Kandinsky’s Quest: A Study in the Artist’s Personal Symbolism, 1866-1907: 13 (Hermeneutics of Art) - Tapa dura

«A resident of Russia, Germany, and France, Vasily Kandinsky was perhaps the most international artist of modern times. Yet he always maintained that the departure-point of his pictorial exploration was Muscovy and the ancient traditions of Russian culture. Through exhaustive and deft analysis of the Russian connection, Igor Aronov sheds new light on the mystery of Kandinsky's artistic development, especially his formulation of abstract painting, his aspiration toward monumental synthesis, and his elaboration of parallels between sound and image.» (John E. Bowlt, Slavic Languages and Literatures Department, The University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Director of Institute of Modern Russian Culture, Los Angeles)
«By studying Vasily Kandinsky's personal and intellectual life, Igor Aronov deciphers the artist's hitherto puzzling early works and provides the key to understanding the vital 'inner meaning' of his later abstractions. No future writer on Kandinsky will be able to ignore this analysis.» (Ziva Amishai-Maisels, Academic Chair of the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Center for Art History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

This book studies Vasily Kandinsky's (1866-1944) pre-1908 figurative art that formed the basis for his later abstractions. It analyzes many published and unpublished facts of the artist's life and work and brings together numerous historical comparative data from painting, literature, the social sciences, ethnography, folklore, esthetics, and philosophy. This study penetrates deeply into Kandinsky's inner world and breaks new ground by interpreting the artist's enigmatic early imagery as his personal many-layered symbolism that expresses his complex personality, his internal responses to Russian and Western European life and culture, and his quest for spiritual truths.