
Vasily Kandinsky, along with Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter, and Alexei Jawlensky, was a founding member of Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider), a loose alliance of artists based in Munich. Often working in a common palette using expressive brushwork, they shared a belief in the symbolic and spiritual importance of forms and colors, including their effect on emotions and memories. Blaue Reiter also promoted a spontaneous, intuitive approach to painting, looking to non-Western, European medieval, and folk art for inspiration. Here the troika, a traditional carriage drawn by three horses, and the hand-painted frame, which Kandinsky made especially for this work, speak to the powerful influence these sources had on the artist.

Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons)
Vasily Kandinsky Born Moscow (formerly Russian Empire, now Russia), 1866; died Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 1944

Landscape with Two Poplars
Vasily Kandinsky Born Moscow (formerly Russian Empire, now Russia), 1866; died Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 1944

Painting with Green Center
Vasily Kandinsky Born Moscow (formerly Russian Empire, now Russia), 1866; died Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 1944