Several circles Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Description of Vasily Kandinsky’s "Several Circles"

The painting "Several Circles" was painted in 1926. The materials used to paint the work were oil and canvas. The dimensions of the canvas are 140x140 cm. At present, the painting is in New York, in the Guggenheim Museum.

Without a doubt, the work belongs to the genre of abstractionism, of which Vasily Kandinsky was the most brilliant representative. For the artist, the circle is not only and not so much a geometric figure as a kind of universal guide to another world.

This closed figure connects us to this world at a single glance, its form has no beginning, just as it has no end. Thus Kandinsky presents the combination of circles of different sizes and colors as a combination of infinities, something cosmic and absolute.

At first glance, the composition seems to be a chaotic piling up of figures, but the longer one looks into these circles, the clearer it becomes that each of them is in its place. Spectacular, bright yellow, bright blue circles pop up here and there on the dark background, black circles are superimposed over the bright ones, and so on layer after layer. In some ways, these figures resemble planets and luminaries moving through space.

A glow can be seen around one of the figures, which further enhances the resemblance of the circles to space objects. The bright colors, so beloved by the artist, awaken the imagination. Intersecting, the circles get new shades and facets of color, the view wants to follow their bizarre lines and overlaps with each other.

The love of the circle runs through all of Kandinsky’s work from 1920 to 1930. The artist saw in the circle everything he wanted and sought: space, tension, power. The circle on his canvases is not even a circle, but an entity endowed with an inner voice and character. Simple geometry, thanks to Kandinsky, acquires a soul.