Kandinsky composition 1-10

In his work, On the Spiritual in Art, published 1911, Kandinsky divided his paintings into three categories: Impressions, Improvisations, and Compositions.

Impressions were observations of the natural world.

One example, Impression III (Concert) was painted after Kandinsky attended a Schönberg concert in Munich in 1911.

The painting is dominated by the tension between the black and yellow colors. In On the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky wrote, “Light yellow… on black… has such a strong effect that it flies off the background, floats in the air and jumps into the viewers’ eyes.”

“The black piano is the material source of sound, yellow, on the other hand, is the immaterial source.

The yellow floods out to the side of the piano, flows downwards in a swinging movement, around the audience, and rises once again to the musicians in the orchestra, and from there finally settles as a round patch in front of the white, slanting columns.” (Günter Bruche