by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2023
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Black and Violet by Wassily Kandinsky: Introduction
An arcing band of colour curves over a rounded black form on the left of Wassily Kandinsky's Black and Violet. On the right, a tilted violet plane supports a sharper group of triangles, narrow bars and crossing lines. The warm ground between them holds the two clusters apart while also letting strokes pass from one side toward the other. Kandinsky's German title, Schwarz und Violett, names the two dominant colours without naming a subject. Christie's object catalogue dates the oil on canvas to April 1923 and gives its size as 77.8 × 100.4 cm. [1].
The painting was made during Kandinsky's first year teaching at the Weimar Bauhaus. Its own record is more specific than a general story about the artist's life: the lower left bears his monogram and “23,” the reverse is numbered 257, and the work appeared in exhibitions at Jena and Weimar in 1923. The inherited article's long biography displaced this evidence and made Christie's proposed sailboat story sound certain. This account starts with the documented canvas and distinguishes what can be seen from what an auction writer has inferred. [1].
Watch: Wassily Kandinsky
Five museum videos about Kandinsky’s art, sources of inspiration and the relationship between colour and music.
Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle
Curator Megan Fontanella introduces Kandinsky and the Guggenheim collection.
Watch on YouTubeAt a Glance
- Artist and date:Wassily Kandinsky, April 1923.
- German title:Schwarz und Violett; English Black and Violet.
- Medium and dimensions:Oil on canvas, 77.8 × 100.4 cm.
- Marks:Monogram and “23” at lower left; monogram, date and No. 257 on the reverse.
- Catalogue identity:Artist's handlist no. 257; Roethel/Benjamin oil-painting catalogue no. 698.
- Early exhibitions:Jena, June 1923; Weimar Bauhaus exhibition, August–September 1923.
- Collection limit:Offered from the Walter Bechtler Collection in 2013; present owner and display not verified.
- Image:Existing site reproduction retained; no newly licensed auction photograph added.
Where this work sits in Kandinsky’s career
The Blue Rider
1903Composition VII
1913Composition VIII
1923Several Circles
1926Sky Blue
1940Contents
- Two colour centres
- Can the forms be read as boats?
- Weimar in 1923
- Provenance and the 2013 sale
- Frequently asked questions
- References
Two colour centres
The left side is anchored by a broad black, curving shape. It is not a plain disc: a pale oval opens within it, and pointed green, red and blue passages cross its edges. Above, layered arcs of yellow, red and blue sweep upward. Thin black diagonals cut through those arcs and continue into the light ground. This mixture of rounded colour and straight line gives the black mass both weight and motion. Its outline seems to expand outward even as the dark paint holds the centre together. [1].
The violet side answers with a different kind of structure. Its main plane is tilted and more angular; pale triangles and a small gridded set of coloured squares interrupt it. Long black lines cross through and past the violet, while near the upper edge a few compact groups of parallel bars echo the precision of a diagram. The violet patch is large enough to balance the black one, but its edges do not create the same compact silhouette. It seems cut, folded or pushed toward the right edge. This is a description of painted relationships, not a claim that it depicts a particular engineered object. [1].
The open warm field matters as much as either named colour. Without it the two clusters would join into a single dark surface. The lighter ground lets diagonal lines act as links while preserving a pause between their heavier ends. Small bars and checker-like cells low in the picture further interrupt a simple left-right division. The title guides attention to black and violet, but the painting makes their opposition work through other colours and through the pace of its lines. [1].
Can the forms be read as boats?
Christie's essay offers a more narrative reading. It sees the right-hand triangles and planes as two sailboats, the left black shape as a threatening cloud or eclipse, and a third craft beneath it. The writer then suggests the composition might evoke Kandinsky and Nina's departure from Russia. Those are expressly interpretive moves made in an auction essay, not a recorded explanation by Kandinsky. The old page presented a Russian flag and autobiographical story as though they were established facts. [1].
Some forms do invite those associations. The tall right triangle can resemble a sail, and the violet diagonal can be read as the side of a vessel. Under the black mass, stripes and narrow lines may call to mind a mast and flag. Another viewer may instead follow the interplay of circles, planes and directional lines without assembling a marine scene. The literal reading becomes less secure when one tries to identify a horizon, continuous water surface or specific vessel outlines across the whole canvas. Both responses can be discussed, provided an evocative resemblance is not converted into a documented subject. [1].
The colour title itself helps maintain that distinction. Kandinsky did not call this painting Sailboats leaving Russia. He called it Black and Violet, directing attention to what two areas do in relation to the surrounding marks. That does not prohibit viewers from finding associations, nor does it prove he had no memories in mind. It simply gives no object-level evidence for a specific event. A close reading can ask how the black curve contains and releases energy while the violet wedge seems to move sideways, without treating a symbolic reading as settled. [1].
Weimar in 1923
Kandinsky joined the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1922. The Bauhaus-Archiv describes how his teaching on form and colour accompanied the school's wider programme. Black and Violet belongs to the early part of that period, before the school moved to Dessau. Geometric clarity is evident, but the canvas is not merely a school exercise: rounded and angular forms remain unsettled, their painted edges and colour contrasts refusing the impersonality of a mechanical plan. [3]; [1].
Christie's places the picture among a group of 1923 canvases that precede Composition VIII, painted later that year. The Guggenheim's owner record dates Composition VIII to 1923 and documents its distinct large format. A comparison can be illuminating: Composition VIII disperses many geometric elements across a broad, light ground, while Black and Violet gives two strongly coloured clusters a more concentrated contest. That is a visual comparison between different paintings, not evidence that Kandinsky designed one solely as a preparatory stage for the other. [1]; [4].
The canvas's early exhibition history also matters. Christie's lists a Jena exhibition in June 1923, only two months after the handlist date, followed by the Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar that August and September. The work was therefore presented publicly within the same year it was made. Later exhibition entries include London and Zürich, but those historic shows do not imply that it is currently on view. Its documented life as an object is richer and more precise than a general claim that Kandinsky's German works did well at auction. [1].
Provenance and the 2013 sale
According to the Christie's provenance, James Edward Hathorn Wood acquired the painting from Kandinsky in 1924. It later passed through Philip Granville Modern Paintings in London, and the family associated with the Walter Bechtler Collection acquired it in June 1956. Christie's offered the work from that collection in November 2013. Its published results record a realised price of $12,597,000. The buyer category in the result sheet is “International Trade,” which does not identify a person or a present owner. A sale price documents an event in the market; it does not establish where the canvas now hangs. [1]; [2].
The provenance should not be replaced with a confident claim that the painting is currently unavailable for public display. At the time of the 2013 catalogue it was offered from a named Swiss collection and had previously appeared in exhibitions, including at the Kunsthaus Zürich. Whether it has since been lent, exhibited or transferred requires a current owner or exhibition record. The sources used here do not provide one. [1].
The existing 400-pixel-wide splash remains on this local page. Christie's and image agencies show reproductions with separate rights arrangements, without a clear new licence that would support copying a larger version into the article or the planned artist guide. A guide entry can describe the work with the verified 1923 date, oil-on-canvas medium, size and composition while leaving out a new image. The quality of an optional replacement does not justify uncertain rights. [1].
Black and Violet is strongest when its competing readings remain visible. The arcing black form and tilted violet plane are immediate facts of the painted surface; sailboats and a departure story are possible imaginative connections advanced by an auction writer. The painting's lasting tension comes from the way both large colours pull against one another while the lighter ground and thin lines keep them in motion. [1].
Kandinsky artworks directory
Frequently Asked Questions
Kandinsky's handlist dates Schwarz und Violett to April 1923. The canvas bears “23” with his monogram. [1].
It is oil on canvas, 77.8 × 100.4 cm. This is the size of the physical painting, not of the web image. [1].
Christie's essay proposes a sailboat, storm and flag interpretation. The title and object details do not record those as definite subjects or Kandinsky's stated intention. [1].
Yes. The April 1923 date falls during Kandinsky's Weimar Bauhaus teaching years, and Christie's records its exhibition at the school's 1923 show. [3]; [1].
No. Black and Violet is the April 1923 canvas numbered 257 in Kandinsky's handlist. Composition VIII is a separate 1923 work in the Guggenheim collection. [1]; [4].
Discussion
What do you notice first in Black and Violet? Share a close observation or a question about the evidence for this work.
Comments are for comparing what we see and what the cited sources establish.
Reader Insights
Where do the black arc and violet plane pull your eye in different directions?
How do the thin lines connect the two larger colour groups?
What would distinguish a suggestive sailboat reading from a documented subject?
Join the Conversation
Add your observation below and tell us which part of the artwork led you to it.
References
- Christie's, Schwarz und Violett, lot 5737662. View source.
- Christie's, Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale results, 5 November 2013. View source.
- Bauhaus-Archiv, Weimar teaching. View source.
- Guggenheim, Composition VIII. View source.
%20Wassily%20Kandinsky.jpg)
