Kandinsky's pictures at the turn of the 19th century combined features of Art Noveau with reminiscences of Russian fold art, to which he added a Fauve-like intensity of color.  In 1908 he began to eliminate the representational element from his work, until he arrived at pure abstraction.  He said that his understanding of the power of non-representational art derived from an experience when he failed to recognize that one of his own paintings was lying the wrong way up.  What he did see in it was an image "of extraordinary beauty glowing with an inner radiance."

Kandinsky was one of the most influential artists of his generation, both for his painting and his writing.  His progress towards abstraction proceeded alongside his philosophical views about the nature of art, which were influenced by theosophy and mysticism.  He did not completely repudiate representation, but he held that the pure artist seeks to express only inner and essential feelings and ignores the superficial and fortuitous.

Quinze