Murnau, Burggrabenstrasse 1, 1908

In the spring of 1908, Wassily Kandinsky discovered Murnau, a village located at the foot of the Bavarian Alps. He lived in Murnau from 1909 to 1914, crucial years in his evolution toward abstraction. The pristine beauty of this landscape apparently exerted a liberating influence on his work, which shortly thereafter made a radical shift toward abstraction. Kandinsky's ultimate goal was to invest his paintings with spiritual meaning but without representational subject. In "Murnau, Burggrabenstrasse 1, 1908," Kandinsky both abstracts from nature and tests the expressive possibilities of color. Although the village is recognizable, Kandinsky has not depicted the scene literally but rather decoratively.