Kandinsky's Accidental Abstraction: Myth or Reality?

A popular anecdote claims that Wassily Kandinsky discovered abstraction by chance when he saw one of his own paintings leaning sideways against a wall in 1912, failing to recognize the subject and seeing only vibrant colors and forms. However, this story, recounted in his 'Regards sur le passé', is misleading. Kandinsky had already been moving away from representation since the 1900s and theorized his new approach in 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art' (1911), arguing that color acts directly on the soul. He was also influenced by Arnold Schönberg's music. Moreover, abstraction had earlier pioneers: Paul Bilhaud's all-black painting 'Combat de nègres pendant la nuit' (1882) is now considered the first true monochrome, predating Malevich's 'Black Square' (1915) by 33 years. Hilma af Klint created large abstract compositions as early as 1906, including her 'Paintings for the Temple' series (1906-1915), which remained hidden until her death. František Kupka's 'Amorpha, Fugue in Two Colors' also dates from 1912, and Sonia and Robert Delaunay developed their own colorful abstraction called Orphism. Thus, the anecdote of the turned painting is not a moment of sudden revelation but a retrospective crown on a gradual evolution.