Kandinsky Wassily – “Composition”

The founder of abstract art, Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky, began to seriously engage in painting at the age of thirty, leaving for this a brilliant legal career. He studied in Europe with venerable teachers of painting, trying to take their knowledge to the maximum, but at the same time he already had his own recognizable style.

At first, the artist painted in a manner similar to that of the Impressionist painters. And nothing until 1910 could indicate in his works the imminent birth of a new style called abstractionism with its riot of colors and forms. The artist considered creativity an emancipation of the spirit, which was confirmed by all his further works.

For the uninitiated viewer, accustomed to clear object forms and plots, it is quite difficult to discern in the paintings of the abstract style the specificity that the author has put into them. The canvas called “Composition VII” (working title “The Flood”) contains only lines, colors and planes. But it is they who convey the mood that the artist put into the picture.

The drama of the flood itself is conveyed by the rough strokes of red and blue stripes intersecting with transverse black lines running down from the top of the painting. To soften, the artist used pink tints of different saturation, bringing a certain solemnity to the canvas. Forms of dark brown color are notes of hopelessness, and yellow and green strokes are designed to balance the overall palette of the picture and give everything that happens on it additional activity.

In general, Kandinsky sought not only to display the flood as a dramatic moment or catastrophe, but also the subsequent act of creating a new world. The painting contains the dynamics of the movement of life, expressed exclusively in color and indefinite forms.

Year of painting: 1913.

Dimensions of the painting: 195 x 300 cm.

Material: canvas.

Writing technique: oil.

Genre: abstract painting.

Style: abstractionism.

Gallery: Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.