Kandinsky painted ten compositions, as he saw everything else as a study leading up to these ten pure works. Unfortunately the first three compositions were destroyed in World War II. Fuck you Hitler. You want a reason to stop war, be outraged at the destruction of these masterworks.
Kandinsky has always been my largest influence. These works were planned out as complete statements, pure works of emotion, philosophy, and spirituality. For Kandinsky, each one of these were the peaks of his work in the moment he created them.
I have had the luck to be able to view most of them.
"Composition IV"
1911, oil on canvas
"Composition V"
1911, oil on canvas
Private collection
"Composition VI"
1913, oil on canvas
"Composition VII"
1913, oil on canvas
I have traveled to the Guggenheim in New York many times only to spend time with this work. "Composition 8" is where I feel Kandinsky reached his top. This painting speaks to me retrospectively, and reminds me of where I am going. I will travel to see it again many times.
"Composition VII"
1923, oil on canvas
"Composition IX"
1936, oil on canvas
"Composition X"
1939, oil on canvas
These masterworks have been a major part of my education as an artist. I have always felt that I can not only relate to these works, but that I can see their truths and where Kandinsky was headed philosophically.
"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for color, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential."
-Wassily Kandinsky.
