Learn Together: Seeing Sound with Kandinsky

“Vassily Kandinsky in his studio in Neuilly-sur-Seine in front of ‘Dominant

In association with ePublishingPartners, Inc. Curve’,” Bernard Lipnitzki. Centre Pompidou
Using the lesson plan and Google Arts & Culture resources
This lesson plan is designed to support you as you explore Google Arts & Culture stories and exhibits related to the lesson topic. The
images you will see here are just a sample of the media—texts, images, audio, and video—available to you on the Google Arts & Culture
website and app. As the lesson uses only resources found on GA&C, it cannot present every aspect of a given topic. A parent or teacher
might be guiding you through the lesson, or you might choose to complete it on your own.

All you need to access the lesson is an internet connection and a web browser or the Google Arts & Culture app. You may want to take
notes, whether you do that digitally or with paper and pen.

The lesson plan has an introduction, which will describe the topic and provide some background information that will help you
understand what you are seeing, hearing, and reading. Then the lesson will take you on a journey from one Story to another, fill in some
details along the way, and pose questions that will help you focus on important ideas. A quiz and a link for exploring the topic further
are followed by ideas for projects related to the lesson topic that you can do at home or in the classroom.

As noted, the lesson plan includes questions about the main stories, and there is also a quiz. You will want to write answers to the
questions in a notebook or on a piece of paper. Then you can check all your answers when you’ve finished the lesson.

Resources on the Google Arts & Culture website include Themes, Stories, Museum Views, items, and images.
 Themes bring together stories, exhibits, collections, images, audio, and video files that relate to a topic.
 In a Story, clicking on the arrows on the right and left sides of a slide will move you forward and backward. Just keep clicking to keep
moving forward. (Note that in some stories, you scroll up and down.) Audio and videos on slides will play automatically. Clicking on an
image title will take you to a page with more information about it.
 In Museum Views, you move through a 3D space. Click to move forward. Click, hold, and move the cursor left or right to turn.
 An item will take you to an individual image, where you can zoom in and sometimes read more about the artefact.
2
 In this lesson, you will learn about:
 The features of abstract art.
 The well-traveled life of painter Vassily
Kandinsky.
 How Kandinsky’s life and travels helped
develop his technique and style.
 What synesthesia is and how it influenced
Kandinsky.

You will:
 Explore some stories and exhibits about
Kandinsky and his life and art.
 Answer some questions about what you
have seen and read.

This lesson will take 30–45 minutes to

complete.

”Vassily Kandinsky in his studio in Neuilly-sur-Seine in front of ‘Dominant

Curve’,” Bernard Lipnitzki, 1938, Centre Pompidou 3
 Learn Together: Seeing Sound with Kandinsky

In the early 20th century, artists began to turn away from traditional paintings. Instead of
copying the world by making realistic pictures of people, events, or landscapes, artists
began expressing how they felt. They used bright or unrealistic colors to show a certain
mood. They painted simple shapes to show the building blocks of an image. Finally,
they stopped painting “things” entirely. The result was abstract art. This new type of
painting forever changed how artists could communicate with their audience.

The painter Vassily Kandinsky was born in Russia but traveled across Europe and
Northern Africa during the chaotic and war-torn years of the early 20th century. He
helped lead a movement of artists who expanded what art could be. His own art
gradually became a pure expression of colors, lines and shapes, and his classes at
schools such as the Bauhaus in Germany influenced hundreds of others. He also used
his unusual brain condition, called synesthesia—which you will learn about in this
lesson—to express feelings through art.

Kandinsky’s art is still beloved for its combination of playful colors, shapes, and lines,
and his careful, almost mathematical teachings about how to make abstract images.

As you view the exhibits and stories in this lesson, think about these questions:
 How does abstract art express what the artist feels?
 How did Kandinsky’s life and travels influence and change his art?
 How did Kandinsky use his synesthesia to develop abstract art?

”Watercolor N°325”, Vassily Kandinsky, 1928. Centre Pompidou 4

 Vassily Kandinsky, A Pioneer of Abstract Art
Abstract art does not portray a specific scene or object. (Art that shows
objects, like portraits and landscape paintings, is called figurative art.)
Instead, it uses color, shape, and line to directly express ideas or feelings.
Though abstract art is considered “modern,” abstract designs are as old
as prehistoric decorated pottery or symbols carved into ancient ruins.

Kandinsky began his career painting figurative scenes. But as he

explored traditional Russian folk art, Islamic decorative arts, and
European art movements such as Impressionism, he gradually developed
a style using pure shapes, lines, and colors that helped pioneer abstract
art.

Click here to learn about early abstract art.

Then come back to answer these questions:

1. What painting first inspired Kandinsky to consider abstract art?
2. How did Kandinsky and the Fauves first move away from painting
realistic images?
3. How does figurative art express ideas, and how does abstract art
express ideas?

To learn about the theories of abstract art Kandinsky taught at the

Bauhaus, click here.

”Composition,” Vassily Kandinsky, 1944. Centre Pompidou 5

 Russian Folklore: An Everlasting Source of Influence
As a young man, Kandinsky traveled to traditional Russian villages.
Though he wasn’t an artist yet, he was immediately struck by how
the villagers surrounded themselves with colors and shapes painted
or carved onto their homes, churches, and everyday objects.

Kandinsky found especially captivating the use of color on a dark

background, which creates a “stained glass” effect. Years later, he
revisited this technique to depict characters from folklore and to
experiment with the relationships between color, shape, and line.

Click here to learn about Kandinsky’s experiences

with Russian folklore.
Then come back to answer these questions:

1. What materials did Kandinsky use to re-create traditional Russian

folk images?

2. What types of images did Kandinsky create using his techniques?

3. What other folk techniques and folklore did Kandinsky incorporate

into his art of this period?

To learn about Kandinsky’s use of color-on-black, click here.

”Lied (Song)” (detail), Vassily Kandinsky, 1906. Centre Pompidou 6

 How Travelling Inspired Kandinsky’s Painting
Kandinsky traveled throughout his life. As a child and young
man, he journeyed throughout Russia. After deciding to
become an artist, he traveled to Germany and to various
European capitals. As an artist, he went on many long trips
through Europe and North Africa. World events such as the
Russian Revolution and the two World Wars also forced him
to move.

Kandinsky was inspired by both the landscapes and the local

art everywhere he went. Each place he visited contributed to
his changing outlook on art and abstraction.

Click here to learn about Kandinsky’s art and

travels.
Then come back to answer these questions:

1. Why did Kandinsky leave Russia?

2. What kind of art did Kandinsky produce while he was on

the road, and why?

3. How did Kandinsky’s travels contribute to his abstract art?

To learn about the places Kandinsky lived, click here.

”Arabische Stadt (Arab Town)” (detail), Vassily Kandinsky, 1905.

Centre Pompidou 7
Hearing Colors/Play a Kandinsky
Kandinsky had a condition called synesthesia. People with
synesthesia experience more than one sense at once. When
they hear sounds, they might also see colors. Colors, shapes,
letters, numbers, or even days of the week might make sounds.

Kandinsky used his synesthesia to form theories about abstract

art. For Kandinsky, each shape and color made a certain sound
that helped communicate his feelings and ideas.

Click here to learn about Kandinsky’s

synesthesia.

Click here to experiment with what Kandinsky

may have heard in one of his paintings.

Then come back to answer these questions:

1. What senses did Kandinsky experience together?

2. How are the elements in Kandinsky’s art similar to the

elements that make up music?

3. Do you think people with synesthesia get more out of

abstract art than people without it? Explain.

To learn about how music inspired Kandinsky’s art, click here.

”Gelb, Rot, Blau” (detail), Vassily Kandinsky, 1925. Centre Pompidou 8
Quiz
Read the questions and write your answers in your notebook or on a piece of paper.

1. What visual elements did Kandinsky use in his abstract art, and what did those elements express?
2. Describe at least two ways that Kandinsky’s figurative art gradually changed to become more
abstract.
3. What techniques are used in both traditional art, such as Russian folk art, and abstract art?
4. What elements of folk art did Kandinsky use in his own paintings?
5. How did Kandinsky’s travels move his art in a more abstract direction?
6. How did war and other world events affect Kandinsky’s art career?
7. How did music inspire Kandinsky’s career throughout his life?
8. How did Kandinsky’s synesthesia influence his art and teaching?

Explore Further
This lesson has given you some vocabulary to talk about abstract art and Kandinsky’s work. To learn
more about Kandinsky and abstract art, click here.

9
 It’s Your Turn!
In this lesson, you learned about how Kandinsky
translated his life, his experiences, his travels, and his
senses into art. Now it’s your turn to do something.
Here are some ideas for projects that you can do at
home or in the classroom.

 Listen to your favorite song. Choose several

colors and shapes that remind you of the music.
Create a piece of art to express the music and
how it makes you feel.

 Find a photograph or a figurative painting you like.

Try to simplify the shapes or change the colors to
make it abstract. You can even reproduce the
image using a collage of simple colored shapes
cut out from construction paper.

 Make your own “key” or guide to how colors or

shapes make you feel. Arrange blocks of colors or
types of shapes in a notebook or on poster paper.
Below each, list the feelings you associate with
each color or shape.

”Auf Spitzen (On the points),” Vassily Kandinsky, 1928. Centre Pompidou
10
Answers Hearing Colors/Play a Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky, A Pioneer of Abstract Art 1. Kandinsky associated colors and shapes with sounds and feelings, such
as yellow with trumpets and repeating lines with restlessness.
1. Kandinsky was inspired by Claude Monet’s painting, Haystacks (Les 2. Kandinsky tried to create interaction and harmony between colors, lines,
Meules). and sounds that represented interacting moods, similar to how sound and
2. Kandinsky and the Fauves both painted scenes but used unrealistic rhythm create emotion in music.
colors that expressed feelings rather than lifelike accuracy. 3. People with synesthesia might experience sensations when viewing
3. Figurative art expresses ideas through the subject of the painting. For abstract art that people without the condition do not. However, everyone
example, a portrait of a person wearing jewelry might express the can relate to abstract art based on the emotions evoked by colors and
idea of wealth. Abstract art uses lines, shapes, and colors to express shapes.
feelings directly.

Russian Folklore: An Everlasting Source of Influence

1. Kandinsky used tempera paint on dark cardboard.

2. Kandinsky made paintings of stories from Russian and European
folklore and also landscapes of Moscow.
3. Kandinsky incorporated images and folklore from his travels in North
Africa. He also incorporated Viking (Norse) and German folklore to
create a combination of images.

How Traveling Inspired Kandinsky’s Painting

1. The first time Kandinsky left Russia was to study painting in Germany.
He left the second time because of political and artistic disagreements
with the Bolshevik regime.
2. Kandinsky created quick studies of landscapes, often using oil paints
and a palette knife. These materials are easier to use while traveling.
3. Kandinsky saw examples of abstract images such as architectural
decoration in Russia and in North Africa. Buildings and light in different
places also influenced the shapes and colors in his art.

11
Answers

Quiz

1. Kandinsky used broad areas of pure color, dark lines and shapes, and
repeated elements in his abstract art to create a musical interaction of
moods and playful feelings.
2. Kandinsky changed his figurative art by using different, brighter colors
and by simplifying shapes.
3. Russian folk art and other traditions such as Islamic art can be
considered abstract because they use simple shapes to express
feelings without showing realistic objects.
4. Kandinsky used both subject matter and painting techniques from
Russian folklore in his art. He painted pictures of stories and
characters from folklore, and he used the traditional color-on-black
style of some traditional Russian art.
5. As Kandinsky traveled, he used elements of Russian folk art, the
bright colors and flat shapes of Mediterranean art and architecture,
and the bright colors of the Fauves and Impressionists he saw.
6. World events often forced Kandinsky to move. In the case of the
Russian Revolution, he found that his art thrived when he left Russia
for Germany. However, the Nazis shut down the Bauhaus, where he
had been a productive artist and teacher.
7. Kandinsky was inspired to make pictures based on the colors he saw
when he heard music, and he played music and worked with
composers.
8. Kandinsky’s synesthesia made specific links between colors, shapes,
sounds, and feelings. He developed and taught theories that showed
others these links and how to use them to create emotion in art.

”Simple Complexity”, Wassily Kandinsky, 1939. Centre Pompidou 12