Little Painting with Yellow (1914)  by Wassily Kandinsky

Little Painting with Yellow

1914

Oil on canvas

31.1 × 39.4" (79.0 × 100.0 cm)

Philadelphia. Philadelphia Museum of Art

This picture is referred to the latest improvisations in which objects are practically lacking. This is a purely abstract work. It was painted in Munich not long before the outbreak of World War I, which made the painter return to Russia.

Art critics like to say that the rising political instability of the years preceding the war and premonition of an impending disaster could not but affect the creative work of the artist. Really, the Judgment Day and the Apocalypse themes are frequent subjects of Kandinsky’s works of the pre-war period. There is a well-grounded opinion that his famous Composition VII is really a quintessence of his several previous works, including on apocalyptic and biblical subjects.

They may be right. It’s fairly possible to read the premonition of the war in this emotional whirl of colours. And it is also possible to see the feeling of coming love. What, for example, does the word “Yellow” included in the title mean? And who can know what takes place in the artist’s heart, no matter the whole world around him flying into an abyss? Often even he cannot answer this question.

More from 1914

All artworks by year

1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944

Be the first to comment

Name


Email (optional):


Message


Code