Kandinsky (Portfolio (Taschen)) [Paperback]

TASCHEN (Creator)

Book Description

Series: Portfolio (Taschen) | Publication Date: August 1, 2003

Les portfolios TASCHEN proposent des impressions de grande qualité qui ne demandent qu'à être encadrées. Chaque portfolio contient 14 reproductions en grand format, chacune décrite brièvement. Garanties pour éclairer le quotidien, ce sont également d'excellents cadeaux pour les amoureux d'art.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ulrike Becks-Malorny studied free painting in Geneva and art history in Bochum, Germany. Since gaining her doctorate in 1990, she has worked as an exhibition organizer and freelance author. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822828882
• ISBN-13: 978-3822828885
• Product Dimensions: 14.1 x 10.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #985,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars jammed packed, March 5, 2004

By 

A. Dutkiewicz "jan-luke_adam" (Norwood, South Australia Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kandinsky (Midsize) (Hardcover)

Ulrike Becks-Malorny has brought recent perspectives on Kandinsky's career to further light with this new biography.

The density of the layout is phenomenal: so much is crammed into this volume it is almost unbelievable. It includes many plates in colour and numerous documentary photographs.

The handsome large format paperback begins with his artistic life in Munich, in the process showing many of his earliest impressionist, fauvist and folk inspired paintings, photographs and sketches, lino- and woodcuts, etchings and drawings never seen before.

Most illustrations are captioned with insightful comments about the work and matters of relevant historic interest.

It also shows how his work developed in dialogue with other artists, architects and musicians of his era, especially the Jugendstil artists, Gabriele Munter and other Blaue Reiter painters, Paul Klee, Adolf Hoelzel, Kasimir Malevich and Alexander Rodchenko.

My only problem with the book is in the non-justified text and choice of font in Times Roman, which in this particular leading, is not the easiest typeface to scan these days.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The power of art!, August 30, 2007

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kandinsky (Hardcover)

"The artwork is composed of two elements. The inner and the outer. The inner element, regarded individually, is the emotion that feels the artist' s soul . That emotion is capable to provoke a parallel emotion in the spectator. Generally, while the soul remains bounded to body, only the vibrations will be able to be attracted though the sensation. Hence, the sensation is a bridge from the materialness toward material (artist) and vice versa (spectator). Emotion-Sensation-Work-Sensation- Emotion." (Wassily Kandinsky)

Wassili Kandinski represents by far, one of the highest peaks in what concerns the reinvention and redefinition of art, deeply worried about Theosophy, inaugurated several artistic movements in pursuit of new forms of expression. Indeed, his memories from Moscow, his unforgettable impressions from the childhood, generated a vigorous inner creator impulse that would become a true driving force.

The text describes with zealous detail, his metamorphoses in Munich since 1896 to 1911, his decisive meet with Gabriele Munter, his settlement in Murnau, as well as his breakthrough toward the abstraction "The blue rider" his interlude in Russia 1914-1921, his fruitful period in Bauhaus 1922-1933 until his last stage: the bio-morph abstraction in Paris 1934-1944.

That febrile disposition respect the perpetual innovation, the same fact he could live in worlds so opposite (October 1917, respect the new tendencies of Paris and Munich as gravity centers of fevered proposals), the sharp contrast between tradition and innovation, the breakthrough of so many paradigms, the Fauvism, Cubism, Impressionism, Constructivism, enlivened in his soul the imperious necessity to transcend the Halls of his art and thence, his concerns for publishing and divulgating his standpoints.

His life was a worthy example of Camus statement. "To create is to live twice" and this book provides of a very ordered sequence, every one of his different stages of transformation.

Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book at great price, April 19, 2010

By 

Seech (TN, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kandinsky (Hardcover)

This book was out of stock at Taschen and Amazon for a while and finally it is in stock again. I bought one right away. Great book with Kandinsky's biography and reproductions of good quality. I would recommend this book to any one who appreciates his art.