{"id":2408,"date":"2021-02-17T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/?p=2408"},"modified":"2024-07-15T10:54:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T08:54:17","slug":"andrei-nakov-kandinsky-the-enigma-of-the-first-abstract-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/2021\/02\/17\/andrei-nakov-kandinsky-the-enigma-of-the-first-abstract-painting\/","title":{"rendered":"Andr\u00e9i Nakov<br> <I>Kandinsky, the Enigma of the First Abstract Painting<\/I>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li>Cracow 2015<\/li><li>257 x 200 mm, laminated hardback<\/li><li>232 pages, 86 colour illustrations<\/li><li>ISBN 978-83-89831-25-5<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4>\u00c9galement disponible en version fran\u00e7aise:&nbsp;<em>Kandinsky, l\u2019\u00e9nigme du premier tableau abstrait<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Painted in Munich in 1911,&nbsp;<strong><em>Painting with a Circle<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;is Kandinsky\u2019s first abstract composition \u2013 and the first abstract painting in the history of modern art. Yet for long decades it was an enigma for art historians and even for the artist himself, for whom its creation raised complex issues. After Kandinsky fled Russia in December 1921, leaving&nbsp;<em>Painting with a Circle<\/em>&nbsp;\u201con deposit\u201d in Moscow, it vanished from the surface of history. The artist was not even able to obtain a photograph of it from the Soviet authorities. In effect, the painting was reduced to silence. So total was the cultural censorship to which it was subjected that it was thought to have been lost. Then, in the late 1970s, long after the artist\u2019s death, it was rediscovered in the USSR, although it was not publicly displayed for the first time before 1989. Yet until today this capital work in modern art history has received scant recognition from scholars and has thus not been given the place it deserves in our cultural Pantheon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than an innovative interpretation of&nbsp;<em>Painting with a Circle<\/em>, this book reveals the multiple levels of censorship that beset the creation of the first purely abstract composition and in many ways beset it still. Casting an entirely new look on it in the light of hitherto unpublished documents relating to the circumstances of its creation and its cultural sources, Andr\u00e9i Nakov finally does justice to its historical and artistic importance. The outcome of an exhaustive and exemplary research, his book enables us to grasp the cultural context of the period in which it was painted and to understand the essence of Kandinsky\u2019s aesthetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Slavic-born, French-educated art historian<strong> Andr\u00e9i Nakov<\/strong> has organized a number of major museum exhibitions over the last four decades: Berlin in 1977, London in 1984, Tokyo in 1989, Madrid in 1990 and others. Since the early 1970s his studies on art theory and essays on Dada, Constructivism, Suprematism and Abstract Art in general have been published in French, German, English and in many other languages. His books on Kazimir Malevich:<em> Kazimir Malewicz. Catalogue raisonn\u00e9<\/em>, Paris, Editions Adam Biro 2002 and his extensive four-volume study <em>Malevich, Painting the Absolute<\/em>, Lund Humphries, London 2010 are regarded as authoritative works on this artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"436\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/33503_Kandinsky_Enigma.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2410\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/33503_Kandinsky_Enigma.jpg 436w, https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/33503_Kandinsky_Enigma-262x300.jpg 262w, https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/33503_Kandinsky_Enigma-131x150.jpg 131w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 436px) 100vw, 436px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4>CONTENTS<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>F O R E W O R D<\/strong><br>REASONS FOR STUDYING A CENSORED PAINTING<br>Note Concerning the Translation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>C H A P T E R&nbsp; 1<\/strong><br>KANDINSKY\u2019S FIRST ABSTRACT PAINTING: LOOKING BEYOND THE LEGENDS<br>A Difficult Paternity<br>A Succesful Adoption<br>Nina Kandinsky\u2019s Devotion<br>Creation is an Explosion<br>The \u201cFirst Abstract Painting\u201d is Displayed for the First Time in Public<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>C H A P T E R&nbsp; 2<\/strong><br>DIONYSUS VERSUS APOLLO<br>Kandinsky\u2019s Relationship with the St. Petersburg Union of Youth<br>\u201cAt the Time Everyone Was Reading Blavatsky\u201d<br>Toward a New&nbsp;<em>Laocoon<\/em>?<br>\u201cThe Religion of Music\u201d<br>The Subconscious: the Mainspring of a Difficult Creation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>C H A P T E R&nbsp; 3<\/strong><br>THE GESTATION OF THE FIRST ABSTRACT PAINTING<br>\u201cInvisible in their Limpid Lives, the Solitary Ones&#8230;\u201d<br>\u201cRefraining from the Forms of Conventional Beauty\u201d<br>\u201cA Beam of Light Shining into the Future\u201d<br>\u201cThe Inrush of Forms\u201d<br>\u201cIn Art that Which is Veiled is far More Powerful\u201d<br>\u201cA Snake not Quite Able to Slough off its Skin\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>C H A P T E R&nbsp; 4<\/strong><br>\u201cWONDERFUL IS THE CIRCLE\u201d<br>\u201cThe Circle is the Synthesis of the Greatest Oppositions\u201d<br>Postscript: In the Labyrinth of Symbols<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A P P E N D I X<\/strong><br>\u201cThe Square! The \u2018Square\u2019 of Malevich&#8230;\u201d:<br>Kandinsky&#8217;s Letters to Alfred Barr<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bibliography<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>List of illustrations<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Index<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Orders can be placed via email irsa@irsa.com.pl.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than an innovative interpretation of Painting with a Circle, this book reveals the multiple levels of censorship that beset the creation of the first purely abstract composition and in many ways beset it still. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/33503_Kandinsky_Enigma.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Irsa","author_link":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/author\/irsa\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2408"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3554,"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408\/revisions\/3554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irsa.com.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}