Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a Russian-born painter and art theorist, considered to be one of the leading figures of abstraction in Western art. Though he worked in varying styles throughout his early career, his works moved increasingly towards abstraction as he developed his own theory of art, connecting art with spirituality and music. His Several Circles (1926) was painted after a return to his native Russia, where he likely took inspiration from the geometric styles of the Russian avant-garde. The painting is a pure abstraction, featuring several vibrantly colored circles of different sizes overlapping above an uneven black ground. The limitation of the circle’s form presents a renewed formal focus on color, scale, and positionality. Yet the painting maintains a sense of movement and life, as Kandinsky felt that each color evoked its own emotion and spiritual understanding in the viewer.

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