Vassily Kandinsky: Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons)

Generous loan from the Art Institute of Chicago

One of the first artists to develop an entirely abstract style, Russian artist Vassily Kandinsky produced a series of seminal paintings that altered the course of modern art during his period of association with the Blue Rider group in Munich (1911–14). Although Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons) contains some recognizable elements, most notably the cannons that Kandinsky said might be explained by the constant talk of war at that time, he insisted that his principal concern was the emotional impact of abstract forms and colors generated through a spontaneously creative process. Fiercely opposed to merely copying nature, Kandinsky believed true art springs from largely unconscious associations expressing spiritual and musical qualities. His highly influential book Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912) proposed that abstract line, color, and form could stir deep vibrations of the soul that move the viewer beyond the confines of the material world toward higher states of consciousness and spirituality. Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons), a renowned masterpiece from this key period in Kandinsky’s art, will be displayed together with paintings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann, and other German Expressionist masterworks in the museum’s permanent collection.