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
Contrasting Sounds by Wassily Kandinsky: Introduction
A large dark-rimmed circle hovers near the upper left, while a sharp triangle points down from the right. Coloured shapes and lines collect between them; lower down, a black-and-white checkerboard presses against another dark circle. Kandinsky's Gegenklänge appears on this site as Contrasting Sounds. The Centre Pompidou gives the French title Accords opposés, dates the work 1924, and catalogues it as oil on cardboard, 70 × 49.5 cm. It is a painting in the Musée national d'art moderne collection, inventory AM 81-65-45, on deposit at the Musée d'arts de Nantes. [1].
The English title encourages a musical comparison, but the object record does not identify a specific heard performance, song or chord that Kandinsky tried to picture. What the viewer can inspect directly is a set of contrasts: round against angular, heavy against thin, pale against dark, and a regular checkerboard against irregular clustered forms. Kandinsky's broader interest in music and visual form provides context for those relationships. It should not turn the painting into an exact transcription of sounds without object-specific evidence. [1]; [4].
Annotated details in Contrasting Sounds
Select a numbered point to examine three close views of the work.
123Select a number to reach its detail.
Details from CONTRASTING SOUNDS
Three close views of the work.
Blue circle
A large blue disc interrupts the pale ground near the top left.
Crossing directions
Diagonal marks and angular shapes meet around the middle of the sheet.
Checkerboard
The black and white squares add a tight rhythm against the looser lines.
Photograph by Benoît Prieur, CC0 1.0 on Wikimedia Commons. View image source and terms.
Watch: Wassily Kandinsky
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Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle
Curator Megan Fontanella introduces Kandinsky and the Guggenheim collection.
Watch on YouTubeAt a Glance
- Artist and date:Wassily Kandinsky, 1924.
- Recorded title:Gegenklänge; French collection title Accords opposés; English site title Contrasting Sounds.
- Medium and dimensions:Oil on cardboard, 70 × 49.5 cm.
- Collection:Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Nina Kandinsky bequest, 1981; inventory AM 81-65-45.
- Deposit:Musée d'arts de Nantes since 2 December 1986, according to the owner record.
- Inscription:The Pompidou transcribes a reverse notation containing “VK N°28i/i924 / Gegenklänge.”
- Image:Existing site reproduction retained; a separate Benoît Prieur photograph under CC0 is saved for possible use in the free guide.
Where this work sits in Kandinsky’s career
The Blue Rider
1903Composition VII
1913Composition VIII
1923Several Circles
1926Sky Blue
1940Contents
- Annotated details
- The large forms at opposite ends
- A title about opposition
- Bauhaus context and Kandinsky's music interests
- From Nina Kandinsky to Nantes
- Frequently asked questions
- References
The large forms at opposite ends
The painting is taller than it is wide. Near the top left, a thick black ring contains a blue area crossed by a pale diagonal. It feels weighty because of its dark perimeter and scale, yet it hangs above most of the smaller marks rather than resting on them. Across the upper field, a dark downward-pointing triangle answers it with a hard, narrow form. A slim diagonal dart sits still farther right. These large elements create an uneven balance rather than a mirrored arrangement. [1].
The middle is more crowded. Yellow and blue rounded areas overlap an olive shape, with pink and small dark marks breaking their edges. Lines pass across these forms and meet a strip of coloured squares. One bold diagonal cuts from lower left toward the centre-right, countering the more level run of the square strip. The eye moves repeatedly between a broad shape and a thin line: neither is simply a background for the other. At this scale, the canvas-like texture visible in the photograph belongs to the painted cardboard support and its surface, but a small web image cannot establish a detailed paint sequence. [1].
The lower right combines a dark circular mass, a yellow edge and a regular black-and-white grid. The circle's irregular boundary and short projections keep it from reading as a perfect geometric exercise. The checkerboard, by contrast, repeats square units and crisp alternations. The lower left introduces a jagged dark and blue band, making the bottom of the painting feel less settled than the middle's horizontal strip. These differences help explain the title's idea of opposed elements without pretending that a square literally makes one sound and a circle another. [1].
Pale ground is active across the composition. It gives the top-right dart space, separates the dark triangle from the larger circle, and exposes the ends of the thin lines. Where the lower violet band crosses the field, the dark checkerboard becomes especially forceful. Small coloured squares and isolated dots keep the eye from treating only the large forms as important. Kandinsky distributes contrast at several scales, from one edge of the 70-centimetre work to another and inside a small cluster of marks. [1].
A title about opposition
The Centre Pompidou's primary title is the German Gegenklänge. Its French collection title, Accords opposés, can be understood as “opposing accords” or “opposed harmonies.” Contrasting Sounds is an established English way to refer to the picture on this site, though translations carry slightly different musical emphasis. The owner's record includes a reverse inscription with the German title, reinforcing that this is not a label invented long after the painting entered the museum. It does not, however, decode the arrangement of every shape. [1].
The visual oppositions are easier to specify than a soundtrack. One circular form is heavy and dark; another is partly edged in yellow. A broad black diagonal makes a quick crossing of an ordered group of squares. A slim blue dart near the top has far less mass than the thick top-left ring. The painting can be read as a dynamic balance of these differences. Describing them first leaves room for musical analogy without imposing a one-to-one code that the collection record does not supply. [1].
The old version of this page described Kandinsky as arranging lines and forms in seemingly random positions and presumed he rehearsed this particular composition in drawings. Neither claim is demonstrated by the object sources cited here. The dated reverse inscription is evidence of the object's title and recording; it is not a preparatory sketch. The way a bold diagonal crosses a strip of ordered squares, or the deliberate echo between two dark rounded elements, invites formal analysis rather than a blanket claim of randomness. A specific study may eventually be identified, but it should not be invented to fill a standard narrative about the artist. [1].
Bauhaus context and Kandinsky's music interests
Kandinsky joined the Bauhaus faculty in 1922, and Gegenklänge belongs to that teaching period. The Guggenheim's teaching materials describe his continued investigation of colour, basic forms and their psychological or spiritual effects. The Pompidou labels this object with Bauhaus, abstraction, checkerboard and geometric form keywords. These are useful context and catalogue classifications, not instructions to turn each mark into a fixed lesson from a classroom diagram. The composition remains a painted object with variable texture and weight. [3]; [1].
Centre Pompidou's later exhibition on Kandinsky and music surveys his listening, studio tools, interest in the “sound” of colours and visual studies related to Beethoven. That broader research justifies taking a musical title seriously. It does not make Gegenklänge a picture of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; the cited exhibition material does not connect this object to that particular study. The safest interpretation is more precise and more open: the painting contrasts visual forms while its title asks us to imagine how opposed elements might interact like sounds. [4].
This 1924 work can be compared with other Bauhaus paintings without folding them together. Circles in a Circle of 1923 gathers many disks inside one large ring; Composition VIII, also 1923, distributes geometry across a wide field. Gegenklänge is narrower and taller, and its checkerboard and two large dark masses give it a different visual rhythm. Dates and object records establish these as separate pictures. The comparison concerns composition, not proof that one was a study for another. [1]; [3].
From Nina Kandinsky to Nantes
Nina Kandinsky's 1981 bequest brought the painting into the Musée national d'art moderne's collection. The Pompidou identifies it as AM 81-65-45 and records a deposit at the Musée d'arts de Nantes beginning 2 December 1986. The distinction matters: the owning collection is in Paris, while the documented long-term deposit is in Nantes. A current physical display should still be checked with the museum before a visit. A 1998 Centre Pompidou–Nantes exhibition document lists the work among Pompidou-owned Kandinskys on deposit there, matching its medium and dimensions. [1]; [2].
The owner lists a photograph credit to the Pompidou documentation service and GrandPalaisRmn distribution. That is a separate reproduction and no clear new reuse licence for this site follows from the fact that the underlying painting is marked public domain. The 400 × 559 image already installed on this page is retained. Separately, a photograph taken by Benoît Prieur at Nantes in 2024 is explicitly offered under CC0 1.0 on Wikimedia Commons, with Kandinsky's painting also identified there as public domain. That larger file has been saved unchanged as an optional guide image candidate. The site does not need a replacement image to explain the work. [1]; [5].
Return to the painting after reading the German and French titles. The eye may move differently once it looks for pairs: circle and triangle, regular squares and irregular patches, sweeping line and static block. None of these pairs stays completely separate. Kandinsky lets lines cross colour areas and shapes interrupt grids, so opposition becomes interaction. The picture rewards slow looking at those relationships more than a hunt for one hidden musical score. [1].
Kandinsky artworks directory
Frequently Asked Questions
The owner catalogues it as oil on cardboard, 70 × 49.5 cm. It is not an oil-on-canvas work. [1].
The Pompidou pairs the German title with French Accords opposés. Contrasting Sounds is the English title used here. The translations suggest opposed musical elements, but they do not specify a particular audible piece. [1].
It belongs to the Musée national d'art moderne at the Centre Pompidou, inventory AM 81-65-45. The owner records a long-term deposit at the Musée d'arts de Nantes since 2 December 1986; current display should be checked separately. [1].
No cited object record identifies one. The musical title and Kandinsky's broader interest in the relation between colour and sound invite analogy, but the canvas should not be labelled a transcription of an identified piece. [1]; [4].
Yes. A 2024 photograph by Benoît Prieur is explicitly published under CC0 1.0 on Wikimedia Commons; it is saved as a candidate for the free guide. The existing site image remains in place. [5].
Discussion
What do you notice first in Contrasting Sounds? 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
Which contrast is strongest to you: a shape, a colour or a line?
How does the checkerboard change the weight of the dark rounded form beside it?
What object-specific evidence would be needed to connect the painting to a particular piece of music?
Join the Conversation
Add your observation below and tell us which part of the artwork led you to it.
References
- Centre Pompidou, Gegenklänge (Accords opposés) object record. View source.
- Centre Pompidou–Nantes, Kandinsky exhibition documentation. View source.
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Kandinsky teaching materials. View source.
- Centre Pompidou, Kandinsky: The Music of Colors press release. View source.
- Wikimedia Commons, Benoît Prieur's CC0 photograph. View source.
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