Composition

Dated 1914, Untitled is a work “attributed to” Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian master of modern abstraction. It was in 1913 that Kandinsky first conceived the term “nonobjective painting” to describe his new style that did not depict recognizable objects. Instead, the artist wanted his paintings to be “a graphic representation of a mood.” Functioning like music, he conceived painting to be a descriptive device.

Color and line were the two most important compositional elements to achieve the desired impact of his abstraction. Kandinsky believed that interrelated colors, lines, and shapes could bring forth a particular, universal response from the viewer. This lush painting is representative of Kandinsky’s early abstract compositions freed from overt figure or landscape references.

By 1914, many artists were following Kandinsky’s lead and exploring pure abstraction. With the outbreak of World War I in June of 1914, Kandinsky was forced to leave Germany where he had been living and return to his native Moscow by way of Switzerland.