Wassily Kandinsky

Point and Line to Plane

Bauhausbücher 9

Point and Line to Plane, volume 9 of the Bauhausbücher series, can be seen as a continuation of Wassily Kandinsky's seminal treatise On the Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky's thesis is that different constellations of point, line and surface have different emotional effects on the viewer. Starting from the point (which represents the most concentrated and minimal graphic form), he understands all painterly forms as being a play of forces and counterforces: of contrasts.

Kandinsky's essay can be read as an aesthetic analysis of form and its effect on the viewer. Based on the various effects of linear elements on our mood, Kandinsky attempts to develop an order of form types. Here, he offers an approach to a theory of the effects of form, which makes volume 9 one of the most important writings on art theory of the 20th century and it can still be understood as contemporary today.

The series is published with the generous support of the Rudolf-August Oetker-Stiftung.

Point and Line to Plane, volume 9 of the Bauhausbücher series, can be seen as a continuation of Wassily Kandinsky's seminal treatise On the Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky's thesis is that different constellations of point, line and surface have different emotional effects on the viewer. Starting from the point (which represents the most concentrated and minimal graphic form), he understands all painterly forms as being a play of forces and counterforces: of contrasts.

Kandinsky's essay can be read as an aesthetic analysis of form and its effect on the viewer. Based on the various effects of linear elements on our mood, Kandinsky attempts to develop an order of form types. Here, he offers an approach to a theory of the effects of form, which makes volume 9 one of the most important writings on art theory of the 20th century and it can still be understood as contemporary today.

The series is published with the generous support of the Rudolf-August Oetker-Stiftung.

Author(s): Wassily Kandinsky

Edited by Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy (original series), Lars Müller (English edition) in collaboration with Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung

Design: Herbert Bayer (original German edition)

18 × 23 cm, 7 × 9 in

208 pages, 129 illustrations

hardback

2021, 978-3-03778-662-8, English
CHF 50.00

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) began studying law and economics in Moscow in 1886. After he successfully passed his state examination in 1892, he moved to Munich and studied at the Academy of Arts there from 1896. In 1911 he founded the Blaue Reiter group together with Franz Marc. Before the outbreak of World War I, he fled to Switzerland, later returning to his native Moscow, where he worked as a professor at various institutes until 1920. In 1922 Kandinsky was appointed to the State Bauhaus in Weimar, where he headed the mural painting workshop until 1925. When Kandinsky was appointed by the Bauhaus, he was already one of the great names in modern art. For young and talented people, this was often reason enough to engage the Bauhaus experiment. During his time at the Bauhaus, he founded the artists' association Die Blaue Vier together with Paul Klee, Alexej von Jawlensky and Lyonel Feininger and participated in the series of Bauhaus books with the volume Point and Line to Plane (1926). Kandinsky is involved in the relocation of the art school from Weimar to Dessau and later to Berlin. In 1933 he emigrated to Paris and three years later took French citizenship. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944.

Albert Gleizes

Cubism

CHF 45.00
Bauhausbücher, vol. 13