Several Circles in Gold

About this work

Translucent circles in soft blue, pink and lilac float across a deep night-blue ground. At the centre sits one large dark circle wrapped in a golden halo, and smaller circles of raised gold leaf catch the light around it. The shapes overlap, pass through each other and drift apart again. The effect is quiet and cosmic, like planets on a calm night.

Wassily Kandinsky painted Several Circles in 1926, while teaching at the Bauhaus in Dessau. In those years the circle became his central form. He described it as the synthesis of the greatest opposites and linked it with the cosmic. The original, in oil on canvas, is held by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. This version is a reimagining in gold rather than a copy: the colours and arrangement follow his idea, while the gold leaf adds a second light that changes as you move.

It suits a bedroom, a meditation corner or a dark living room, and it looks richest on navy, charcoal or deep green walls. The dark ground gives a room depth rather than brightness. Hang it with Composition VIII in Gold and Yellow-Red-Blue in Gold to make the set Kandinsky in Gold, three views of his Bauhaus years. The file is around 9,000 px on the long edge, enough for a sharp print of about 76 cm at 300 dpi.