Wassily Kandinsky

The present work, a study for Kreise auf Schwarz now in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York shows Kandinsky’s mastery of colour and abstraction. It was executed during a period that saw important developments in both his art and theory of art. During his years in Russia the artist had been exposed to the work of the Russian avant-garde, such as Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandr Rodchenko, and Liubov Popova. He adopted some aspects of the geometrising trends of Suprematism and Constructivism which are evident in this work. However, there is an emotive freedom present in this work that belongs to Kandinsky’s singular style. The artist could not completely associate himself with the rational principles that underlined the Russian artists' works as this was in conflict with his expressive style. Wieland Schmied revealed in an essay written in 1985: ‘Kandinsky is the rider travelling over unknown terrain, a terrain whose forms seem familiar but which are not clearly revealed. They awaken associations and then withdraw again. They depict an area, a region whose motifs became less and less legible but which point to a coherence of all being, to a spiritual context, even if the figure of the rider is not yet able to discern it’ (W. Schmeid, 'Developments in German Art', German Art in the 20^th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1905-1985 (exhibition catalogue), The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1985, p. 35).

By the end of 1921 Kandinsky had moved to Germany and in 1922 he had accepted a post at the Bauhaus in Weimar. Works during this transitional and important period increasingly include geometric shapes often floating in front of or within a broad plane as in Entwurf zu Kreise auf Schwarz. Organic forms are introduced together with irregularly geometric shapes, and the motives are stripped of their representational meaning. Vivian Endicott Barnett details more of the characteristics of work of this period: ‘During the first year at the Bauhaus, Kandinsky’s work gradually evolved toward a more strictly geometric abstraction in 1921. There is a strong emphasis on the three primary colors and the three elementary forms, which are rendered with greater precision. In particular the circle becoming the predominant form and acquired symbolic or cosmic meaning’ (V. Endicott Barnett, Vasily Kandinsky, A Colourful life, New York, 1996, p. 517).