Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky created the ten-piece Composition series over more than 30 years, and each painting is an important milestone in the artist’s career. Compositions I–IV were made in his earlier figurative style, while Compositions V–VII clearly show the progression towards abstraction. The strict geometric forms of Composition VIII were made a decade later, in 1923, and strongly reflect the influence of the Russian Constructivists, while Composition IX, completed in 1936, suggests a kinship with Joan Miró and the Surrealists. The odd one out is perhaps Composition X, painted in 1939, characterised by an unusual black background. Kandinsky once said that black is “like the silence of the body after death, the close of life”, and it is perhaps fitting to say that this painting seems like his last great work, although he painted it five years before his death in 1944.

From the page of Composition VII