Description
Wassily Kandinsky’s painting Composition VII is considered by many admirers of abstract art to be the most important work of art of the 20th century, perhaps even the most important abstract painting ever created.
This work is a logical continuation of Compositions V and Composition VI . The 3 paintings are united by the theme of the Apocalypse. Elements of Composition VI, such as the Flood and the Resurrection, can be traced in this work. Its main theme is the Last Judgment, but it is not seen as a disaster; rather, it is a liberation, a transition from the material world to the spiritual one. Thus, Composition VII differs from the other works in the series with its light colors and sparkling contrasting lines.
Kandinsky constructed each of his compositions so that the viewer could enter the image as if turning within it. He made the lower edge of the composition heavier, pushing it forward, while the upper part remains lighter and more distant from the viewer. Blue and yellow, one of the artist’s principal contrasts, form the central area of active movement inward and outward.
Kandinsky spent many months preparing his Composition VII, but took only 4 days to paint it. The artist made about 30 studies for this painting (1, 2). Some of them recall Caravaggio or Leonardo da Vinci, with their detailed studies of folds in fabric, tree leaves, or human limbs. In this series, some works repeatedly feature the same curved line, others schematically show the basic structural elements of the composition, and some contain a detailed plan of the composition. In addition, there are about 15 different pictures related to Composition VII: oil or pencil sketches, watercolors, paintings on glass, and prints.
Gabrielle Münter, who witnessed the creation of this painting, wrote in her diary on November 25, 1913, that the canvas for Composition VII was delivered to her home in Murnau, and Kandinsky began working that very evening. The next morning, she took the first photograph of the painting, and after lunch she took the second. Münter’s diary entry for November 28 stated that the painting was complete. On November 29, she took a photograph of the finished work. Thus the birth of a great masterpiece was recorded.
Composition VII ranks No. 100 on our list of famous paintings