Composition VII

1913

Oil on canvas, about 200 × 300 cm. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

A huge canvas of colliding shapes, lines and colors that swirl around a dark knot left of center. The Tretyakov ranks it with the central works of his early 1910s.

More than thirty studies came first, in pencil, pen, watercolor and oil, most from autumn 1913.
Look for faint traces of the end-of-the-world theme of his earlier pictures: angels blowing trumpets and a rider.
Once the studies were done, the large canvas took only a few days, 25 to 28 November.
Few recognizable objects remain. The museum's partner text describes blue and red accents on a diagonal, held together by white in many shades.
It came to the Tretyakov in 1929 from Moscow's State Museum of New Western Art.

Non-objective (abstract) art: Art that shows no recognizable objects, using only color, line and shape.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-Art