COMPOSITION 8

Artist: Wassily Kandinsky
Completion Date: 1923
Place of Creation: Germany
Style: Abstract Art
Series: Compositions Genre: abstract painting
Technique: oil
Material: canvas
Dimensions: 140 x 201 cm
Gallery: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

‘Composition 8’ is a colourful and captivating painting by Wassily Kandinsky, completed in 1923. It is unclear from the painting as to what the conditions were when it was completed, but it was painted in Germany in 1923. The key materials used by Kandinsky to create his various compositions were ink, oil paints, pencil and watercolours, and “Composition 8” incorporates these mediums. It is one of the works of a series of ‘Compositions’. This work is less chaotic, and presents an overall calm image to the viewer. The focus of “Composition 8” lies on the layout and overall presentation. It was painted while Kandinsky was teaching at the Bauhaus in Germany, and is representative of the Constructivism and Supremism that he had seen in Russia.
When Kandinsky returned to Moscow after the outbreak of World War I, his expressive abstract style underwent changes that mirrored the utopian artistic experiments of the Russian avant-garde. The emphasis on geometric forms, in an attempt to establish a universal aesthetic language, inspired Kandinsky and he adopted some aspects of the geometrizing trends of Suprematism and Constructivism, such as overlapping flat planes and clearly delineated shapes. Kandinsky’s work synthesized Russian avant-garde art with a lyrical abstraction that includes dynamic compositional elements, resembling mountains, sun, and atmosphere that still refer to the landscape. However due to an artistic conflict with the majority of his Russian, rational, systemizing colleagues, he returned to Germany in 1921. This conflict led him to return to Germany. In 1922 Kandinsky joined the faculty of the Bauhaus where he discovered a more sympathetic environment. He taught there until 1933, when the Nazi government closed the Bauhaus and confiscated 57 of Kandinsky’s works in its purge of “degenerate art.”
The Bauhaus aesthetic came to reflect Constructivist concerns and styles, which by the mid-1920s had become international in scope. While there, Kandinsky furthered his investigations into the correspondence between colours and forms and their psychological and spiritual effects. In Composition 8, the colourful, interactive geometric forms create a pulsating surface that is alternately dynamic and calm, aggressive and quiet.
Kandinsky shifted the main focus of his work from colour to form when painting ‘Composition VIII’, as he wanted to explore and apply the artistic influences that he had picked up in Russia, as well as his fascinations with music. In this particular painting form is more dominant than colour. There is also a sharp focus on the placement of lines within the piece, as well as other various geometric shapes. The colours are sparser on the piece in comparison to his other works, fitting into the shapes created by the lines. The combinations of colour and line create a varying depth within the piece, with a layered background of pale blue (lower), white (middle) and pale yellow (higher) adding to this feel. The eye is drawn back and forth by the diagonal lines, which are in good proportion to the larger circle at the top left corner, and also by the colours inside the lines. The texture of the medium use (oil paint, watercolour, pencil, ink) gives the image a grainier appearance.
This painting creates a relaxed mood, which could possibly be due to Kandinsky’s love of classical music and the relaxing feel that radiates from it. The pale colours and simple shapes support this notion, as there aren’t too many complex patterns or erratic colour schemes involved. Additionally, it can be deduced that the use of black and white within the shapes seems to imitate a musical score sheet, which underpins the idea that Kandinsky used music as inspiration for his work.
To conclude, inspired by utopian artistic experiments of the Russian avant-garde and the geometrizing trends of Suprematism and Constructivism, Kandinsky’s “Composition 8” focuses on creating harmony between shape and colour. Influenced by music, Kandinsky incorporates the perfect combination of shapes and colours to show people just how he saw and experienced the world.