Relations

Russian, 1866-1944
Relations
1934
oil and sand on canvas
1969.8

34 5/8 x 45 1/4 inches

Wassily Kandinsky made Relations in 1934, the year after the artist fled wartime Germany to land in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. During this period, Kandinsky moved from painting sharp, geometric forms, representative of his time teaching at the Bauhaus, to the softer, more organic shapes seen here, which emerged in the midst of his exile. These fantastical organisms scatter and squirm around the canvas, as if frozen in motion. In this picture, Kandinsky also mixed his pigments with sand giving his forms depth and relief. He only produced a handful of works using sand, using this method from 1934 to 1936.