I have long been fascinated by Kandinsky’s Compositions, demonstrating the complete abandonment of perspective in favour of colour and line – the only elements suggestive of pictorial depth, and it was the artist’s interest in ethnography that had subsequently led him toward a revolutionary non-representational or non-objective style. In 1889, as a student of law, economics, and ethnography at the University of Moscow, Kandinsky embarked on an ethnographical exhibition to Vologda, in the northern Russian province. During the trip, he became fascinated by the traditional folklore of the native people of the Vologda region. Kandinsky had “immersed” himself in the mysterious environment replete with colour, ornament, and symbol, when visiting peasant houses or izba in the remote Vologda villages. The harmonious arrangement and the profusion of various shapes, patterns, and colours inside the izba had a powerful impact on the young ethnographer. The combination of painted walls, the cupboards, the utensils on shelves, the textiles, and the candlelit icon in the corner inside the peasant house had made Kandinsky feel as if he existed within a painting. This experience thus led Kandinsky to believe that simplified forms and lurid colours, “so strongly painted that the object within them became dissolved,” could produce their own intense visual and emotional effects, independent of imagery.—Diana Guber