All Saints Day II - Wassily Kandinsky

A 1911 oil on glass work by Wassily Kandinsky, featuring abstract religious iconography and fluid, expressive forms.

All Saints Day II, painted by Wassily Kandinsky in 1911, captures the artist during a period of transition toward complete abstraction. This work, executed in oil on glass, demonstrates his interest in Russian folk motifs and religious iconography, themes he frequently explored during his time in Munich. The composition is crowded with figures, including saints, angels, and various symbolic forms, which overlap and merge into one another.

Kandinsky employs a non-naturalistic colour palette to convey spiritual energy rather than literal representation. The figures are rendered with simplified, fluid lines, creating a sense of movement across the surface. The spatial depth is intentionally flattened, forcing the viewer to engage with the arrangement of shapes and colours as a unified whole. This approach reflects his theoretical work, specifically his interest in the internal necessity of art, where the emotional response of the viewer takes precedence over the depiction of external reality.

In this piece, the influence of Bavarian glass painting is evident, particularly in the bold outlines and the luminosity of the colours. The subject matter, derived from the Christian feast day, is treated with a degree of abstraction that obscures specific narrative details, leaving the viewer to interpret the atmosphere of the scene. The work functions as a bridge between his earlier, more representational paintings and the purely non-objective compositions he would develop later in his career. By stripping away traditional perspective, Kandinsky allows the individual elements to exist in a state of flux, suggesting a spiritual realm that transcends physical boundaries. The work remains a primary example of his early experimentation with form and colour as independent vehicles for expression.