Composition VIII was produced by Wassily Kandinsky in July 1923. It is currently on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, US.
Circles would be used by Wassily to represent planetary symbolism, and this became common during the abstract period of the famous artist's career.
The artist would then use straight lines to create the appearance of surfaces to sit alongside the orbiting circles.
Composition VIII is very typical of Kandinsky's abstract period, with shapes and lines intertwined to produce an exhilirating final artwork. This series of compositions, with others included in this website, serve as a guide to how his abstract work changed over time.
The modern art style of naming paintings by sequence helps us to easily place them in an abstract timeline and judge the changes made to his work as time progressed.
Kandinsky was a painter who covered different styles during his career, starting off with abstract landscapes before moving deeper into modern art with his shapes and lines. Colour was always a siginificant element to his work, and something he studied in great detail throughout his career.
