Several Circles No. 323

Several Circles No. 323 by Wassily Kandinsky is reflective of his thoughts and preferences of geometric shapes, overlapping planes, and delineated shapes at this time. His art, like many of the other works of art produced at this time, during and after World War 1, were very much influenced and affected by the war and by what the people saw and underwent as means of fleeing from the war or enduring it because they didn't want to leave their homeland or they didn't have a way out of it. This painting reflects a similar scene as a painting we have studied before by Frantisek Kupka. 

Discs of Newton is a representation of the discs of light in Newton's perspective. They represent movement and the passage of time, the fourth dimension, and they were made to look as if they were rising off of the canvas toward the viewer. Like the painting Several Circles No. 323, this painting was had association with the unforeseen forces on the Earth, whether it be a Utopian way of art or life, or the discs of light that are invisible to the human eye.  

On White II, above, was another of Kandinsky's paintings around the same time as his Several Circles was painted. Comparing these two paintings, they look nothing alike and they certainly do not look like they were painted by the same artist. The fact that Kandinsky moved toward more geometric shapes brings about the question, why? Was he simply tired of his viewers who didn't have his same talent not understanding his paintings? Was there something different going on in his life at the different times of these two paintings? It could have been a number of these things, most of which have to do with the fact that he thought that if he used more practical shapes and didn't try to represent music in his art as much, people would understand it and appreciate it much more. So, his personal drive to help the viewers of his art understand it more fully drove him to change his personal painting style into what we see at the top of the page. But was this what truly made him happy and feel fulfilled as an artist? We may never know.