1908–1914: From The Blue Rider to the Abstract

In 1908, Kandinsky returned to Munich. His painting tended to focus primarily on colors and abstraction. 

He spent his summers at Murnau, in the Bavarian countryside, with Gabriele Münter and found inspiration in the landscape and local Russian folklore, which constituted a mythical source for him and which he depicted with striking colors and lines.

His first major work on art theory, Concerning the Spiritual in Art and Painting in Particular, was published at the end of 1911. He developed his artistic vocabulary throughout the series Improvisations, Impressions, and finally, Compositions, named in reference to music.

The Blue Rider Almanac (Der Blue Rider) published in 1912, with Franz Marc, used a multidisciplinary approach to the arts to show that "the question of art is not that of form, but of artistic content." 

In 1914, as the war escalated, Kandinsky had to leave Munich because he was a citizen of an enemy nation. He took refuge in Switzerland, before returning to Moscow.