Composition VII, Wassily Kandinsky, 1913

Expressionism · 1913

Composition VII

Wassily Kandinsky 1866–1944

Tretyakov Gallery · Moscow

A storm of colour and line with no subject at all — Kandinsky's most complex canvas, painting pure feeling like music.

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The story of Composition VII

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Chapter 1 of 7

Total Upheaval

You are standing before the most ambitious painting Wassily Kandinsky ever made. Completed in just four days in November 1913 — on the eve of the Great War — Composition VII is the culmination of years of studies fusing biblical catastrophe and spiritual rebirth into pure, churning abstraction. There is no horizon.

There is no subject. There is only music made visible.

Where to see it

Tretyakov Gallery

Moscow

Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.

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