Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles, US

circa 1913

During his first trip abroad, Marsden Hartley felt a strong affinity with the German avant-garde, especially their interest in spirituality. After studying Kandinsky's works and meeting him in 1913, Hartley embraced the idea of abandoning objective reality to create more abstract art. During his time in Berlin, he produced color abstractions influenced by Kandinsky. One such work, Abstraction: Blue, Yellow, and Green, reflects Kandinsky's color theories and geometric shapes. While Hartley also sought to express the spiritual in art, it remains unclear to what extent this painting reflects those concerns, possibly making it an experiment with new formal concepts.