This is a brilliantly structured abstract composition that belongs to Kandinsky's Bauhaus period. The painting's dynamic balance is based on subtle color contrasts and interactions between triangles, rectangles, and circle segments. The perfect completeness of this watercolor is clearly demonstrated by Kandinsky's own statement that his paintings themselves are "worlds."

During this period, Kandinsky actively applied the theoretical analysis of form in practice, as described in his book Point and Line to Plane (1926). The play of opposites between soft, warm, and harmonious tones on the one hand and strict, mechanical-architectural geometry on the other clearly demonstrates the theoretical constructions outlined in the book. However, like the vast majority of Kandinsky's works, it is an intuitive and ultimately poetic approximation of these ideals, rather than a literal description of them. In his theoretical works, Kandinsky was scrupulous, methodical, and dry, but on canvas he became sensuous, impulsive, and emotional, hoping that the viewer's perception would be the same.

With his art, Kandinsky sought to formulate an abstract language that would evoke strong emotions in the viewer, almost in the same way as music. Believing that "the form itself, even if it is completely abstract and geometric, has its own inner sound, is a spiritual being with qualities that are identical to this form," Kandinsky wanted to discover the universal laws of order and harmony which, in his opinion, underlie the creation of everything. And in his painting, this essentially mystical faith is expressed with such convincing force that the transcendent nature of abstraction evokes a sensuous and emotional response from the viewer.

Kandinsky considered the triangle and the circle to be "the two primary, most strongly contrasting flat shapes." For his students at the Bauhaus, he devised tasks in which the mutual arrangement of shapes had to evoke certain emotions. For example, the dominance of a triangle can express aggression, a square calmness, and a circle unification. According to Bauhaus philosophy, for Kandinsky, painting was not an end in itself but an organizing force. To feel the connection between the laws of nature is to understand the laws of art.

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Curtis: I like the way the white contrasts the shapes.