Working Paper: NBER ID: w12403
Authors: David W. Galenson
Abstract: Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich were both great Russian painters who became pioneers of abstract art during the second decade of the twentieth century. Yet the forms of their art differed radically, as did their artistic methods and goals. Kandinsky, an experimental artist, approached abstraction tentatively and visually, by gradually and progressively concealing forms drawn from nature, whereas Malevich, a conceptual innovator, plunged precipitously into abstraction, by creating symbolic elements that had no representational origins. The conceptual Malevich also made his greatest innovations considerably earlier in his life than the experimental Kandinsky. Interestingly, at the age of 50 Kandinsky wrote an essay that clearly described these two categories of artist, contrasting the facile and protean young virtuoso with the single-minded individual who matured more slowly but was ultimately more original.
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JEL Codes: No JEL codes provided
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Experimental innovators (C91) | gradual and tentative approach to abstraction (C60) |
| Conceptual innovators (O36) | rapid transition to abstraction (C60) |
| Age of significant contributions (B11) | type of innovation (O35) |
| Kandinsky's gradual approach (B13) | contributions occurring later in career (J26) |
| Malevich's rapid approach (B14) | contributions occurring earlier in career (L26) |
| Differences in artistic trajectories (Z11) | classification of artists (Z11) |