Studio News
Limited Edition 2024 Rug Launch: The Kandinsky 1,2,3
We are thrilled to announce the 2024 launch of our brand new limited edition rug designs, ‘The Kandinsky 1, 2 and 3’, a luxury rug series inspired by the avant-garde genius, Wassily (or Vasily) Kandinsky. Join us in exploring the contemporary paintings of Kandinsky, the context behind his work, as well as the design process that allowed an intersection of abstract art and modern home décor to come to life! The Kandinsky rugs are a limited edition of 10 pieces. Each provided with a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity. The first piece of each design with be sold at an 20% discount. Please enquire here to learn more.
“Color is a power which directly influences the soul”
– Wassily Kandinsky
Who was Wassily Kandinsky?
Born in Moscow, Russia in 1866, Wassily Kandinsky was an iconic artist and a key figure in the development of abstract art during the early 20th century. He believed that art should express the artist’s inner emotions and spiritual essence rather than copying the external world around them. This is what lead him to create work where colours and shapes interact with each other, producing a sense of movement and energy. He used bold, contrasting colours and geometric shapely forms to convey emotional intensity and provoke a powerful response from the viewer.
Wassily Kandinsky in 1936
One of Kandinsky’s most recognisable paintings is work such as “Composition V” (1911) which was amongst some of the first purely abstract paintings in Western art. Kandinsky Wassily challenged the notion that art had to depict recognisable objects and instead he focused on the expressive power that colour, form and line could create.
Wassily Kandinsky was known for having synaesthesia, which is a perceptual phenomenon were when your brain routes sensory information through multiple unrelated senses. For example, it might be that whenever you feel emotions, like if you are with someone you love, you may close your eyes and see certain colours in your field of vision – this proved to be his superpower when creating his abstract art.
‘Composition V’ (1911) by Wassily Kandinsky
The designing of the Kandinsky Art Rug
Sonya’s love for modern art has always been a great inspiration during her design process. Sonya aims to capture not only the essence of Kandinsky’s artistic legacy but also to infuse the luxury rugs with a contemporary allure that allows you to transform conventional floor space into functional art underfoot.
‘Squares with Concentric Circles’ (1913) by Wassily Kandinsky
Artists such as Sonia Delaunay, Henri Matisse and Joseph Albers are amongst some of the few who have sparked some of Sonya’s most iconic designer rugs. For this collection, Sonya and her team look to Wassily Kandinsky’s painting ‘Squares with Concentric Circles (1913)’ which is amongst Kandinsky’s most renowned artworks. The concentric circles ripple outward from a central point, creating a dynamic sense of movement. Each circle bears a distinct colour, ranging from bold primary hues to softer pastel tones, saturating the work with a rich kaleidoscopic quality.
How the Kandinsky rugs are made
The Kandinsky rugs collectively use 47 different colours of hand dyed yarn, which are perfectly measured by the dye master using high quality pigments. The dyes we work with are completely free from Azo-based compounds and therefore kind to human skin. This paired with our unique twist of long fibre yarn creates the vibrant colours needed to mirror the vivid brushstrokes of artist Wassily Kandinsky.
The Kandinsky 2 Rug‘s yarns drying in the sun after being freshly dyed.
The Kandinsky Collection pushes the limits and possibilities of hand weaving as each art rug is hand knotted at 100 knots per sq inch to achieve such meticulous weaving precision and reflect the level of detail within the artwork. This intricate weaving process is a specialised art form with a history spanning 2,000 years and demands exceptional accuracy, patience, and craftsmanship.
The Kandinsky 2 Rug being hand-knotted by our artisan weavers.
The method itself requires the weaver to tie each knot tightly by hand around the warp and weft of the rug, a process that is repeated thousands of times to create a finished luxury rug. The intricate detailing of the Kandinsky 1, 2, and 3 art rugs surpassed the capabilities of hand-tufted weaving and so a deliberate choice was made to work with artisan hand-knot specialist weavers to ensure the high-quality result this modern rug collection called for.
The Kandinsky Collection
The Kandinsky 1 Rug by Sonya Winner
The Kandinsky 2 Rug by Sonya Winner
The Kandinsky 3 Rug by Sonya Winner
(From left to right) Kandinsky 1 Rug, Kandinsky 2 Rug and Kandinsky 3 Rug by Sonya Winner.
If you want to find out more, take a look at these books and exhibitions:
Where can I read about Wassily Kandinsky?
Kandinsky’s theories on art were laid out in his influential memoir, “Concerning the Spiritual in Art” (1911). You can buy this now on Amazon through the link here.
Or if you’d prefer something a bit more modern, take a look at Vassily Kandinsky: Around the Circle (2021). It’s described as, “Twenty-first-century Kandinsky: a reappraisal of the Russian abstractionist’s art, life and thought..”. You can buy this now on Amazon through the link here.
Where can I see Wassily Kandinsky’s work?
Lenbachhaus Gallery in Munich holds the largest collection of works from the Blue Rider period in the world, because it was here that Kandinsky started the expressionist movement. Kandinsky created three fundamental categories he called Impressions, Improvisations and Compositions, the examples of which you can find at the Lenbachhaus Gallery, among 123 paintings, 333 drawings and 27 sketchbooks.
At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA, a total of 144 pieces are a part of the collection of Kandinsky’s art, including drawings, intaglios, lithographs, woodcuts, painted pieces.
The Musée national d’art moderne bought only two works during the artist’s lifetime, in 1937 and 1939. However, in 1976 the museum received the donation of fifteen paintings and fifteen watercolours from Nina Kandinsky. Then in 1980, the contents of the artist’s studio in Neuilly, which gives the collection its specificity today.
Try our Free Visualisation Service!
If you’re feeling inspired by these luxury art rugs, please read more about them here, or even take advantage of our complimentary visualisation service and see them digitally in your space.
To find more information about our digital visualisation service, view here.
Explore the rest of our colourful collection by visiting our Vibrant Contemporary Rug Shop and re-imagine your space to be eye-catching and bold.
