Artist Quotes by Wassily Kandinsky

I value those artists who embody the expression of their life.

— Wassily Kandinsky

Every work of art is the child of its time, often it is the mother of our emotions.

— Wassily Kandinsky

An empty canvas is a living wonder — far lovelier than certain pictures.

— Wassily Kandinsky

The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.

— Wassily Kandinsky

To create a work of art is to create the world.

— Wassily Kandinsky

There is no must in art because art is free.

— Wassily Kandinsky

Every artist, as child of his age, is impelled to express the spirit of his age.

— Wassily Kandinsky

A world of colors on the palette remaining... wandering... on canvases still emerging.

— Wassily Kandinsky

The artist must be blind to distinction between 'recognized' or 'unrecognized' conventions of form, deaf to the transitory teaching and demands of…

— Wassily Kandinsky

The artist must have something to say, for mastery over form is not his goal but rather the adapting of form to…

— Wassily Kandinsky

Abstract art places a new world, which on the surface has nothing to do with 'reality,' next to the 'real' world.

— Wassily Kandinsky

I really believe that I am the first and only artist to throw not just the 'subject' out of my paintings, but…

— Wassily Kandinsky

The arts are encroaching one upon another, and from a proper use of this encroachment will rise the art that is truly…

— Wassily Kandinsky

The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul vibrating automatically.

— Wassily Kandinsky

In every painting a whole is mysteriously enclosed, a whole life of tortures, doubts, of hours of enthusiasm and inspiration.

— Wassily Kandinsky

Efforts to revive the art principles of the past at best produce works of art that resemble a stillborn child.

— Wassily Kandinsky

When I was thirteen or fourteen I bought a paintbox with oil paints from money slowly saved up. The feeling I had…

— Wassily Kandinsky

The true work of art is born from the 'artist': a mysterious, enigmatic, and mystical creation. It detaches itself from him, it…

— Wassily Kandinsky

In general, therefore, color is a means of exerting a direct influence upon the soul. Color is the keyboard. The eye is…

— Wassily Kandinsky

With few exceptions, music has been for some centuries the art which has devoted itself not to the reproduction of natural phenomena,…

— Wassily Kandinsky

Each period of a civilisation creates an art that is specific in it and which we will never see reborn. To try…

— Wassily Kandinsky

Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have…

— Wassily Kandinsky

emotion that I experienced on first seeing the fresh paint come out of the tube... the impression of colours strewn over the…

— Wassily Kandinsky

In place of an intensive cooperation among artists, there is a battle for goods. Hatred, partisanship, cliques, jealousy, and intrigues are the…

— Wassily Kandinsky

With cold eyes and indifferent mind the spectators regard the work. Connoissers admire the "skill" (as one admires a tightrope walker), enjoy…

— Wassily Kandinsky

Drawing instruction is a training towards perception, exact observation and exact presentation not of the outward appearances of an object, but of…

— Wassily Kandinsky

“Art becomes so specialized as to be comprehensible only to artists, and they complain bitterly of public indifference to their work. Competition…

— Wassily Kandinsky

In their pursuit of the same supreme end, Matisse and Picasso stand side by side, Matisse representing color and Picasso form.

— Wassily Kandinsky

The word compositon moved me spiritually and I made it my aim in life to paint a composition. It affected me like…

— Wassily Kandinsky

The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul, so that it can weigh colours in its own scale…

— Wassily Kandinsky

Painting took on a fabulous strength and splendor; the object was discredited as an indispensable element of the picture.

— Wassily Kandinsky

It is essential that the painter should develop not only his eyes, but also his soul, so that it too may be…

— Wassily Kandinsky

It should not be forgotten that art is not a science where the latest 'correct' theory declares the old to be false…

— Wassily Kandinsky

Art is not vague production, transitory and isolated, but a power which must be directed to the improvement and refinement of the…

— Wassily Kandinsky

“Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings.…

— Wassily Kandinsky

A painter, who finds no satisfaction in mere representation, however artistic, in his longing to express his inner life, cannot but envy…

— Wassily Kandinsky

An empty canvas, apparently really empty, that says nothing and is without significance – almost dull, in fact – in reality, is…

— Wassily Kandinsky

The work of art is born of the artist in a mysterious and secret way. From him it gains life and being.…

— Wassily Kandinsky

In your works, you have realized what I, albeit in uncertain form, have so greatly longed for in music. The independent progress…

— Wassily Kandinsky

The artist is not a 'Sunday child' for whom everything immediately succeeds. He does not have the right to live without duty.…

— Wassily Kandinsky