NARRATOR:
Colorful circles float in front of a dark, mysterious background. Alone or grouped in threes and fours, they overlap and partially obscure each other. Gently poetic and open to interpretation, they suggest a cluster of microscopic organisms ... or a constellation in a far-flung corner of the universe.
Vasily Kandinsky was fascinated by the expressive potential of circles, preferring them to triangles or squares.
KANDINSKY (actor):
“The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium. Of the three primary forms, it points most clearly to the fourth dimension.”
NARRATOR:
Though he wrote extensively on his ideas about art, we don’t know exactly what Kandinsky meant by “the fourth dimension.” The fifteen circles may allude to entities far beyond our current understanding.
The variety and intensity of color is unlike anything in the cosmos, but the composition still brings to mind our own solar system. The largest circle, for example, could be a sun. Over most of its right half […], the yellow paint is a thin wash over the deep black ground. But where other circles intersect it, Kandinsky built up the bright pigment. The sharp contrast between the fiery yellow and the areas of intersection, which are void of color, makes us read the arrangement as an eclipse—with three smaller spheres passing in front of the “sun” as they travel along orbital paths.
Heavy Circles
1927
Vassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944)
Not on View
Writing to the art historian Will Grohmann in 1930, Kandinsky explained the crucial role of the circle in his recent work: “It is a link with the cosmic and I use it above all formally... The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric with the ex-centric in a single form and in balance.” The cosmic resonance of circles is powerfully felt in this composition, where fourteen of them—each delineated with a slender halo of bright paint—seem to float in space, imaginary planets in orbit and eclipse.
Details
- Artist Name: Vassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866–1944)
- Title: Heavy Circles
- Date: 1927
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 22-1/2 x 20-1/2 in. (57.2 x 52.1 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
- Accession Number: P.1953.216
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Museum
Object Information
The artist, consigned summer 1928 to;
[Galerie Neue Kunst Fides, Dresden];
later gifted by artist in May, 1933 to;
Galka Scheyer;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.
[Galerie Neue Kunst Fides, Dresden];
later gifted by artist in May, 1933 to;
Galka Scheyer;
Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, 1953-1954;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena,1954-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, 1975.
Vasily Kandinsky 1966-1944: A Retrospective Exhibition [organized by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]
- Pasadena, Pasadena Art Museum, 1963-01-15 to 1963-02-15
- San Francisco Museum of Art, 1963-03-01 to 1963-04-01
- Portland, The Portland Art Museum, 1963-04-15 to 1963-05-15
- Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, 1963-06-01 to 1963-07-01
- Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1963-07-15 to 1963-08-25
- Baltimore Museum of Art, 1963-09-19 to 1963-10-20
- Columbus Museum of Art, 1963-11-05 to 1963-12-05
- St. Louis, Washington University Art Gallery, 1963-12-22 to 1964-01-06
- Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1964-02-05 to 1964-03-05
- Worcester, Worcester Art Museum, 1964-03-20 to 1964-04-20
- Andréi Nakov, Kandinsky the Enigma of the First Abstract Painting,2014, fig. 15 p.181
- The Blue Four. Feininger, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Klee in the New World,no. 76 pp. 176, 345-6
- The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection, Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena,no. 236 pp. 83, 87
- co-edited by Naman P. Ahuja and Louise Belfrage, A Mediated Magic: The Indian Presence in Modernism,2019, fig. 1 p. [4], p. 8; p. [1] (ill.), p. [9] (ill.)
- Varga, Richard S., Gerschgorin and His Circles, cover
- Campbell Abdo, Sara, Wassily Kandinsky, p. 26
- Wünsche, Isabel, Galka E. Scheyer and the Blue Four: Correspondence 1924 - 1945,Plate X p. 337
- Grohmann, Will, Wassily Kandinsky: Life and Work,cc 262 pp. 206, 336, 371
- Brougher, Kerry; Jeremy Strick, Ari Weisman, Judith Zilczer, and Olivia Mattis, Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900, p. 104
- Roethel, Hans K. and Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings 1916-1944,no. 841
- Peabody, Rebecca, et al., Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945-1980,2011, Fig. 1-4 p. 8
- Roethel, Hans K. and Jean K. Benjamin, Kandinsky, pp. 132-133
- Katzenstein, Peter J., Sinicization and the Rise of China,2012, Cover Cover
- Barnett, Vivian Endicott, The Blue Four Collection at the Norton Simon Museum,no. 289 pp. 246-248
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