Vasily Vasilievich Kandinsky (1866, Moscow – 1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine) – painter, theorist of art, one of founders of abstract art.
Born to a family of a merchant, he had Russian, German and Buryat (one of Russia’s people) origins. He equally spoke Russian and German since childhood.
Kandinsky graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Moscow State University and planned to become a professor, but suddenly he dropped academic career and went to Munich to learn painting.
Composition VI
In 1900s, Kandinsky’s style was influenced by impressionism and modern. He painted landscapes and views of Munich and other places that he visited, as well as historical heroes and fairy tales.
In 1906-1908, Kandinsky travelled around Europe, he spent a year in Paris, six months – in Berlin. He participated in multiple exhibitions.
In 1908-1910, he started to experiment with composition and colour in landscapes of Murnau, near Munich.
Composition VIII
In 1911, the first abstract Painting with a circle was created, and in 1913 – two works that marked Munich period – Composition VI and Composition VII (see up). However, a lot of experts suppose that Kandinsky’s aquarelle of 1910 was the first abstract picture ever created.
In 1915-1921 – due to the First World War he returned to Moscow, where he worked as professor.
Since 1921 – professor of Bauhaus (Germany).
1933-1944 – Paris period. In Paris Kandinsky became friend of P. Mondrian, H. Miro and other young painters, who considered him one the brightest visionary of the XX century.
Author of several books about art, including About the Spiritual in Art and Point and Line to Plane, which embodied Kandinsky ideas about art and became indispensable for many painters and connoisseurs of art.
Interesting Fact
In one of his books Kandinsky states that he was inspired by Monet’s Hayrick, painting that he saw at the impressionism exhibition in Moscow in 1895.
Tip
If you want to see Composition VII – visit the Tretyakov Gallery, for Composition VI – go the State Hermitage in Saint-Petersburg. However, Kandinsky’s paintings are a part of many museums’ and private collections around the globe.
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (1871, Budapest, – 1960, Moscow) – painter, historian of art.
In 1893, Grabar graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Saint-Petersburg. In 1894 – 1896 – studied at the Academy of Art, he attended Repin’s classes, then in 1896-1989 he continued his studies in Munich.
In 1901, he became a member of Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) fellowship.
Made multiple trips to Europe, in 1914 he visited Egypt, in 1924 – the USA.
February azure, 1904
His early works were widely influenced by impressionism, in his landscapes he used the method of decompositions of colour, especially in winter scenes. Later, however, his style transformed into more academic.
Grabar made huge work to preserve Russian art. He wrote books about painters I.Repin, V.Serov, I.levitan. In 1909-1916, under his reduction the first History of Russian Art was published.
Chrisantemums, 1905
In 1913-1925 – head of the Tretyakov Gallery.
In 1918, he became head of Central Restauration Workshops, which later were named after him (In June 2018, this organisation celebrated 100 anniversary).
Author of History of Russian Art in several volumes (1953-1869).
Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (1815, Moscow – 1852, Saint-Petersburg) – painter.
Made a military career. In 1834 – 1844, during military service in Saint-Petersburg he visited classes at the Academy of Arts and was making aquarelle and pencil sketches of mates and friends. In 1844, Fedotov completely dedicated him-self to art.
In 1849, three Fedotov’s works, that were exposed at the Academy of Art’s exhibition, received positive reviews (Including Matchmaking of the Major – see up).
Nobleman’s Breakfast, 1850
Fedotov’s paintings are full of drama, interesting plots and conflicts. His later works, however, are more pessimistic and more static.
Players, 1851-1852
Tip
If you want to see Fedotov’s works, visit the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the State Russian Museum in Saint-Petersburg.
Every fan of constructivism in the world recognises cylinder silhouette of the Melnikov’s house, one of the most famous buildings in Moscow. However, very few know how the house looks like inside. Despite peculiar facade, its interior is quite conventional, but the history of the house is still unique.
The sole entrance to the house. Above big window there is caption – “Konstantin Melnikov. Architect”. As you can see, the building is in poor condition, but restoration will be conducted soon.
Architect Konstantin Melnikov moved in here together with his wife Anna, their son and daughter in 1929. His son lived here until his death in 2006. Since then, Konstantin’s descendants fought with the Moscow Museum of Architecture for control over the house, eventually the house was transformed into museum in 2013.
Melnikov was gained right to use a territory in the center of Moscow in 1927. By that time he had already executed several projects that brought him fame, including Soviet pavilion at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1925 and sarcophagus for Lenin’s body. He had a lot of orders and was able to build the house using his own money.
The initial project comprised an edifice composed of two cylinders, which were same in size. But in the process of construction, the foundation of previous house was found, that is why the author had to make one cylinder taller than the other one. Melnikov chose the form of cylinder because it helped to use less material than for a standard regular construction.
The interesting fact is fact the author organised the territory basing on principles of Russian manor – the house is in the center of it, and not on the red line of the street, from the side of the street there are two gates and behind the building there is a yard (the funny thing is that since Peter the Great the administration of the city fought to make dwellers build their houses on the red line, and only in Soviet time the problem was solved).
The building has three floors with kitchen, dining room, bath room, wardrobe on the first floor, living room and bed room on the second floor and architect’s workshop on the third floor.
Dining room
The first floor seems a little bit dark and its interior has acute contrast with the exterior. As you can see in the photo, the dining room’s furniture dates back to the beginning of the XXth century. The chair with letter “K” belonged to Konstantin Melnikov, embroidery was made by his wife Anna (her chair with letter A is opposite her husband’s)
Kitchen – view of a cooler
Near the dining room there is a kitchen, in the photo you can see an interesting detail – a cooler that was made out of a window cut. In fact, the very structure of the building looks like grid, Melnikov didn’t cut the windows, he filled open spaces with remained material instead. Even today, some new “window” can theoretically be open. This cooler is a good example of the author’s non-convetional thinking, who not only created outstanding edifice, but elaborated smart menage – he organised heating system, etc.
BathroomLiving room
On the second floor there is a specious living room with Melnikov’s desk, where he worked when his architectural career declined. In the beginning of the 1930s, a group of architects wanted to create new style, more adapt for young Soviet state than constructivism, which was considered too “formal”. In addition, according to one version, Melnikov had personal conflict with his former student Alabyan, who became apologist of a “new” style. The latter made a lot of efforts to prevent Melnikov from architectural job, and he had to work as professor almost till the end of his life.
The pink carpet on the floor was brought from Belgium and the colour of the walls was picked in order to match the carpet. The small window on the right was cut here because the architect found out that it would open on a church that he liked (today the church is not visible because new building were erected in front of it).
Here you can see how one cylinder overlaps with the other
Next to the living room there is bedroom, which looks completely different in comparison to its original design. Initially, there was no furniture in the room except podium which served as bed (the children also slept here, their beds were separated by a curtain). The emptiness is explained by Melnikov theory of sleep – he thought that in order to sleep well it was necessary to rule out any element of distraction, for example, family members read in other rooms (children had special study rooms on the first floor), and that is why there was even no lighting. However, there are so many windows, which open on three sides, so it was difficult to fall asleep. Later, under Anna’s influence the bedroom took more traditional forms – she brought here the furniture that she had before marriage, and Konstantin slept in the living room.
Bedroom. Anna’s bed. The room was repainted in the 1990s, originally the colour was more goldenAnna’s toilet table
The last floor is occupied entirely by Melnikov’s workshop, where his son Viktor, who was a painter, also worked.
The house was designed as experimental, meaning that it could become example for other architect’s workshops, but up to date there is no similar building in Moscow and in the whole world.
WorkshopThis is the brightest room in the house!
“I never could design anything that would be boring. And I considered uniteresting and boring everything that resembled me things that I’ve already seen”.
MOSCOW...and beyond 