Wassily Kandinsky, Picture With a Black Arch

1912

Paintings sorted by Historical period | Painter | Subject matter | Pigments used

Overview

Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 70,1 x 55 cm
Art movements: Kandinsky is best known for his abstract paintings

In this large abstract, three discrete areas of colour laid out in triangular fashion are held in tension by an inflected line that recalls the douga, the characteristic yoke of the Russian troika.

The pigment analysis revealed a rather limited palette consisting of yellow ochre, madder lake, Prussian blue, and charcoal black.

Text by Musée National D’Art Moderne

Description for the presentation in the Musée national d’art moderne (2015-2016)

In this large abstract, three discrete areas of colour laid out in triangular fashion are held in tension by an inflected line that recalls the douga, the characteristic yoke of the Russian troika. With ‘Mit dem schwarzen Bogen‘ [With the Black Arch], Wassily Kandinsky declares that a painting may be constructed on the basis of dissociation of colour and line and through a dissonance that relates through tension and contradiction, not harmony. Discovered in the music of his friend Arnold Schönberg, the principle of dissonance would be central to Kandinky’s work between 1908 and 1914.