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
Study for Circles on Black by Wassily Kandinsky: Introduction
A dense black field makes the bright shapes in the image titled Study for Circles on Black appear to move forward. Blue, green, yellow, white and red passages overlap; broad curved forms compete with slim lines and sharper angles. The image inherited by this site has long carried the title and a 1921 date. A matching reproduction appears in Wikimedia Commons' work category, which also gives 1921 but lists the collection as unknown. No dependable collection record has yet tied this coloured sheet to an owner, inventory number, precise materials or dimensions. It must also be kept separate from a documented pencil study for Kandinsky's finished 1921 painting. [2]; [3].
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Watch on YouTubeAt a Glance
- Inherited page title:Study for Circles on Black.
- Conventional date:1921, given by the matching Commons image category; a primary object record has not been located for the coloured sheet.
- Visible image:Nearly square, dark ground, blue-green sweep, irregular pale forms and smaller warm accents.
- Medium, size and owner:Unverified for this coloured image. Repeated third-party descriptions call it a watercolour, sometimes with ink, about 25.5 × 25.5 cm, but the evidence is not strong enough to present those as settled object facts.
- Different documented study:A pencil on paper study, reproduced as figure 8 in a major exhibition catalogue, belonged to the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
- Finished painting:Circles on Black, 1921, an oil on canvas at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Its title does not make the coloured sheet and the pencil drawing the same object.
Where this work sits in Kandinsky’s career
The Blue Rider
1903Composition VII
1913Composition VIII
1923Several Circles
1926Sky Blue
1940Contents
- Looking at the inherited image
- The documented 1921 painting
- Another study with the same title
- Black as a space for colour
- Frequently asked questions
- References
Looking at the inherited image
The darkness is the first condition of the design. Instead of a pale paper ground around separate forms, black surrounds and threads between them. Against it, a broad blue-green band sweeps around the centre. Its curvature is interrupted by pale shapes and narrower lines; the eye moves across colours that seem to float at different depths. The image is crowded but not uniform. Small openings of black keep the composition from reading as one solid mass. [1].
Circles are present, yet the picture's energy is not explained by circles alone. Rounded contours sit near wedges, bars, jagged pieces and small isolated marks. The contrast of strict and irregular edges produces a mobile surface. Several coloured areas feel as though they are turning around a centre, but that centre is not fixed by a single dominant ring. This is a description of what can be observed in the reproduced image; it is not a claim that Kandinsky assigned each form a private symbolic meaning. [1].
The limited dimensions often repeated online might suggest a small preparatory sheet, and some third-party records describe it as watercolour on paper. Those details need a museum or catalogue source tied directly to this image before they can be used as a confident caption. A reproduction is enough for a close reading of colour and layout; it is insufficient to identify a physical object securely. [5]; [1].
The documented 1921 painting
The Guggenheim owns Kandinsky's Circles on Black, dated 1921. Its collection record identifies an oil on canvas, approximately 136.5 × 119.7 cm. That is a large, upright painting, materially and physically different from the small, almost square coloured image shown here. The finished painting uses a dark field populated by circles, angled planes and less regular shapes. A visual resemblance is unsurprising for images circulated under a study title, but resemblance alone cannot establish a direct preparatory chain. [3]; [3].
By 1921 Kandinsky was working in Russia and refining a vocabulary that let circles, diagonals and freer forms share the same surface. The finished painting demonstrates this mixture rather than a simple switch from expressive marks to pure geometry. The dark background can push a round form into apparent prominence while a crooked edge prevents the whole from becoming mechanically regular. The Guggenheim's documented work supplies a useful comparison for the coloured image without supplying its missing provenance. [3].
In the inherited image, a curving coloured band becomes a major route for the eye. In the finished painting, the arrangement and scale differ; it is best to compare how the two pictures handle black, colour and clustered forms, rather than assume one is a reduced version of the other. The word study in a circulating title is a claim about function. It needs documentary support if it is to mean a specific stage in the making of the Guggenheim canvas. [1]; [3].
Another study with the same title
A substantial exhibition catalogue, Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915–1933, reproduces a 1921 pencil on paper sheet as Study for “Circles on Black”. Its caption places that sheet in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, from the Kandinsky bequest. The catalogue's illustration is a light pencil drawing, not the colourful composition shown on this page. A reader looking for the Paris drawing therefore needs the catalogue's figure 8, not the inherited splash. [2].
The catalogue also discusses the finished painting as a work in which a geometric title coexists with irregular contours and unusual shapes. This distinction is useful for looking at the coloured image. Its black ground and circles invite a quick label of “geometric abstraction,” but its varied edges and small wandering forms make the organisation less fixed. The comparison is an interpretation based on two images, not proof that the coloured work was part of the same studio sequence as the pencil drawing. [2].
Several online records collapse these identities. One listing may take the Paris holding of the pencil drawing and attach it to a colourful square reproduction; another may carry the dimensions of an alleged watercolour without showing where the measurement came from. Keeping the pencil study, the coloured image, and the Guggenheim oil painting separate protects the reader from a false certainty. The work reproduced here can still be rewarding to examine, even while its object history remains open. [2]; [3].
Black as a space for colour
What does the dark ground do? It sharpens the contrast of pale and saturated passages, but it also creates apparent depth. Some forms seem to sit on top of black, while others are partly swallowed by it. A blue-green curve can feel like movement around a hidden axis. Small warm pieces puncture the cooler centre. These are effects a viewer can test directly against the image rather than meanings fixed by a museum caption. [1].
The painting's title foregrounds circles, but a close look should count the intervals between them. Empty black pockets separate forms, and dark lines sometimes connect rather than isolate them. A cluster may suggest rotation or collision according to which contour the eye follows first. This open visual experience is one reason the image deserves discussion despite the incomplete object data. [1].
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Frequently Asked Questions
The coloured image is commonly dated 1921, including in the matching Commons category. A direct owner or catalogue record confirming that date for the physical sheet has not been located. [1].
Several derivative captions call the coloured image a watercolour on paper, sometimes adding ink. Without a dependable object record tied to this exact image, its medium remains unverified here. [5].
A different, pencil study with this title was identified as a Pompidou holding in an exhibition catalogue. That evidence does not establish the owner of the coloured image shown here. [2].
It shares a circulating title and visual interest in forms against black. The Guggenheim's finished 1921 oil on canvas is independently documented; a direct preparatory relationship for this specific coloured image has not been established. [3].
A broad blue-green curve, sharp small forms and contrasting pale patches draw the eye in several directions over a dark field. That is a visual reading of the reproduced composition. [1].
An owner catalogue or a published catalogue raisonné entry that reproduces this exact coloured sheet and supplies its title, medium, dimensions and inventory or catalogue number. Until then, those fields remain qualified.
Discussion
What do you notice first in Study for Circles on Black? 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
How does black change the brightness and apparent depth of the forms?
Which differences distinguish this image from the documented pencil study?
What object evidence would confirm a direct link to the Guggenheim painting?
Join the Conversation
Add your observation below and tell us which part of the artwork led you to it.
References
- Wikimedia Commons category matching the inherited coloured image. View source.
- Kandinsky: Russian and Bauhaus Years, 1915–1933, figure 8, separate pencil study. View source.
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Circles on Black. View source.
- Guggenheim, Around the Circle press material. View source.
- Example third-party coloured-sheet description, used only as a provisional comparison. View source.
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