Wassily Kandinsky Composition VII Visual Arts Article Critique (Article Critique Sample)
Choose an artwork from the this list* that relates to your studio practice**. Discuss this work by considering the following questions:
How does your selected work explore Place, Materiality and/or Colour (The work may explore any or all of these themes but try and focus one).
Why has the artist chosen to use Place, Materiality or Colour in this way?
How does the artwork reflect the historical and cultural context in which it was made?
WASSILY KANDINSKY COMPOSITION VII
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WASSILY KANDINSKY COMPOSITION VII
The artwork that relates to my studio practice is Composition VII. Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian art theorist and painter, created Composition VII in 1913. He created this painting during the period of abstract art (Galenson, 2006).The Russian painter is also famous for his innovative theories and lyrical style. He championed for abstract painting. He explored the suggestive interrelation linking form and color to generate an artistic practice that incorporate the emotions, sight, and sound of the audience. Kandinsky believed that abstraction provided an opportunity for deep, transcendental expression (Zordan, 2013, p. 77). Although the artist was not inspired by a specific musical piece when creating Composition VII, music inspired his use of color, balance, and form (Miller, 2014). This also explains why he used terms like harmony and composition to give a title to most of his paintings.
Composition VII explores colors to create meaning and important themes. The spiraling colors show the artist’s deep focus on non-representation in his works. He used this painting to eliminate conventional reference to depth (Zordan, 2013, p. 77). The art also aided him to layout a variety of abstracted glyphs and successfully articulate in depth themes and emotions common to diverse cultures and viewers. The colors also depict Kandinsky’s preoccupation with redemption and apocalypse before World War I. The artist made at least 30 sketches (Kandinsky Paintings, 2016) in watercolors before creating Composition VII. In addition to the watercolors, the artist also made his sketches using oil paints. These sketches served as proof that the painting was indeed created. But he successfully created the painting within 4 days. Photographs that were taken around November, 1913 are an indication that the process of creating Composition VII took extactly4 days to complete. The painting’s main theme, an oval shape intersected by a rectangle, serves as a center surrounded by colors and forms (Kandinsky Paintings, 2016). The painting also comprises several other contentious issues and themes, including Resurrection, the Garden of Eden, and the Flood.
