Composition VIII

Composition VIII, abstract oil painting created in 1923 by Russian-born artist Wassily Kandinsky. Both fiercely vivacious and quiet, Composition VIII ranks as one of the artist’s most important works in the years after World War I.

Credited with being one of the founders of abstract painting, as well as one of the most important art theorists of the 20th century, Kandinsky lived much of his artistic life pushing the boundaries of abstractionism. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent most of his career in Germany and Paris. Composition VIII, one of 10 Composition paintings created over a 30-year span from 1909 to 1939, was painted during Kandinsky’s tenure as a professor at the Bauhaus, the innovative art and design school then in Weimar, Germany.

In Composition VIII, geometrical elements of varying forms and colours are scattered dynamically and interactively over a cool background. The most striking shape is the large black circle on the canvas’s upper left corner, which serves both as a reference point for the smaller circles and as a powerful contrast to the sharp lines and triangles. During his years at the Bauhaus between 1922 and 1926, Kandinsky taught extensively on his theories of form. Composition VIII was the artist’s first methodical application of his ideas about the relationship between colour and form and his understanding of their spiritual and psychological effects. This painting also marks the beginning of Kandinsky’s long connection with the circle. In his view, this primary form pointed most clearly to the fourth dimension and held within it immense and beautiful opposition.