Study for Painting with White Form

1913

Wassily Kandinsky Russian, 1866-1944

On View

Modern, Level 2, North Wing

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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.

Title Study for Painting with White Form

Artwork Date 1913

Artist Wassily Kandinsky

Life Dates 1866-1944

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Russian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions 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)

Classification Paintings

Department European Modern Art to 1970

Credit Gift of Mrs. Ferdinand Moeller

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 57.234

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower left: KANDINSKY 1913

Inscriptions ------

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)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

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Exhibition 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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