ROTWAND PAINTED BY WASSILY KANDINSKY

WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944) 

Rotwand (1,884 m - 6,181 ft) 

Germany (Bavaria) 

In Spitzingsee, oil on canvasboard, 1901, 24 x42 cm, 

Private collection (sold by Christie's NYC in 2016) 

The mountain 
The Rotwand ("Red Wall")  (1,884 m - 6,181 ft) is a high peak in the Mangfall Mountains in Bavaria, the highest summit in the Spitzingsee region and one of the most popular of Munich's local mountains. The summit may be reached in an easy hike from the lake of Spitzingsee on various routes. The summit can be attained even more easily from the nearby mountain station on the Taubenstein and, as a result, can often become rather overcrowded on summer's days.
In winter the Rotwand is frequently climbed by skiers. The classic Rotwand-Reib’n runs from the Spitzingsee to the Rotwand, then over the Kümpflscharte arête (1,695 m) to the Auerspitz summit (1,811 m), continuing via the alpine pasture of Großtiefentalalm (1,500 m), the Miesing saddle (1,704 m; with detours to the Hochmiesing), Kleintiefentalalm and Taubensteinhaus and back to the Spitzingsee. This tour is also possible with snowshoes.
The "problem bear", JJ1 (also known as Bruno), was believed to be the first wild bear on German soil for 170 years. He was declared a threat to humans and killed on 26 June 2006 around 4.50 am in the Rotwand area after he had been seen at the Rotwandhaus.

The painter

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (Васи́лий Васи́льевич Канди́нский,) was a Russian painter and art theorist, generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art.

 Kandinsky's creation of abstract work followed a long period of development and maturation of intense thought based on his artistic experiences. He called this devotion to inner beauty, fervor of spirit, and spiritual desire inner necessity ; it was a central aspect of his art.

Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat—Kandinsky began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30.
In 1896, Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying first at Anton Ažbe's private school and then at the Academy of Fine Arts. He returned to Moscow in 1914, after the outbreak of World War I. 

Following the Russian Revolution, Kandinsky "became an insider in the cultural administration of Anatoly Lunacharsky" and helped establish the Museum of the Culture of Painting.  However, by then "his spiritual outlook... was foreign to the argumentative materialism of Soviet society",  and opportunities beckoned in Germany, to which he returned in 1920. There he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933.

He then moved to France, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and producing some of his most prominent art. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944.

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau