Ohne Titel

A pioneering figure in the emergence of abstraction, Wassily Kandinsky regarded painting as a deeply spiritual endeavour, through which colour and form could convey an inner necessity. Ohne Titel, executed in 1940, demonstrates the artist’s fully developed abstract language, with animated and colourful linear motifs traversing a black form, with the background almost embracing this darker shape—as if grey fingers were holding onto it. A more geometrical, diamond-shaped composition, reminiscent of a kite, hangs at the bottom of this form. The juxtaposition of these elements generates a composition that is both dynamic and emotionally charged.

Vibrant passages of orange and different shades of blue and red reverberate against the more restrained tonal grounds, evoking Kandinsky’s synesthetic understanding of the relationship between sound and colour—ideas set forth in his influential treatise, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911), and celebrated in the exhibition currently taking place at the Philharmonie de Paris ‘Kandinsky. The Music of Colours’. Executed with assurance and lyricism, the work reflects the artist’s sustained exploration of harmony and contrast, structure and improvisation. Like a musical composition unfolding in time, the painting affirms his belief that abstraction could transcend visible reality and give form to universal spiritual experience.