National Gallery of Art NGAkids Kandinsky Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle)

Let's take a really careful look at these colors, shapes, and lines. Kandinsky has painted two boats in the picture. Can you spot them?

The title suggests the boats are at battle. Try to find: a blue sail, cannons on the boat, a mast, a green ship, waves, a city falling in the distance. You may not be able to identify all these things, because in this painting, many of them are simply suggested.

Kandinsky wasn't trying to paint a picture of an actual sea battle. His work is abstract. It has some connection to things in the real world, but the shapes and colors have been distorted and adjusted so that the artist could convey a mood through his choice of color, brush strokes, painted lines, and shapes.