Composition VI

In total Kandinsky created ten numbered compositions. The first three were destroyed by the Nazis in the 1930s and are now known only from photographs.

Kandinsky created “Composition VI” in March 1913 in Germany. To find out more about this work, we turn to the records of the artist himself, created in May 1913:

"I carried this picture inside myself for 1.5 years and often thought that I would not be able to complete it. The starting point was the "Flood"<...> a picture on glass, which I did mainly for my own pleasure. There are different forms, some of them amusing: <...> nudes, an ark, animals, palms, lightning, rain, etc. When the glass painting was ready, I had the desire to rework this theme for a composition, and then it was more or less clear how to do it. In a few sketches I dissolved material forms, in others tried to impress through purely abstract means, but nothing came of it <...> I used a tried and tested means — to postpone the task and later have the possibility to suddenly see the best of the sketches in a new light. <...> The glass painting was at this time in exhibition. When it came back and I saw it again, I experienced the same internal shock that I had survived after its creation <...> from time to time I glanced at the picture as it hung by my studio. Every time, I was amazed first by the colors, and then the composition and the forms, by themselves, without regard for objectivity. The painting on glass was separated from me. <...> Finally, the day came when the familiar quiet inner tension gave me full confidence. I quickly, almost without corrections performed a final sketch that brought me great satisfaction. <...> In two or three days, the overall picture was ready. The great battle, overcoming the canvas, had happened. <...> Then began the infinitely subtle, joyful and at the same time extremely tedious balancing of the individual parts <...>

In the picture you can see two centers:
1. Left — a gentle, pink, somewhat blurred center with soft, uncertain lines.
2. Right (slightly higher than the left) — rough, red and blue, to some extent, dissonant, with sharp, somewhat unfriendly, strong, very precise lines.

Between these two centers is a third (closer to the left), which can be recognized only gradually, but which ultimately is the main center. Here pink and white froth so that they seem to lie outside the plane of the canvas, or on some other, ideal plane. Rather, they float in the air and appear as if shrouded in steam. <...> The location of the main center, as "somewhere" — defines the inner sound of the whole picture. <...>
 

The small forms in this picture demanded something giving the effect simultaneously of very simple and very wide ("largo"). For this I used a long solemn line <...> These lines are connected with thick transverse lines, reaching the top of the picture, and come in direct conflict with the last ones. To mitigate the impact of the overly dramatic lines <...> I allowed a whole fugue of pink spots of different shades to run wild in the picture. They clothe the great confusion in a great peace of mind and give the whole event objectivity. It is a solemn and calm mood, on the other hand this broken by a variety of blue spots that give the impression of internal heat. <...> Deep brown forms (especially on the top left) make a sealed and abstract sounding note that recalls the element of hopelessness. The green and yellow enliven this state of mind, giving it the missing activity.
I used a combination of smooth and rough sections, as well as many other surface treatment methods of the canvas. Therefore, coming closer to the picture, the viewer has a new experience.
So, everything including the mutually contradictory elements, balance out, so that none of them prevails over the other, and the original motive of the painting (the flood) is dissolved and took on an internal, purely picturesque, independent and objective existence. There would be nothing more wrong than to label this picture with the original theme.

A grandiose objectively happening disaster is at the same time absolute and has an independent sound of a paean, like a hymn of new creation, which follows a catatstrophe"