WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944)
"Der Blue Berge" - Alpspitze (2,628 m - 8,622ft)
Germany (Bavaria)
1. In Der Blaue Berge (The Blue Mountain). 1908/09, oil on canvas,
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
The mountain
The Alpspitze (2,628 m - 8,622ft) is a mountain in Bavaria, Germany. Its pyramidal peak is the symbol of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and is one of the best known and most attractive mountains of the Northern Limestone Alps. It is made predominantly of Wetterstein limestone from the Upper Triassic.
Several klettersteigs run up the Alpspitze. The shortest ascent starts at the valley station of Osterfelderkopf (2,033 m) on the Alpspitze Cable Car from Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From the Osterfelderkopf the Alpspitze may be climbed either directly along the Alpspitz-Ferrata, an easy, mostly protected and much frequented klettersteig (ca. 2 hours from the Osterfelderkopf) or the summit may be reached on the North Face Climb (Nordwandsteig), which runs in a curve to the east into the Oberkar cirque and from there along the left-hand edge of the cirque to the top.
Another ascent runs from the col of Grießkarscharte (2,460 m), which is reached either from the Höllentalanger Hut in the Höllental valley via the cirque of Mathaisenkar (involving a klettersteig) or from the lake of Stuibensee via the Grießkar cirque.
The popular route from the Alpspitze via the arete of Jubiläumsgrat to the Zugspitze is a long and difficult climbing tour, which involves UIAA grade III sections.
Why should Der Blaue Berge by Kandinsky should represent the Alpspitze in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ? No one could certify it of course, but there are strong presumptions for it... The triangular shape, characteristic of this Bavarian summit, is exactly reflected in Kandinsky's work. There is also the fact that this painting was made at the time Kandinsky was living in Bavaria, very close to this peak... But these are only hypotheses
Several klettersteigs run up the Alpspitze. The shortest ascent starts at the valley station of Osterfelderkopf (2,033 m) on the Alpspitze Cable Car from Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From the Osterfelderkopf the Alpspitze may be climbed either directly along the Alpspitz-Ferrata, an easy, mostly protected and much frequented klettersteig (ca. 2 hours from the Osterfelderkopf) or the summit may be reached on the North Face Climb (Nordwandsteig), which runs in a curve to the east into the Oberkar cirque and from there along the left-hand edge of the cirque to the top.
Another ascent runs from the col of Grießkarscharte (2,460 m), which is reached either from the Höllentalanger Hut in the Höllental valley via the cirque of Mathaisenkar (involving a klettersteig) or from the lake of Stuibensee via the Grießkar cirque.
The popular route from the Alpspitze via the arete of Jubiläumsgrat to the Zugspitze is a long and difficult climbing tour, which involves UIAA grade III sections.
Why should Der Blaue Berge by Kandinsky should represent the Alpspitze in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ? No one could certify it of course, but there are strong presumptions for it... The triangular shape, characteristic of this Bavarian summit, is exactly reflected in Kandinsky's work. There is also the fact that this painting was made at the time Kandinsky was living in Bavaria, very close to this peak... But these are only hypotheses
The painter
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (Васи́лий Васи́льевич Канди́нский) was a Russian-French painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting one of the first recognised purely abstract works. 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.
From 1906 to 1908 Kandinsky spent a great deal of time travelling across Europe (he was an associate of the Blue Rose symbolist group of Moscow), until he settled in the small Bavarian town of Murnau. In 1908 he bought a copy of Thought-Forms by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater. In 1909 he joined the Theosophical Society.
The Blue Mountain (1908–1909) was painted at this time, demonstrating his trend toward abstraction. A mountain of blue is flanked by two broad trees, one yellow and one red. A procession, with three riders symbolizing his crusade against conventional aesthetic values and his dream of a better, more spiritual future through the transformative powers of art. The faces, clothing, and saddles of the riders are each a single colour, and neither they nor the walking figures display any real detail. The flat planes and the contours also are indicative of Fauvist influence. The broad use of colour in The Blue Mountain illustrates Kandinsky's inclination toward an art in which colour is presented independently of form, and which each colour is given equal attention. The composition is more planar; the painting is divided into four sections: the sky, the red tree, the yellow tree and the blue mountain with the three riders.
After the outbreak of World War I, Kandinsky left Germany for Moscow. He was unsympathetic to the official theories on art in Communist Russia, and he soon returned to Germany in 1920, a few years after the Revolution. 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 at Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944.
