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Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons)

Abstract painting in various bright colors—yellow, blue, red, green, orange, pink—with lines indicating building-like structures as well as canons in the lower right corner.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • Abstract painting in various bright colors—yellow, blue, red, green, orange, pink—with lines indicating building-like structures as well as canons in the lower right corner.

Date:

1913

Artist:

Vasily Kandinsky
Born Moscow (formerly Russian Empire, now Russia), 1866; died Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 1944

About this artwork

In his 1912 book Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Vasily Kandinsky made an analogy between music and painting as two means of abstraction, a radical mode of artmaking that freed color and line from their traditionally representational functions. Between 1910 and 1914 he produced “improvisations,” works he described as unconscious, spontaneous expressions. Kandinsky commented on Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons) in a letter to Arthur Jerome Eddy, a friend and collector from Chicago: “The cannons … could probably be explained by the constant war talk going on through the year [but] the true contents are what the spectator experiences while under the effect of the forms and color combinations of the picture.”

Status

On View, Gallery 392

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Vasily Kandinsky

Title

Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons)

Place

Germany (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1913

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

signed, l.l.: “Kandsky i9i3”

Dimensions

111 × 111.3 cm (43 11/16 × 43 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Arthur Jerome Eddy Memorial Collection

Reference Number

1931.511

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/8991/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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