Episode Details

Wassily Kandinsky heard colors and saw sounds — a neurological condition called synesthesia that became the foundation of abstract art. He painted the first purely abstract works in Western art history, arguing that color and form could communicate spiritual truths directly, without representing anything in the physical world. He was a trained lawyer and economist who abandoned a university career to paint, and the paintings he produced changed what art could be.

This episode traces Kandinsky from his Russian childhood through the Munich breakthrough, the founding of Der Blaue Reiter, the Bauhaus years, and the theoretical writings that gave abstract art its intellectual foundation.

• Kandinsky's synesthesia and the experience of hearing colors that shaped his artistic vision
• The abandonment of a law career at thirty and the move to Munich to study painting
• The first abstract watercolor and the theoretical argument for art without representation
• The Bauhaus teaching years, the flight from Nazi Germany, and the Paris exile