Study for Improvisation V

This landscape evokes Biblical stories of the Apocalypse, which foretold Christ's second coming. In the foreground, a woman in blue kneels before a tall figure with streaming golden hair, possibly Christ, while in the background two horsemen of the Apocalypse vault a fence. As a pioneer of abstract painting, Vassily Kandinsky thought art could make inner truths visible. An improvisation, he said, was a largely unconscious, spontaneous expression of inner character, or non-material (i.e., spiritual) nature. Kandinsky wanted painting to function like music, using colors and forms like melodies and rhythms—abstractly—to summon emotion. Frame: Gift of Galerie Thomas, Munich, Germany.