“Circles in a Circle” is a compact and self-contained composition. Kandinsky began a thoughtful study of the circle as an artistic unit with this painting. In a letter to Galka Scheyer, he wrote: "It is the first picture of mine to bring the theme of circles to the foreground." The outer black circle, as if the second frame for a picture, encourages us to focus on the interaction between the inside circles, and two intersecting diagonal stripes enhance the effect, adding depth to the composition.

Alexandra from Oxford (UK): I really like the painting, I am choosing it for my graded test thank you to Penny Martin from the UK (SAMESIESSSS) for all of that info, very helpful.

Manuela: As artes são bem inspiradoras, não sou muito fã de círculos e artes abstratas, mas a composição de cores é bem dinâmica.

VAL: pintura confortante gosto de circulos e das cores

Sharon: This would be a fun painting and lesson to use on Pi Day!

Anon: How do you describe this abomination of lines and circles?

Kitty Wu: Why and how did this artist used oil on a canvas to create Circles in a Circle?

Christopher Nelson: I have an 8'x 10' Rug that looks like a simpler version of this Kandinsky painting. I need more info about RUG repro's .

Crazyman: Kandinsky is a good painter

Crazyman: Favorite painting

someone: this artwork represents the start of the earth big bang with balls representing planets in the future truely a artpeice

Charis Wrieden from Essex: This is a great composition

Hayley Steindorf from New Windsor : This painting is my favorite.

Penny Martin from UK: Taken from the Philadelphia Museum of Art about this piece

"Circles in a Circle demonstrates Kandinsky's distinctive style from the early 1920s, when he began teaching at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, and subsequently moved away from a spontaneous painting style to a geometric composition. In this work, a thick black circle surrounds twenty-six overlapping circles of varying sizes and colors, many of them intersected by straight black lines. Two strobes of blue and yellow extending from the top corners cross toward the center of the piece, changing the colors of the circles where they overlap. Although Circles in a Circle is distinctly different from Kandinsky's paintings of the beginning years of the twentieth century, it reflects his continued belief that certain colors and shapes signify emotions that can be codified and combined into a whole, reflecting the harmony of the cosmos. For Kandinsky, the circle, the most elementary of forms, had symbolic, cosmic significance. He wrote that "the circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the excentric in a single form, and in balance."1 In a letter of 1931, he described Circles in a Circle as "the first picture of mine to bring the theme of circles to the foreground."2 Emily Hage, from Masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Impressionism and Modern Art (2007), p. 136.

Notes:
1) Kandinsky, as translated in Will Grohmann, Wassily Kandinksy: Life and Work, trans. Norbert Guterman (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1958), p. 188.
2) Kandinsky to Galka Scheyer, Dessau, May 9, 1931, as translated in Amy Baker Sandback, "Blue Hights Drive," Artforum 28, no. 7 (March 1990), p. 127."

Hayley from New Windsor: Circles in a circle starred in Little einsteins The wild goose chase.

Sikh from fund: what did he use to paint this I need this info now

Jonathan from Washington: What a wonderful painting! I will use it in my artist report.

Emily from New York: Where are the steps to draw the painting?!
Please add more! :)

Jim from London: If you like this, you can see it for real until 12th August as part of the Bauhaus exhibition at the Barbican, London. https://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=12409

Neeha from Monaghan: The painting is brilliant i like
i like all of them.

wwwwwwwwww from wwwwwwww: There is barely any information on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! much much much more information is needed please!!!!!!!!!!!

Diana from West Des Moines, Iowa: I teach in an Art Center, young children, drawing and painting, and I am always trying to find different ways to teach painting, spinning off from the "Masters", yet interesting enough to capture them. This is a great painting which I plan to use---do you have other ideas useful for children's art.

ashley from lusaka: please give me more information about the painting kandisky did named circle in a circle

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