About the Artwork
“Study for Painting with White Form” represents one of several stages in Kandinsky’s efforts to express the spiritual. His painting became increasingly abstract as he restricted his images to pure color and form. In this work, nonrepresentational shapes, colors, and lines dominate; yet, abbreviated references to the outside world are still apparent, as in the upper right where buildings and trees are discernible. Below this, a smattering of lines is an abstraction of a recurring motif in Kandinsky’s work: the mounted horseman, which serves as a symbol for spiritual energy and human potential. The artist’s use of terms borrowed from music, such as “composition” and “improvisation,” point to his fascination with the potential for sounds and colors to evoke one another and to reach the soul via intuition.
Study for Painting with White Form
1913
Wassily Kandinsky
1866-1944
Russian
Unknown
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 39 1/4 × 34 3/4 inches (99.7 × 88.3 cm) Framed: 41 11/16 × 36 15/16 × 2 1/8 inches (105.9 × 93.8 × 5.4 cm)
Paintings
European Modern Art to 1970
Gift of Mrs. Ferdinand Moeller
57.234
Copyright not assessed, please contact [email protected].
Markings
Signed and dated, lower left: KANDINSKY 1913
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Provenance
Galerie Ferdinand Möller (Berlin, Germany). April 1938, by agreement between Ferdinand Möller and William R. Valentiner, stored at Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA) during WWII. Collection of Maria Möller-Garny. 1957-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Grohmann, Will. Wassily Kandinsky: Life and Work. New York, 1958, p. 332 and 356, no. 84 (ill.).
Bulletin of the DIA 38, 2 (1958-59): pp. 27-29 (ill.).
What Is Modern Art?. Toledo Museum of Art. Toledo, 1960.
Uhr, Horst. Masterpieces of German Expressionism at the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1982, p. 90 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Wassily Kandinsky, Study for Painting with White Form, 1913, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Ferdinand Moeller, 57.234.
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