Wassily Kandinsky
Biography
Wassily Kandinsky, the Moscow-born painter of the Blaue Reiter, came to the Bauhaus in Weimar in June 1922 at Walter Gropius's call, took over the wall-painting workshop and lived from 1923 at Südstraße 3, today's Wilhelm-Külz-Straße. He stayed with the school through Dessau and Berlin to its closure in 1933 — its deputy director for those ten years — wrote Punkt und Linie zu Fläche as a Bauhaus book in 1926, and died in exile at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944.
June 1922: called to the wall-painting workshop
Born in Moscow on 4 December 1866 by the Julian calendar, 16 December by the Gregorian, Kandinsky followed Walter Gropius's call in June 1922 and took up teaching at the Bauhaus's wall-painting workshop in Weimar.[1][2][3] He arrived after the founding generation; the workshops were running and the school was about to argue over its direction.
Deputy director, 1923–1933
From Johannes Itten's departure from Weimar in 1923 until the school's final closure ten years later, Kandinsky was the Bauhaus's deputy director, and he taught in all three of its cities — Weimar, Dessau and Berlin.[2] In 1926 his theoretical work Punkt und Linie zu Fläche, a contribution to the analysis of the elements of painting, appeared as number 9 of the Bauhausbücher.[1][2]
Südstraße 3, 1923–1925
From 1923 to 1925 he lived on the second floor of a private house at what was then Südstraße 3, today Wilhelm-Külz-Straße 3.[4] His Weimar was short: three years of a tenure that would run to 1933.
Dessau, Berlin, Neuilly, 1925–1944
In 1925 he went with the Bauhaus to Dessau, where he and Paul Klee shared one of the masters' houses, and in 1928 he took German citizenship.[1][2] After the National Socialists closed the Bauhaus in 1933 he emigrated to France in the summer of that year and settled at Neuilly-sur-Seine with his second wife Nina; he died there on 13 December 1944.[1][2]
Questions visitors ask
- When was Kandinsky at the Bauhaus in Weimar?
- From June 1922, when he followed Gropius's call, until the school left Weimar in 1925; he stayed with it in Dessau and Berlin until its closure in 1933.
- What did Kandinsky teach at the Bauhaus?
- He took up teaching at the wall-painting workshop in Weimar in June 1922, and from 1923 to 1933 he was also the school's deputy director.
- Where did Kandinsky live in Weimar?
- From 1923 to 1925 on the second floor of a private house at Südstraße 3, today Wilhelm-Külz-Straße 3.
- What is Punkt und Linie zu Fläche?
- Kandinsky's theoretical work on the elements of painting, published in 1926 as number 9 of the Bauhausbücher.
- What happened to Kandinsky after the Bauhaus?
- After the school's closure in 1933 he emigrated to France that summer and lived at Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, where he died on 13 December 1944.
Sources (4)
- Kandinsky, Wassily — Neue Deutsche Biographie 11 (1977), by Wolfgang Freiherr von Löhneysen — Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, retrieved 30 August 2026
- Wassily Kandinsky — Wikipedia (de), retrieved 30 August 2026
- Wassily Kandinsky — Biografie — Bauhaus Kooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Bauhausstätten in Weimar — Stadt Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Notable Works & Achievements
Punkt und Linie zu Fläche (Bauhausbuch 9, 1926)
Über das Geistige in der Kunst (1911)
Connected Places in Weimar
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 8, 99423 Weimar
He taught at the wall-painting workshop in van de Velde's buildings from June 1922.
Historical Context
A master from June 1922 to the school's last day in 1933, and its deputy director from 1923.
The Bauhaus was founded in Weimar in 1919 and voted out by 1925 — time enough to change what a design school is, and not enough for the town that made it to keep it.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1866
1944
Russian, German from 1928
Historical figures
Historical figures
1900–1985 • typographer • graphic designer • photographer • architect
He worked in Kandinsky's wall painting department from 1922.
1893–1983 • designer • metalworker • photographer
She took his classes during her Weimar years.
1883–1969 • architect • founder and director of the Bauhaus • teacher
Gropius called him to the Bauhaus in June 1922.