1921 -1930s · geometric abstraction, Bauhaus and color resonance

For Kandinsky, the circle condenses oppositions: stable and mobile, closed and expansive, silent and sonorous. Variations in scale, color and neighborhood make it a true pictorial instrument.

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moscow in 1866 and chose painting after a first academic career. In Munich, at the turn of the 20th century, he gradually moved from the expressionist landscape to an abstraction where color, line and form act without depending on a represented object. His book On the Spiritual in Art, published in 1911, compares their effects to those of music. The circle appears early in this vocabulary, but it becomes particularly important after Kandinsky's return to Germany. In 1922, Walter Gropius invited him to teach at the Bauhaus. In 1922, Walter Gropius invited him to teach at the Bauhaus. In 1922, Walter Gropius appeared in this vocabulary, but it became particularly important after Kandinsky's return to Germany. The circle appeared early in this vocabulary, but it became particularly important after Kandinsky's return to Germany. The circle appeared early in this vocabulary, but it became particularly important after Kandinsky's return to Germany. In 1922, Walter Gropius invited him to teach at the Bauhaus interests him because he combines concentration and expansion. A perfectly closed shape can appear to float, move forward, backward or vibrate depending on its diameter, its hue, its contour and the background that surrounds it. Circles in a circle, made in 1923, brings together a constellation of colored discs in a large circular boundary crossed by diagonals. Some Circles, painted in 1926, pushes the experience further: on a deep black background, the discs appear transparent, superimposed or luminous like celestial bodies. Some Circles, painted in 1926, push the experience further: on a deep black background, the discs appear transparent, superimposed or luminous like celestial bodies. Other works confront the circle square, with straight lines or with brown masses in order to experience contrast and balance. Kandinsky does not look for one cold geometry. Each shape has an interior sound for it; the composition must orchestrate consonances, dissonances, accelerations and silences. After the closure of the Bauhaus, he moved to France in 1933 and softened this language with more organic forms. He died in 1944. A faithful reproduction must preserve the depth of the backgrounds, the variable sharpness of the contours, the transparencies and above all the intervals which allow each circle to resonate with the others. The selection "Circles of Wassily Kandinsky" notably compares Some Circles - Wassily Kandinsky and Circles in a Circle - Wassily Kandinsky. Its reading favors the material.

For Kandinsky, the circle is less a figure than an instrument: its size, its color and its distance from other shapes completely modify its sound.