Kandinsky: the path to abstraction - Tapa dura

Wassily Kandinsky pioneered abstract art and is a key figure in the history of Modern painting. His move from figurative painting to abstraction was a gradual one; this book follows that fascinating journey during the first twenty years of his career. Inspired in his early years as a painter by folklore scenes from Russia and the heightened colours of the landscape of southern Germany, he went on to co-found the Expressionist Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) group of painters with Gabriele Munter, Alexej Jawlensky and Franz Marc. Gradually he stripped away the descriptive detail in his painting, hiding visual imagery behind fields of bright colour encompassed by strong lines. He felt that what he had discovered was a path to a new spiritual reality, more akin to music than the physical world. This groundbreaking, fully illustrated study of Kandinsky's formative years includes an account of the period Kandinsky spent in revolutionary Russia, examines his relationship with the painter Gabriele Munter and explores the profound influence music had on his art.

Sean Rainbird is a Tate curator and the author of Beckmann. Hartwig Fischer is a curator at Kunstmuseum, Basel.