This painting belongs to Kandinsky's later improvisations, in which objects are practically absent. It is a purely abstract work, painted in Munich shortly before the outbreak of World War I, which forced the artist to return to Russia.

Art historians often suggest that the growing political instability of the pre-war years, along with a premonition of impending disaster, could not help but affect the artist's work. Indeed, themes of the Last Judgment and the Apocalypse frequently appear in Kandinsky's pre-war works. There is a well-founded opinion that his famous Composition VII is essentially a distillation of several earlier works, including those on apocalyptic and biblical subjects.

They may well be right. It is quite possible to read a premonition of war into this emotional whirlpool of colors. Yet it is equally possible to see a feeling of dawning love. What, for instance, does the word "Yellow" in the title signify? And who can know what is happening in the artist's heart when the whole world around him is hurtling into an abyss? Often, even he cannot answer this question.

Timeline

1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944