Composition 8

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Composition 8 (Composition 8) (Wassily Kandinsky)
Composition 8 (Composition 8)
Wassily Kandinsky , 1923
Oil on canvas
140 × 201 cm
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , New York

Composition 8 is the title of a painting by Wassily Kandinsky from 1923, when the artist was a teacher at the Weimar Bauhaus . It is one of Kandinsky's main works and is to be understood as overcoming his so-called Munich style of expressionism , which led to his turning to abstract geometric form and structure. Today the picture is on display in New York's Guggenheim Museum .

Background and description

Precursors of this image emerged as early as 1919, still during the Russian Civil War , when Kandinsky was part of the state-official avant-garde there. They document the transition from German expressionism of the pre-war period to new, more abstract perspectives, which he later represented in theoretical writings at the Bauhaus in addition to his teaching activities. In Composition 8 circular for drawing and parallel-linear geometric shapes used tools such as ruler and compass, to the influence of the Russian artist Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko back, who for his sketches and pictures that the 1915 Suprematism and Constructivism attributable , applied. Rodchenko and Kandinsky were well known. In contrast to his geometric shapes, Kandinsky created more spatial depth and less schematics than Rodchenko, but he also used elements of Suprematism and Constructivism.

The geometric shapes circle (partly with aura), square , trapezoid , lines , also a freehand drawn wave-like line and pattern in chessboard form are executed in a mostly light color with shady areas, which includes not only the basic colors, but also overlaps and mixed tones, which, according to Nancy Spector, curator of the New York Guggenheim Museum, creates a “pulsating surface that is alternately dynamic and calm, aggressive and quiet. The circle is the dominant form in this and in the artist's later pictures. ”Kandinsky himself sees the circle as the“ synthesis of the greatest opposites. He combines the concentric with the eccentric in a figure in equilibrium. Of the three primary forms, it is the clearest turn to the fourth dimension . ”These circles are reminiscent of cosmic bodies and the inner sound described by Kandinsky .

In the opinion of the American art historian Clark V. Poling, the painting Composition 8 from July 1923 belongs to the highpoint of Kandinsky's work in addition to the paintings In the Black Square (Guggenheim Museum, New York) and Circles in the Circle (Philadelphia Museum of Art) that period. Accordingly, they create their strict quality “through their basic straight and curve shapes and the black lines against the light background.” The composition of the open distribution and the size of these geometric elements give the pictures “monumentality and expansion”. Composition 8 also conveys "atmospheric space" through the color coordination of the background between light blue and white in the lower part of the picture and towards yellow in the upper part of the picture. Kandinsky himself also found the picture successful. He wrote to his critic and biographer Will Grohmann that Composition 8 was the high point of his “post-war achievements”.

In his review of an exhibition at the Lenbachhaus in Munich in 2009, Michael Stitz described the picture in his article Kandinsky or the School of Seeing with regard to the musical element in Kandinsky's work:

“The musical aspect of his painting should not be overestimated when looking at the works. Kandinsky heard the colors. Titles like 'Composition VIII' are not embarrassment labels, but an indication of Kandinsky's striving to paint the 'spiritual in art'. The objects almost inevitably had to dissolve, the path led to abstraction. "

A preliminary study in watercolor technique measuring 47 × 42.5 cm is in the possession of the Galleria Galatea in Turin.

Exhibitions (selection)

Solomon R. Guggenheim , his wife Irene and the painter Hilla von Rebay , who later became the founding director of the Guggenheim Museum, went on a trip to Europe in the spring of 1929, during which they also visited the Bauhaus in Dessau. They were introduced to Kandinsky and bought Composition 8 as the first of over 150 works by the artist.

  • August to September 1923: Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar
  • January 30th to May 27th 1927: Paths and directions of abstract painting in Europe in the Kunsthalle Mannheim
  • May to June 1952: L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle peintures, sculptures in the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris and then from July 15 to August 17 in the Tate Gallery in London
  • May 30 to July 15, 1984: Kandinsky in Russia and at the Bauhaus. 1915–1933 at the Kunsthaus Zürich
  • August 9 to September 23, 1984: Kandinsky. Russian period and Bauhaus years 1915–1933 in the Bauhaus Archive, Museum of Design , Berlin

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Clark V. Poling: Kandinsky. Russian period and Bauhaus years 1915–1933. Bauhaus Archive, Museum of Design, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-89087-011-2 , pp. 9, 25 ff.
  2. ^ Nancy Spector on the Guggenheim Museum website
  3. ↑ Kandinsky formulated his understanding of the circle for Will Grohmann for use in the book: Wassily Kandinsky - Life and Work. Private print of the Kandinsky Society, Braunschweig 1930, originally published as Will Grohmann: Wassily Kandinsky . In: Cahiers d'Art . 1929, ISSN  0995-8274 , OCLC 888350367 , p. 322 ff . ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  4. ^ Clark V. Poling: Kandinsky. Russian period and Bauhaus years 1915–1933. Bauhaus Archive, Museum of Design, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-89087-011-2 , p. 9, 235 ff.
  5. ↑ Kandinsky was a synesthete .
  6. ↑ Michael Stitz: Kandinsky or the school of seeing . In: shz (ed.): Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitung . January 5, 2009 ( shz.de ).
  7. ↑ Angelica Zander Rudenstine: Kandinsky Composition 8 . In: The Guggenheim Museum collection. Paintings, 1880-1945 . Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York 1976, p. 308-311 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  8. ^ Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub: Ways and directions of abstract painting in Europe . Ed .: Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim. Mannheim 1927, doi : 10.11588 / diglit.16796 .
  9. ^ Jean Cassou, James Johnson Sweeney: L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle peintures, sculptures . Musée national d'art moderne, Paris 1952.