Sketch 160A, 1912 by Wassily Kandinsky

Courtesy of www.Wassily-Kandinsky.org

As with many of his works of this time, Kandinsky had not moved away from representing recognizable forms froriB nature in his Abstractions. In this picture one can still discern a bird and a horse with rider. The latter was a recurring motif in Kandinsky's work and held such significance for him that he named Der Bloue Reiter exhibition and subsequent almanac after the motif.

Der Bloue Reiter almanac came out in 1912 and contained a significant contribution to the understanding of modern art, not just by Kandinsky, but by other artists, for instance Franz Marc and Auguste Macke, who contributed images and essays. There were also pictures by other avant-garde painters such as Van Gogh and Matisse, an illustrated article by Robert Delaunay (1885-1941), and a number of references to Russian folk artm Japanese drawings, mosaic work and Mexican sculptures. There were also contributions from avant-garde musicians and composers, such as Arnold Schonberg, who wrote about the relationship of music and lyrics and Thomas von Hartmann who contributed an article called 'Anarchy in Music'. Kandinsky also contributed the score for a theatre work (never performed) called The Yellow Sound.