1921

Modern and Contemporary Art

This painting exemplifies Kandinsky's late style in which purely geometric forms dominate the composition. The non-objective and non-representational colored shapes are arranged in an orderly, animated two-dimensional pattern. They are suspended in the pictorial space of the painting through an intense juxtaposition of form and color. One of eight major paintings made by Kandinsky in 1921, while living in Russia, this work represents a transition between the lyrical "improvisations" and the rich "compositions" he made while living in Munich (1896–1914) and the more architectonic works created while he was teaching at the Bauhaus (1922–33). As in most of Kandinsky's paintings, music provided an underlying metaphor for his composition, which he created as a free interplay of color, form, and line in space.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

54 7/16 × 70 7/8 in. (138.2 × 180 cm)
framed: 55 1/4 × 72 × 2 in. (140.3 × 182.9 × 5.1 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Collection Société Anonyme

Accession Number

1941.528

Culture
Period

20th century

Classification
Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

Provenance

Exhibition at the Societe Anonyme, 19 E. 47th St, NY, 1923; Société Anonyme (until 1941, donated to the gallery)
Bibliography
  • Ketevan Kintsurashvili, David Kakabadzé: Georgian Modern Artist and Inventor (New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2013), 129
  • Annegret Hoberg, Kandinsky: Absolut, Abstrakt, exh. cat. (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 2009)
  • Vivian Endicott Barnett et al., Kandinsky, exh. cat. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2009), 222, 311, no. 57, ill.
  • Ruth L. Bohan et al., The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America, ed. Jennifer Gross, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2006), 196, ill.
  • Robert L. Herbert, Eleanor S. Apter, and Elise K. Kenney, The Société Anonyme and the Dreier Bequest at Yale University: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984), 360, no. 375, ill.
  • Collection of the Société Anonyme: Museum of Modern Art 1920 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1950), 1-2, ill.
Object copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

abstract (general art genre)

Signed

Signed on back: K (artist's monogram) No.238/1921

Technical metadata and APIs

IIIF

Open in Mirador

View IIIF manifest

The International Image Interoperability Framework, or IIIF, is an open standard for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. Visit iiif.io to learn more

Linked Art

API response for this object

Linked Art is a Community working together to create a shared Model based on Linked Open Data to describe Art.