Swirling colours, lines and shapes explode, collide and resonate across the canvas. Nothing in it is recognisable, yet it brims with energy and feeling. Kandinsky considered this huge work the most complex he ever made; it is a landmark in the history of abstract art.
Key facts
- Artist
- Wassily Kandinsky1866–1944 · Russian
- Date
- 1913
- Period
- Modern1900–1930
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 200 × 300 cm
- Location
- State Tretyakov Gallery Moscow, Russia
Actual size
Compared with an adult 170 cm tall
Palette
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Kandinsky believed that colour and form, like music, could move the soul directly without depicting objects. He divided his works into “Impressions”, “Improvisations” and “Compositions”, the last being his most carefully prepared and ambitious.
He made more than thirty drawings, watercolours and oil studies for it. Yet the final canvas was painted in about four days, and his companion Gabriele Münter photographed its progress.
It was completed on the eve of the First World War. After Kandinsky returned to Russia the painting eventually entered state collections; it is now in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
Technique & composition
There is no single focal point, but draws the eye: a black core ringed by red, yellow and green, with shapes and lines radiating outward. The eye travels endlessly, like listening to the movements of a symphony.
Kandinsky layered sharp lines, soft patches and transparent veils of colour to create powerful rhythm and tension. The left side is dense and turbulent, the right more open and gentle.
Details
Symbolism
Hidden themes
Though abstract, Kandinsky's studies reveal that it grew out of several biblical themes: the Resurrection, the Last Judgment, the Deluge and the Garden of Love. These images dissolved into pure colour and form, leaving only faint traces, such as .
Destruction and rebirth
The chaos and explosion can be read as a cosmic catastrophe, yet the bright colours carry hope and renewal. Kandinsky believed that the destruction of the old world would bring spiritual rebirth.
Stories
- Did you know?
Kandinsky is said to have had synaesthesia, “hearing” colours. He compared yellow to the sound of a trumpet and blue to a cello.
- Did you know?
In Concerning the Spiritual in Art he wrote: “Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings.”
Legacy
Composition VII is regarded as the pinnacle of pre-war abstract art. Kandinsky's theory and practice laid the foundations of twentieth-century abstraction, influencing the Bauhaus and post-war American Abstract Expressionism.
