Group 2
Skip to main content
Search the collection
Moderna Museet
Advanced Search
Search the collection
Advanced Search
Proceed to modernamuseet.searrow
Improvisation Nr 2, Trauermarsch
Improvisation Nr 2, Trauermarsch
Improvisation Nr 2, Trauermarsch

Improvisation Nr 2, Trauermarsch

by Wassily Kandinsky
Artist (Ryssland, 1866 - 1944)
Alternate Title
  • Improvisation No 2, Funeral March
  • Improvisation nr 2, Sorgmarsch
Date1908
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsBildmått: 94 × 130 cm Ram: 98 × 134 × 6,8 cm
Classification
Countries
Credit LineInköp 1933
Object NumberNM 2959
CollectionsAndlighet och mysticism
The artwork is not on display
About the artworkWassily Kandinsky is a pioneer of modernism and was one of the founders of the artist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). In 1910, by dissolving the external contexts of the image, he developed an expressionist abstract style of painting, one of the most pivotal and influential breakthroughs in 20th-century art. Improvisation No 2, Funeral March marks a phase in Kandinsky’s transition to abstract painting. Here, we can still make out figurative elements, such as the yellow rider on a white horse entering the picture from the left, and a seated group of four figures to the right. Their immobile postures contrast sharply with the dynamic quality of the luminous, orange background. The mottled application of paint and the intensity of the colours is reminiscent of the fauvists, whose works Kandinsky had encountered on his visits to Paris. Improvisation No 2 builds on the contrast between blue and orange. Here, figuration defers to the inner expressiveness of colour and shape, generating a rhythmic structure of bright colour fields which balances the primary composition principles of “contrast” and “harmony” against each other. In his essay Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912), a seminal document of early modernism, Kandinsky formulates his painterly quest for an imagery without physical figuration that is nevertheless not purely abstract, but with a spiritual subject. The subtitle of this work, Funeral March, alludes to the synaesthetic link between colours and musical notes that is characteristic of Kandinsky’s oeuvre. He called this ink “improvisation”. Signatures, inscriptions and marks Signerad i nedre vänster hörn "Kandinsky 1908" Selected exhibition history Kandinsky och Sverige (1989-1990) Malmö Konsthall Önskemuseet (1963-1964) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Den tidiga modernismen: 1900-1920 ur Moderna Museets samling (den 19 mars 2011 - den 2 oktober 2011) Moderna Museet Malmö Samlingsutställning 2004 - 2011 - I vår tid (2004 - 2011) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Mannen med det blå ansiktet (den 15 maj 2021 - den 30 januari 2022) Moderna Museet Malmö Wassily Kandinsky (1965) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Mästerverken åter. Verk av spanska konstnärer ur Samling S. runt den återbördade Picassos Källan. (1995) Moderna Museet, Stockholm Moderna Museet c/o Waldemarsudde - Moderna klassiker (2002-2003) Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm Ny presentation av samlingen (2000-2002) Moderna Museet, Stockholm The Moderna Museet exhibition catalogues Kandinsky : Moderna Museet, Stockholm 10 april - 23 maj 1965Önskemuseet : the museum of our wishes : notre musée tel qu´il devrait être : museum unserer wünsche : [utställning i Moderna Museet, Stockholm : 26 december 1963 - 16 februari 1964] / ordnad av Moderna Museets VännerThe Masterpieces are back! : Moderna Museet, Spårvagnshallarna : [May 6th - August 27th 1995]Mästerverken åter! Moderna Museet, Spårvagnshallarna : [6 maj - 27 augusti 1995]Moderna klassiker : Moderna Museet c/o Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde : 28/9 2002 - 16/2 2003Kandinsky och Sverige : Moderna Museet : [26 december 1989 - 18 februari 1990] Bibliography Sturm Album, 1913, ill. s 38 Tekst Kudocnika, 1918, ill. s 11 Grohmann, s 330, ill. s 23, s 351 Wassily Kandinsky à Munich, Collection Städische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Bordeax 1976, s 87. Hosoda, Sachiko, 25 Great Masters of Modern Art, Kodansha Ltd, Tokyo 1981, ill. (färg) nr 16. Roethel, Hans K. och Benjamin, Jean K., Kandinsky. Werkverzeichnis der Ölgemälde. Band 1 1900-1915, Verlag C.H: Beck, München 1982, ill. nr 274, s 262. Bulletinen, Moderna Museets Vänner, 4/89. Rosdahl, Anders (red.), Nya perspektiv på Kandinsky, Malmö Konsthall och Sydsvenska Dagbladet, , Malmö 1990, ill. 1, s 154. Endicott Barnett, Vivian, m fl, Kandinsky rétrospective, Paris 2001, s 70. Hahl-Koch, Jelena, Kandinsky, London 1993, s 113. Kuspit, Donald och Brüderlin, Markus, Expressive!, Basel 2003, s 92, ill. s 93. Kandinsky, The Path to abstraction, Tate Modern, London, 22/6-1/10 2006. ill. färg. s 62-63. Kandinsky. Malerei 1908-1921, Kunstmuseum Basel 21/10 2006- 4/2 2007. s.32-36. ill. s. 60-61.