realism, that is, it was a spiritual force that would put an end to the philosophical view of materialism; a belief influenced by Theosophy. This motif also signified Kandinsky's resistance against standard aesthetic values, as well as the way for a more spiritual life through art. Blue, according to Kandinsky, was the color of spirituality, an "heavenly color", as it draws people toward the infinite, stirring a desire for the pure and the supernatural. Kandinsky would also associate color to music, specifically to the sounds of instruments; he would hear violoncellos and flutes when seeing dark and light blue, respectively. == Interpretation ==

The painting has both impressionist and expressionist elements and marks Kandinsky's transition toward abstraction. Peter Selz, an art historian, considers the palette to be impressionist, but the choice of colors as symbolistic; further, Selz asserts that the stylized trees and clouds and the repetition of shapes, like the movement of the rider, are indicative of symbolism. The painting employs distortion, vibrant colors and short brushstrokes, creating a sense of motion and velocity.The rider and horse are rendered with minimal detail and appear as a sequence of colors rather than distinct forms, making the rider fade into the background; According to an interpretation, the visible figure of the rider serves as the signifier and the abstract figure of Saint George constitutes the signified. Hubbard alludes that the forest in the background, associated with the unconscious in German folklore, suggest a passage from the past, symbolized by the autumn landscape, into an uncertain future; leaving the work open to multiple interpretations. Preda observes that the diagonal composition, moving from the bottom right to the top left, draws the viewer's gaze along the trajectory of the rider and horse toward distant, ambiguous spaces. According to her, this movement evokes an image of a romantic wanderer, as "striving alone against the elements, yet animated by a surety of purpose", mirroring Kandinsky's conception of the artist as a visionary figure. Preda posits that the indistinct forms invite multiple readings: the rider may be a fugitive, possibly sheltering a child, and the journey may represent either a means or an end in itself. == Legacy ==

by August Macke. Marc was one of the founders of Der Blaue Reiter and Macke was a member.In December 1911, disagreements within the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (N.K.V.M) peaked when Kandinsky's Composition V was rejected from the group's third exhibition. As a result, Kandinsky and Franz Marc left the N.K.V.M and founded the Der Blaue Reiter, a group of expressionist artists united on the idea of expressing spirituality in art. The group's name may have been inspired by the painting The Blue Rider. In May 1912, Kandinsky and Marc also published an almanac entitled with the same name, Der Blaue Reiter. The almanac was written by artists rather than critics and academics, moreover, it featured juxexpositions between art from different times and cultures. For example, it displayed van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet alongside Kuniyoshi's Two Chinese Warriors of the Han Dynast. {{blockquote|There we will place an Egyptian next to [a child's drawing], a Chinese alongside a Rousseau, a popular print next to a Picasso and much more of this sort!|Wassily Kandinsky|source= The group was a pioneer in abstract art, and later influenced art movements, such as Dada, and the Bauhaus. == Notes ==