Wassily Kandinsky's Composition IV: Birth of Abstract Art

Wassily Kandinsky: Composition IV (1910-1913)

This pioneering work of contemporary abstract art announces a new direction in 20th-century painting. Composition IV is a crucial piece in the evolution of Wassily Kandinsky, the creator of abstraction in painting.

Key Details of Composition IV

• Author: Wassily Kandinsky
• Work: Composition IV
• Technique: Oil on canvas
• Chronology: Painted between 1910 and 1913

Style and Interpretation

The figures are simple, but the color is so arbitrary and confusing that it is impossible to distinguish the subject without reference to previous pictures in the series. Especially confusing for the viewer is how the line is used both as an independent element and as a limit to the color.

The Evolution of Wassily Kandinsky's Work

Kandinsky was noted for his sensitivity to color, which later led him to inquire about its nature and peculiarity. For him, color was a product of subjectivity, not the exact reproduction of an outward expression. This sensitivity to color and shapes left an indelible impression, especially as he encountered the novelty of other colors, clothing designs, and forms of decoration.

Early Career and Artistic Groups

• In 1896, he rejected a teaching position at the University of Dorpat (Tartu) to study art in Munich.
• 1901: He founded the Phalanx group. Its purpose was to introduce the French avant-garde into the provincial environment of Munich, which led to the opening of a school where he taught.
• 1902: He exhibited at the Berlin Secession and produced his first woodcuts.
• 1904: He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.

Technical Experimentation (1900s)

His paintings from the early years of the century are landscapes executed with a palette knife. They were initially dark but achieved great intensity of color starting in 1909.

This period is marked by technical experimentation, including the use of tempera on dark paper to give the impression of a transparent surface illuminated from behind. The chiaroscuro tonal consistency scheme emphasizes blurring the distinction between figure and ground, resulting in an almost abstract composition.

1909: He was elected president of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artists' Association of Munich).

Towards the end of the decade, the paintings reveal a strong tendency toward flatness due to the equivalent intensity of the color areas and a shiny surface that destroys any illusion of depth. The series of paintings beginning with Rider in Combat (1909) shows the horizon line gradually being eradicated.

Milestones in Abstraction

• 1910: He created his first abstract watercolor.
• 1911: He published Concerning the Spiritual in Art. The artist identifies faith with the study of spirituality, which can only be achieved if we take into account the Platonic universal soul.
• 1912: The Blaue Reiter Almanac was published, and the second Blaue Reiter exhibition took place in the Hans Goltz gallery. Kandinsky also held his first solo exhibition. The themes of this period were often violent and apocalyptic.
• 1913: He painted Black Lines. Abstraction is achieved through color and line, as they do not follow a fixed format.

Description and Analysis of Composition IV

The composition shows a series of lines, colors, and shapes without any relation to external reality. The canvas is dominated by bright colors, expressing an emotional state. Kandinsky believed that each color communicates a feeling and a sound equivalent (synesthesia).

The work resembles an explosion of fireworks; there is no parallelism or symmetry, and it is almost impossible to find a slight resemblance to any kind of figurative painting. The artist needed to externalize an internal necessity, and he did so through abstraction. The painting is an autonomous reality with no connection to nature.

Kandinsky's Influence and Legacy

Kandinsky was one of the most influential artists and can be considered one of the painters who sowed the seed of Abstract Expressionism.

Technical and Stylistic Philosophy

He was the initiator of the artistic movement of abstraction. His lyrical and eruptive paintings also prefigure the informal drawing of the 1950s. His new experience influenced the history of art by liberating color from the object.

Kandinsky considered colors and shapes as the purest means for the pictorial expression of emotion. To achieve the essence of art, he believed it lay, such as music, in a series of immaterial forms. To do this, he sought rhythm, abstract construction, and the dynamism of color.

Post-War and Bauhaus Years

• 1918–1921: He taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Moscow.
• 1920: He was one of the founders of the Moscow INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture).
• 1922: He moved to Weimar, where he lectured at the Bauhaus school.
• 1926: He published his seminal theoretical work, Point and Line to Plane.